Shifting Identities: The Figured Worlds of One Adolescent Immigrant English Learner

Author ORCID Identifier

Corrine Wickens:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9750-4250

Jennifer Theriault:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7312-7374

Publication Title

Urban Review

ISSN

00420972

E-ISSN

43787

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the complex nature of identity construction of one adolescent Mexican-American immigrant English Learner (EL) through the frame of figured world theory (Holland et al. Identity and agency in cultural worlds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1998). We use case study methodology to explore the question: How does one adolescent Mexican-American immigrant EL, Mario, construct his identity, as he invokes different subject positions in relation to diverse social contexts? We highlight how Mario performs different identities within the diverse contexts in Mexico and in the U.S.: (1) a retornado (one who has returned) in Mexico, and then variously in his ESL classroom as (2) a model student, (3) a student of color challenging his white teacher’s authority, and yet other times, (4) a disruptive and uncooperative student, who missed class regularly, because he did not want to “miss out on life.” We underscore the importance for educators to understand adolescent identity construction, not as a linear set of stages, but as a shifting, complex, and multifaceted process, especially that of adolescent immigrants and the diverse geopolitical contexts from which they and their families originate.

First Page

650

Last Page

668

Publication Date

11-1-2020

DOI

10.1007/s11256-019-00543-0

Keywords

English language learners, Figured world theory, Identity construction

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction (CI)

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