Leveraging Student Identities to Develop Pedagogical Fluency

Mathematics education can be positioned as fertile ground for societal change. This article deconstructs the complex work of supporting students’ positive mathematical identities by introducing pedagogical fluency to embody equitable beliefs and practices.

How International Students’ Acculturation Motivation Develops over Time in an International Learning Environment

This research investigates how the acculturation motivation (AM) of new international students develops over time, and which factors play a role in this development. In the context of a Dutch university, we interviewed 25 students from 17 countries thrice over eight months. The results show that initial AM levels can be categorized as high or low. These AM levels evolved into four patterns in the three interview rounds: high-low-low, high-low-high, low-high-low and low-high-high. After four months, twelve factors emerged as affecting the development of students’ AM levels. Prominent factors were prior international experience, language difficulties, and perceived student identities. After eight months, seven additional factors contributed to subsequent changes in students’ AM levels. Prominent factors were the perceived international learning environment, friendship networks, and teachers’ role in intercultural contact. These imply that universities can introduce target interventions which could improve their international students’ acculturation experiences at specific times.

Towards Nuanced Understandings of the Identities of EAL Doctoral Student Writers

The construct of identity in the space of English as an Additional Language (EAL) Higher Degree by Research (HDR) writing has been widely researched with studies exploring students’ identities as constructed through and in the process of writing. However, these studies are often presented in ways that focus on the challenges the writers face citing language barriers and cultural differences and ascribing these students “closed subject positions” with “limited ways of talking about themselves” (Koehne, 2005, p. 118). In response to such deficit views, various studies have explored the multiple and varied identities of HDR EAL as evident in their written reflections and other work, offering a wider range of views. We argue that there is a need for additional nuanced views of these student identities and how they are formed. In this paper we demonstrate how these can be gained by examining student identities as they emerge through spoken interaction. Applying a sociocultural linguistic framework that understands identities as emerging, situationally and relationally dependent (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), we report how two students formed identities for themselves by talking to us about their experiences of writing using EAL. Our analysis provides nuanced understandings of the multiple identities of EAL HDR students that move beyond the deficit ones we were, and still are, frequently hearing in institutional discourses and demonstrates how the application of this framework can help articulate richness, variety and resourcefulness and challenge essentialised identities of EAL doctoral student writers.

The Connection Between Student Identities and Outcomes Related to Academic Persistence

Young people begin to explore and develop a deeper understanding of who they are, or their identities, during adolescence and young adulthood. The various aspects of these dynamic and developing identities guide how students navigate the world and pursue their goals, including how they engage with academic opportunities and challenges. This article uses the identity-based motivation framework to integrate a selective review of research demonstrating connections between student identities and outcomes related to academic persistence. First, a foundation of significant theoretical and empirical contributions describes how different types of identities—including future identities and social identities—influence academic persistence. Additional evidence builds upon socioecological and sociocultural perspectives to demonstrate various levels of contextual influence on student identities and outcomes related to academic persistence. The area of research has implications for the promotion of more holistic approaches to student success, health, and well-being in addition to effective goal pursuit across the life span.

Becoming Archaeologist

Throughout this volume are a series of semi-fictional assemblages of learning as a means to illustrate the nuances of the arguments made. These merge the experiences of authors, students, and others who have shared their many learning and life assemblages with us. In turn, the semi-fictional accounts both structure debate and illuminate the learning assemblages that pervade archaeological practice. In Chapter 3, Student X is introduced. Their experience highlights the financial and social pressures of completing a degree, and introduces the challenges they face in their multiple environments, partly as a consequence of the marketization of higher education and broader neoliberal agendas. Chapter 3 also begins to introduce the diversity of student identities through accounts of their daily experiences.

Reading to Be: The role of academic reading in emergent academic and professional student identities

Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the importance of academic reading, much research tends to focus on academic writing. The role of academic writing in the development of academic and professional identities is generally accepted. In contrast, the role of academic reading has been less visible in the literature, and when discussed, it tends to be conceptualised as a generic skill. In this paper, we explore the role of reading in emergent academic identities in undergraduates. We reflect on research with our own Nursing and Midwifery students that highlighted the role of reading in the development of ‘writing capital.’ Drawing on this and wider evidence we explore how, through academic reading, students begin to recognise, and then participate in the scholarly conversations that construct knowledge within disciplines. We argue that academic reading, like academic writing, is a complex ongoing process that involves multiple transitions, rather than a skill that can, and should, be mastered early on. We contend that educators need to consider how and where academic reading is addressed within academic programmes. Moreover, we suggest ways to make room for it within our curricula and engage students in conversations about the nature of scholarship within their disciplines.

Nyanlända gymnasieelever – Elevidentiteter och språkbarriärer

I föreliggande artikel studeras nyanlända elevers upplevelser av att vara elever på Språkintroduktion. Programmet är ett av fem introduktionsprogram i gymnasieskolan och tar emot nyanlända elever från 16 till 19 år. Eleverna placeras på Språkintroduktion eftersom de nyligen har kommit till Sverige och för att de ännu inte uppnått tillräckliga kunskaper i det svenska språket. I denna intervjustudie bidrar Homi Bhabhas teori om mellanrummet till en förståelse för hur erfarenheter av Språkintroduktion kan upplevas. Resultatet visar att elevgrupperna på Språkintroduktion är heterogena eftersom eleverna har olika erfarenheter av skola och arbete. Tre teman blir synliga i resultatet: elever med andra kunskaper och erfarenheter, elevidentiteter som särskilt framträder och det svenska språket som barriär. Resultaten visar att förvärvandet av det svenska språket för varje elev blir ett mål att nå samtidigt som det utgör ett hinder. Språket blir viktigt eftersom eleverna är beroende av det för att lyckas såväl i skolan som i samhällslivet. Likaså blir synliggörandet av elevers tidigare erfarenheter och kunskaper betydelsefullt eftersom det kan komma att påverka deras identitetsuppfattning. Nyckelord: språkintroduktion; nyanlända elever; mellanrum; elevidentitet Newly arrived upper secondary school students – Student identities and language barriers AbsractThis study investigates newly arrived students’ experiences of being students at Language Introduction in Sweden. The program is one of five introductory programs in Swedish upper secondary school and admits newly arrived students from the ages of 16 to 19 years old. Students are placed at Language introduction because they have recently arrived in Sweden and since they have not yet gained enough knowledge of the Swedish language. In this interview study, Homi Bhabha’s theory of the third space contributes to an understanding of how experiences from Language introduction can be perceived. The results show that student groups at Language introduction are heterogeneous as students have diverse experiences of school and work. Three themes appear in the results: students with other kinds of knowledge and experiences, student identities in transformation, the Swedish language as an obstacle and as goal. The results show that the acquisition of the Swedish language becomes to each student a goal to reach and at the same time a hindrance. The language becomes important because the students depend on it in order to be successful in school as well as in life in society. Likewise, making the students’ past experiences and knowledge visible, becomes important as it may affect their perception of identity. Keywords: språkintroduktion; nyanlända elever; mellanrum; elevidentitet