Identity Development
Faculty used texts or data that deal with race, gender, class, orientation, or identity issues.
About
Working with texts and topics that focus on identity development is a tool that helps students connect with each other, and the material, and is seen by many faculty as a type of critical thinking (one looks for biases, errors in judgement, new perspectives, and constructing new hypotheses). Since critical thinking is central to most disciplines, it fits quite easily.
The original study's data and analysis for "Identity Development" can be found on this link.
What Faculty Have To Say
Strengths (9)
- Strengthens critical thinking
- Students learn to be metacognitive
- They become more aware of their own thought processes, filters, biases, etc
- Is inclusive of all students
- Makes class discussions seem personally relevant
- Helps students develop autonomy and agency
- Helps broaden their perspective on the world
- Can help build a deeper and more engaged classroom community
- Helps them learn to see the world more accurately
Weaknesses (3)
- Students may not want to broaden their perspectives
- They may be resistant
- Students may see it as “brainwashing.”
Pedagogy Usage
Bucknell faculty was asked their best estimate for how often in the semester they used Identity Development and the average class time it took.
Average Duration: 33 min (mode=30)
Remote Suggestions
Finding ways to make whole class discussions vibrant is even more important in a remote mode. Consider having the class develop and agree upon some discussion practices that can work in these new formats that replicate traditional signals like hand raising, validation, etc. Continue to use primary documents, but find an offline text annotaion software (described in the adjacent column) to make the textual inverstigations asyncronous. The annotating process could then serve as preparation for a individual witten assignments, debates or class discussions. Consider finding filmic versions of the texts to allow for students to view and respond asyncronously, perhaps using a video dicsussion board like Flipgrid.
Resources for Additional Learning
Articles & Books
- Talking about Race, Learning about Racism: The Application of Racial Identity Development Theory in the Classroom; Beverly Tatum
- Helping Students Explore Their Privileged Identities by Diane J. Goodman: https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/helping-students-explore-their-privileged-identities
- Identity Charts: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/identity-charts
Websites
- University of Virginia's Center for Teaching Excellence
- Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching
- Teaching Tolerance