Social Identity Theory
Our identity is the basis of our existence. Right from birth, we are subject to how we are nurtured, handled, and cared for by the important persons in our lives and also by others in different backgrounds. Our self-thoughts are highly a depiction of others’ perception of us, bad or good. Schools have a great impact on how we come to perceive ourselves, the aspirations and motivations we attain, and our accomplishment motivation. The paper explores how social identity theory affects the work of an educator of young children and my personal experience with children in developing identity.
The basis of social identity theory is that people struggle to keep a positive social identity. The idea that people strive to sustain a positive self-concept is key to both sociological and psychological understanding of self. Tajfel and Turner expanded this understanding to groups. Social identity theory observes that if social groups are differentiated along with a status scope, then group members with low status will be inspired to help their low status, either personally or jointly (Hogg, 3-17). Obviously, for the social identity model to be sensitive to a person, he or she must associate with a group. For better or worse, an individual must belong to a certain group.
One’s identity has a significant impact on how they perceive others, their self-worth, confidence, motivation, ambitions, and effort expanded in different spheres of their life. When educators do not aggressively strive to enable positive identities by all their children, involving their racial identity, there are serious impacts. An increasing immigrant from across the globe who are learners in public schools, together with many diverse-born children of color, are subject to stereotypes and low educator expectations. Such prejudice increases children’s concerns regarding social acceptance and enhances their feelings of insufficiency when it comes to academic excellence. Identity development, particularly, minority children with compound beliefs regarding ethnic identity, can affect the form and level of conflicts with various others, and also how better they perform in school. The individual strengths children develop, and also their level of resilience when confronting challenges, may strongly affect their identity or be the outcomes of the individual identity. The decisions and priorities children adopt, and also their attitude towards their life chances and ability is to some level representation of the factors shaping their ethnic or racial identity.
In many learning institutions, there has been a significant change in learner demographics with a decrease in the enrollment rate of White middle-class children and an upsurge in the rate of limited English proficient learners from households with low socioeconomic status. Low English proficient are always very varied first-generation populations in the United States, having immigrated from South and Central America, southeast Asia, Slavic countries, and Mexico among others. They are of different origins and have varied language, ethnic and racial backgrounds. Some are not educated in their native language, and some are completely new to formal education as executed in the United States. Some are in war refugee households, and even more in the separated families that have immigrated to the United States, with some family members still in their native state.
Educators need to enhance their understanding of matters causing inter-ethnic conflict and pressure, particularly among school-going children, and there are resources accessible to support instructors in this case. Children of all racial or cultural origins in the United States explore more opportunities than those their parents have undergone. These ambitions led to even more conflict when the American economy is experiencing some key reforms and changes causing a high level of unemployment and underemployment. The household characteristics and family realities of refugees and native-born children help demonstrate how international events and circumstances globally affect the dynamics of difference in an increasing level of American schools.
Reynolds, Katherine J., et al. (2017) observes that achieving success is facilitated both by beliefs in one’s potential and also by the standard of school practices and social interactions. Their situated-facilitated identity model provides a detailed focus on how identity is associated with achievement. They outline what teachers and other caring adults should understand about identity processes and their social backgrounds in schools that enhance identity growth and accomplishment. Their main argument is that identity is anchored in certain settings, and who we are is a result of what we decide to do and how we decide to be devoted to what we do. He claims that historically underserved children fall into three broad classifications: those who persevere in going through education even if it has stopped to make meaning to them; those who ultimately leave education activity; and those who persevere because they get a sense, determination, and academic identity.
Our identity may be more affected by what others think about us, their feelings of us, and how they respond to our behaviors. Children need to feel clever and be clever, in line with Reynolds, Katherine J., et al. The ways children communicate their identities can at times weaken their success and goals. For instance, some children give top priority to being popular among their colleagues more than they value good performance. During the period of dealing with this problem connected to what Murrell terms as being a street child versus a schoolchild, some children may make lifechanging decisions. Teachers are also making decisions when they determine whether or how to support historically underserved children they brand as not embracing education.
Most children of color are mistreated by teachers’ observance of what Murrell refers to as a color-blind thought, which he as well characterizes as the new cultural racism. The race may never be stated when teachers discuss the problems involved when striving to help all children learn at grade level and even beyond. However, the suggestion that some cultural characteristics are seen as substandard and others as standard. Equal treatment of children who attend school with key differences in life experience, cultures, academic preparedness, and strengths is a component of this color-blind philosophy. Equality is distinct from equity and maybe one way of attaining equity, however, it is not similar or as important, although a chant of most educators is the assertion they proudly make: “I handle all learners the same.” Educator-learner communication in most low-income urban schools all over the United States emphasizes who is privileged and who is considered to be inferior, and the communication is at times understated, but always unselfconsciously obvious. Most teachers are mingled in preservice preparation and on-the-job actions to adopt the color-bling thought, equality, and meritocracy belief system. The result is children being the ones to be apportioned blame for their purported failures without any assessment of their cultural and structural aspects of education that perpetuate disparities in results.
Conflicts between teachers with much different racial identity may result in treacherous hidden and explicit educational practices in the society that help propagate the separation of children of color and propagate White privilege in schools and society. Similar to historically underserved learners’ identity and success performance are intimately entangled, the same is the case for the association between teachers’ racial identity and if they prioritize offering equal learning opportunities. Child and educator Identities can have a significant influence on social and intergroup changes and learner motivation to excel. Historically underserved learners who are not supported to grow positive racial identities may be much less inspired to try their best in school or to see a connection between what takes place in schools and their routine lives, particularly when they are not empowered to battle the circumstances keeping them in submissive roles.
A culturally spirited educator would engage in hiring and growing support from all shareholder groups in the school society for a vision of what the school and the learner would be. They would seek and integrate effort on their new vision from such factions after submitting a compelling case for learning institutions playing a much more intensive role in healing wounds and challenging unspecified demands of the larger society. They would demonstrate professional and individual identities that depict the courage to develop trust, arbitrate conflict, and genuinely unite. They would prudently structure on how to involve all shareholder groups in critically assessing how racial identity standards may negatively influence learner accomplishment.
Moreover, as a culturally courageous educator, I would integrate more focus to addressing the learning and status demands of historically underserved children, irrespective of their origin. They would encourage other educators to demonstrate genuine concern for the wellbeing of all children and aggressively explore skills and knowledge that would enable them to start up their transformation. They would as well demonstrate a no-excused attitude starting with how they would associate to peer and other school staff, particularly historically underserved learners. They would not involve in aversive racism, where they openly support egalitarian values and consider themselves to be nonbiased but harbor negative attitudes and beliefs regarding Blacks and other historically marginalized groups.
Works Cited
Hogg, Michael A. “Social identity theory.” Understanding peace and conflict through social identity theory. Springer, Cham, 2016. 3-17.
Reynolds, Katherine J., et al. “How does school climate impact academic achievement? An examination of social identity processes.” School Psychology International 38.1 (2017): 78-97.