Identity Construction and Negotiation Within and Across School Communities: The Case of One English-as-a-New-Language (ENL) Student

Abstract

Through a theoretical framework that builds on constructs of identity, community of practice, power relations, and investment (Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2001 Blackledge, A. and Pavlenko, A. 2001. Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 5: 243–257. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Gee, 2001 Gee, J. P. 2001. “Identity as an analytic lens for research in education”. In Review of research in education, Edited by: Secada, W.C. Vol. 25, 99–125. Washington, DC: American Education Research Association. [Google Scholar]; Norton, 2000 Norton, B. 2000. Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change, New York, NY: Longman. [Google Scholar]; Peirce, 1995 Peirce, N. B. 1995. Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29: 9–31. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Wenger, 1998 Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), this educational ethnographic study (Preissle, 1999 Preissle, J. 1999. An educational ethnographer comes to age. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28: 650–659. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) explores one English-as-a-new-language (ENL) student's identities within and across three different school communities. An analysis of the communities of practice shows that the power relations are largely shaped by institutional, instructional, and discursive practices in each community. While the community constructs their identities, community members also negotiate their positioning and investment in learning. Further, members may encounter identity conflicts across different school communities. Theoretical considerations for broadening the understanding of identity are proposed. Suggestions are made for educators to construct collaborative power relations within and across school communities in order to empower diverse students and create positive learning experiences in new social, cultural, and linguistic contexts.