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Chapter 9. The Role of Peers, Families, and Ethnic-Identity Enactments in Educational Persistence and Achievement of Latino and Latina Youths
- Russell Sage Foundation
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Chapter 9 The Role of Peers, Families, and Ethnic-Identity Enactments in Educational Persistence and Achievement of Latino and Latina Youths Elizabeth Birr Moje and Magdalena Martinez I n this chapter we examine the intersection of identity and educational achievement among Latina and Latino adolescent students who live in a large, urban community. In a time when achievement and accountability are the watchwords of educational practice and policy , we seek to understand the role that various academic and social, interpersonal and institutional, structures play in educational achievement as they foster and demand different understandings and enactments of identity among Latino students. We focus on Latino and Latina youths because they represent a growing ethnic group in U.S. society (Gibson, Gándara, and Koyama 2004a), even as they continue to drop out of school in alarming numbers and thus are underrepresented in higher education. In fact, Latinos and Latinas have significantly lower high school graduation rates than many other ethnic groups (Gibson et al. 2004b). Moreover, the educational attainment gap between Anglo and Latino students continues to widen (Fry 2002, 2003; Horn 1999; Kao and Thompson 2003). Theoretical Perspectives on Identity and Achievement: Some Definitions We take a sociocultural perspective on questions of identity and educational achievement. That is, we see identities as always situated in 209 and mediated by social contexts and social-group memberships. Similarly , we see educational achievement as a socially mediated phenomenon . Relational Perspectives on Identity Our perspective is that identity is relational and enacted, rather than a stable construct that inheres within the individual. That is, identities can be viewed as socially mediated enactments of self that are shaped in the intersection of time, space, and relationships (Moje 2004). The intersection of a particular temporal, relational, and spatial moment can be considered a “context.” We use the word “enacted” in our work to signal that identity is lived. It is not just talked into being or thought about by people. Identities, however, are not only contextually defined, leaping into life in completely different iterations at each moment. To enact contextualized versions of self, people draw upon their “histories of participation ” (Rogers 2002)—their experiences, practices, and past identity enactments in other activities, relationships, and spaces. Explaining identities as enacted in particular contexts, but always situated in histories of participation speaks to the concern of many social psychologists that purely contextual conceptualizations of identity cannot explain the stability of identity enactments over time (see, for example, Thorne 2004). At the same time, acknowledging the important role of context helps to explain the fluidity and downright contradiction in identity enactments to which postmodern scholars point (see, for example , Hall 1996; Hagood 2002; Yon 2000). Thus, identities are neither completely fluid nor are they cast in stone; rather, they could be considered chapters, defined and enacted contextually, in lifelong and larger stories that individuals enact (Anzaldúa 1999; Sfard and Prusak 2005). However, identities are also acted out, or enacted, in spaces (such as school), within relationships (with teachers, peers, or parents), and in particular time periods (elementary school years, adolescence, and so on; Moje 2006). Consequently, they are more than just stories we tell about ourselves, because they are also enacted, lived out in real time, and thus open to public scrutiny. The public nature of identities draws attention to the concept of positioning, or recognition. Even as people are enacting identities in different contexts and from different histories, they are also being positioned , or “recognized” (Gee 2000–2001), by others within these activities , spaces, times, and relations. These recognitions and positionings occur within relations of power (which are produced within particular spaces), and the discourses and histories people draw on in positioning self and others are situated in and mediated by institutions. In sum, the210 Contesting Stereotypes [54.88.179.12] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:21 GMT) The Role of Peers, Families, and Ethnic-Identity Enactments 211 ories of identity—especially social identities—are also theories of power relations: enactments of self always produce power and are always produced in relations of power. The articulation of histories of participation and relations of power evokes the concept of social identities. According to Henri Tajfel (1981), individuals’ self-concepts—and, ultimately, their identity enactments —derive from knowing (or believing) that they are members of particular social groups. Individuals may attempt to maintain a positive social identity, but the social groups of which they are members can be associated with positive or negative...