An individual’s social identity indicates who they are in terms of the groups to which they belong. Social identity groups are usually defined by some physical, social, and mental characteristics of individuals. Examples of social identities are race/ethnicity, gender, social class/socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, (dis)abilities, and religion/religious beliefs. Some instructors may believe that social identities are not relevant to their courses. However, as classrooms become increasingly diverse, issues related to individuals social identities may surface (e.g., racial and gender composition of study groups). Instructors, regardless of department in which they teach, should be aware of and acknowledge how their social identities as well as those of their students impact the teaching and learning experience.
The concept of identity is a complex one, shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts. Who am I? The answer depends in large part on who the world around me says I am. Who do my parents say I am? Who do my peers say I am? What message is reflected back to me in the faces and voices of my teachers, my neighbors, store clerks? What do I learn from the media about myself? How am I represented in the cultural images around me? Or am I missing from the picture altogether? As social scientist Charles Cooley pointed out long ago, other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves.
A diverse group of 12-year-olds from New York City schools talks about their racial and ethnic identities.
Intersectionality is not only about multiple identities and it’s not a simple answer to solving problems around equality and diversity. It is, however, an essential framework as we truly engage with issues around privilege and power and work to bring them into the open.
Adapted from Project READY: Reimagining Equity & Access for Diverse Youth
In her essay, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’” Beverly Daniel Tatum (2018) poses a series of questions that begin to explore how we experience our identity and form a “core” sense of self:
The questions Tatum raises here are relevant throughout our lives, especially during periods of intense development, and they are particularly salient when considering ourselves, the climate, and the individuals at our institutions or in our courses.
As a way to reflect on our own identities, we have found it helpful to draw a timeline to explore our own social identity milestones and invite you to do so as well.
What experiences were pivotal moments in the development of your social identities? (Were some aspects more salient than others? Did this change over time or context?)
What role do you think your social identities contributed to your socialization in your discipline? In higher education?
If time permits, we encourage you to reflect further on how your social and disciplinary identities grow and shape one another. These are foundational to your approaches to teaching and learning, how you feel in the classroom, and what your comfort and confidence levels are when engaging students.
The Identity Wheel worksheet is an activity that encourages you to identify your social identities and reflect on the various ways those identities become visible or more keenly felt at different times, and how those identities impact the ways others perceive or treat you. The worksheet prompts you to fill in various social identities (such as race, gender, sex, ability disability, sexual orientation, etc.) and further categorize those identities based on which matter most in your self-perception and which matter most in others’ perception of you.
Which aspects of your identity did you mark as particularly meaningful to you? Why?
Which aspects of your identity did you mark as less meaningful? Why?
Why do you think about some aspects of your identity more than others?
Which aspects of identity hadn’t you thought of before completing this activity? Why do you think that is?
What aspects of your identity do you think are apparent to students? Which aspects may they not perceive as readily?
How do you think your identities impact your interactions with your students in the classroom space?
Completing the identity wheel activity can help shed light on the visible and invisible identities that are meaningful to you in the classroom space. The salience of different identities can change over time, as well as in different social and physical locations. Students may have identity facets that are important to them which are different from those that are relevant to their faculty members. It’s important for instructors to be mindful of the relationship between their identities and those of their students, and how those identities introduce power dynamics into the classroom. Keeping those differences and power dynamics in mind as you design your course to include the perspectives and experiences of as many students as possible is a critical step in the development of an inclusive teaching practice.