What does it mean to be a student at this school? : investigating academic identity in instructional context
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Abundant educational research indicates that there is a drop off in students' attitudes about and participation in school as they transition to middle school (Anderman & Maehr, 1994; Eccles, Lord, & Midgley, 1991). This drop off may have particularly deleterious effects for low-income students of color, who are most at risk of dropping out or being pushed out of school. Although some research has examined the fit between students' developmental needs and the typical middle school environment (Eccles, Lord & Midgley, IBID), there has been very little research that examines how different instructional contexts shape young peoples' understanding of themselves as students (or academic identity) at this transition. This study aimed to fill that gap by examining how three different instructional contexts (traditional teacher/textbook centered, Montessori, and social justice oriented) afforded low-income students of color different opportunities to understand what it meant to be a student and a learner as they prepared to transition to middle school. The study used a mixed methods design to understand students' academic identity meanings with both a cross-sectional survey of third, fifth and seventh grade students in each context as well as in-depth observation of one fifth grade classroom at each site and interviews with four to six target students in each of these fifth grade classrooms. Quantitative survey analysis revealed large effects for students' developmental stage, such that, as expected, student attitudes about school did drop off between fifth and seventh grade across all sites. Quantitative differences between sites were less clear, though did indicate a generally higher value of learning and curiosity at the Montessori site, a lesser valuing of school as an institution at the social justice site, and a higher valuing of test scores and grades at the traditional site. Qualitative differences between sites were more pronounced, with students at the Montessori and social justice sites enacting more active and agentic roles in their learning than students at the traditional site. There was also evidence that students utilized the ideational resources that were made available in each classroom context as tools in their reflections about whether they were a competent student and whether they belonged in their classroom and school. In addition, across sites students consistently used certain classroom practices and factors as ideational tools in their self-reflections about academic identity. These practices and factors included: ability cues and grouping, structures around peer helping, contextual definitions of competence, opportunities for self monitoring, relationships with adults, opportunities to build on out-of-school knowledge, opportunities for choice in school work, awareness of identity threats and the cultural make up of the school and faculty.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Wischnia, Sarah Beth |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Education. |
| Primary advisor | Darling-Hammond, Linda, 1951- |
| Thesis advisor | Darling-Hammond, Linda, 1951- |
| Thesis advisor | Goldman, Shelley |
| Thesis advisor | Nasir, Na'ilah Suad |
| Advisor | Goldman, Shelley |
| Advisor | Nasir, Na'ilah Suad |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Sarah B. Wischnia. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the School of Education. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Sarah Beth Wischnia
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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