Date of Degree Completion

Spring 2018

Degree Type

Capstone - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Instructor/Advisor

Melissa Nemon

Abstract

This participatory social justice focused project used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine our understanding of who we are individually, groups, and as citizens; nationally and globally, and how one’s identity will continue to evolve and change over a life time. We looked at self-claim identity, social imposed identity, and societal categorizing processes of identity such as one’s geographical, ethnic, or national connection. Participants engaged in detailed discussion on the constructed racial designations to different groups, the inter-sectional simultaneity by which people may experience their identities, and explored to understand the language that groups prefer to use to self-name their claiming identities and other terms used to describe group identity such as : advantaged, privilege, and dominant to describe groups with access to social power, disadvantaged, marginalized, and sub-ordinated for groups who are blocked from access to social power. The overall result of the workshop contents was positive. The common themes from the qualitative analysis of participants’ feedback were that they can see how developing one’s identity is a positive. The result of this project supported that human’s identity development is crucial to personal advancement and through the navigation of one’s social responsibility in the world around them. An understanding of self and the complexity of self-identity is important for one to stay focused on personal goals without living under the shadow of others’ expectations of success.

Download

Share

COinS