Positive Social Identities
Students develop language, as well as historical and cultural knowledge, that affirms and accurately describes their membership in multiple identity groups (such as identities related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, language, ability, religion, socioeconomic status, age, and geography). They recognize how peoples' multiple identities interact to create unique and complex individuals. Students express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people, and they effectively negotiate differences between their home and community cultures and the dominant culture.
Evidence shows that when curriculum, classroom relationships, and pedagogy directly address students' racial, ethnic, gender, and sexuality identities, students can learn to affirm and accurately describe their own membership in multiple identity groups, and recognize how peoples' multiple identities interact to create unique and complex individuals.
| How Pang Xiong approaches language identities in her third grade classroom | How fourth grade teacher Marisol Moreno develops positive social identities in her classroom |
Evidence shows that students can learn to express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people, through a curriculum, pedagogy and classroom relationships that affirm their ethnic, racial, gender, and other identities.
| How Pang Xiong's Hmong Club builds pride and confidence of Hmong students | How kindergarten teacher Angela Sandford affirms her students' curiosity and sense of ethnic identity |
Cammarota, J., & Romero, A. (2009). The Social Justice Education Project: A critically compassionate intellectualism for Chicana/o students. In W. Ayers, T. Quinn & D. Stovall (Eds.), Handbook for social justice education (p. 465-476). New York: Routledge. Describes the curriculum, pedagogy, and relationships used in a Mexican American studies program in four high schools, and the positive impact on students.
Camangian, P. (2010). Starting with self: Teaching autoethnography to foster critically caring literacies. Research in the Teaching of English 45(2), 179-204. Study of the impact on youth of color of using autoethnography as a tool to examine their own lives and multiple identities, as a tool for developing a more collective identity across their differences.
Fontanella-Nothomb, O. (2019). Why do we have different skins anyway?: Exploring race in literature with preschool children. Multicultural Perspectives 21(2), 11-19. Qualitative case study with 15 preschool children, in which the author engaged children in three readings of The Other Side. Discourse analysis of recorded conversations found able to engage in progressively deep conversations color, race, and racial identity.
Ford, K. A. & Malaney, V. K. (2012). "I now harbor more pride in my race": The educational benefits of inter- and intraracial dialogues on the experiences of students of color and multiracial students. Equity & Excellence in Education 5(1): 14-35. Reports a study of how students of color and multiracial students learned to make sense of and navigate their identities through the Intergroup People of Color-White People Dialogues and the Intragroup Multiracial Identity Dialogues at a small, historically white university.
Hanselman, P., Bruch, S. K., Gamoran, A., & Borman, G. D. (2014). Threat in context: Schoolmoderation of the impact of social identity threat on racial/ethnic achievement gaps. Sociology of Education, 87(2), 106-124. DOI: 10.1177/0038040714525970. This study examines levels of self-affirmation to see if self-affirmation interventions designed to counteractsocial identity threat reduced the racial achievement gap among middle school students The findings conclude that these self-affirmation activities have the potential to help close some of the largest racial/ethnic achievement gaps, though only in specific school contexts.
Lewis, K. M., Sullivan, C. M. & Bybee, D. (2006). An experimental evaluation of a school-based emancipatory intervention to promote African American well-being and youth leadership. Journal of Black Psychology 32 (1), 3-28. Experimental study of the impact of a one-semester African American emancipatory class for urban middle school students, teaching African and African American history and culture, and African rituals and practices. Found that youth in the experimental curriculum scored higher than those in the control group on communal orientation, school connectedness, motivation to achieve, overall social change involvement.
Lewis, K. M., Andrews, E., Gaska, K., Sullivan, C., Bybee, D., & Ellick, K. L. (2012). Experimentally evaluating the impact of a school-based African-centered emancipatory intervention on the ethnic identity of African American adolescents. Journal of Black Psychology 38(3), 259–289. Experimental study of the impact of a one-semester African American emancipatory class for urban middle school students, teaching African and African American history and culture, and African rituals and practices. Found a decrease in experimental students’ ethnic identity. The authors suggest that there may have been too much emphasis on racism and oppression, leading students to distance themselves psychologically from membership in a victimized group.
Pettijohn II, T. F., Walzer, A. S., (2008). Reducing racism, sexism, and homophobia in college students by completing a psychology of prejudice course. College Student Journal 42(2), 459-468. Reports a study showing that college students who complete a course in prejudice develop better attitudes about identities based on race, gender, and sexual orientation than students who take a general psychology course.
Thomas, O., Davidson, W., & McAdoo, H. (2008). An evaluation study of the Young Empowered Sisters (YES!) Program: Promoting cultural assets among African American Adolescent girls through a culturally relevant school-based intervention. Journal of Black Psychology 34(3), 281-308. Experimental study of the impact of a school-based program for African American high school girls. The program taught African American history and contemporary culture, weaving in African cultural values, Freire’s critical consciousness, and holistic learning. Found on various measures of ethnic identity, racism awareness, and liberatory action, participants scored higher than non-participants.
White, A. E., Moeller, J., Ivcevic, Z., Brackett, M. A., & Stern, R. (2018). LGBTQ Adolescents’ Positive and Negative Emotions and Experiences in U.S. High Schools. Springer+Business Media Spring Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/
Belgrave, F. Z. Chase-Vaughn, G., Gray, F., Addison, J. D., & Cherry, V. R. (2000). The effectiveness of a culture- and gender-specific intervention for increasing resiliency among African American preadolescent females. Journal of Black Psychology 26(2), 133-147. Experimental study of the impact of four-month long extracurricular Africentric program for middle-school girls. Weekly meetings featured various activities such as a Rites of Separation Ceremony, an overnight retreat, and arts activities. Found a positive impact on the racial identity and self concept of girls in the in the experimental group as compared with the control group.
Brinkman, B. G. (2009). Evaluation of the FAIR Program: Teaching gender equality to children. PhD Dissertation, Colorado State University. Experimental study of the impact of the FAIR (Fairness for All Individuals through Respect) on the gender self-identity, knowledge, and engagement in discriminatory behaviors of students in six fifth-grade classrooms, finding positive impact of the program on students' gender identities and behaviors.
Cammarota, J., & Romero, A. (2009). The Social Justice Education Project: A critically compassionate intellectualism for Chicana/o students. In W. Ayers, T. Quinn & D. Stovall (Eds.), Handbook for social justice education (p. 465-476). New York: Routledge. Describes the curriculum, pedagogy, and relationships used in a Mexican American studies program in four high schools, and the positive impact on students.
Halagao, P. E. (2004). Holding up the mirror: The complexity of seeing your ethnic self in history. Theory and Research in Social Education 32 (4), 459-483. Case study of the impact of a Filipino studies curriculum on mainly students of Filipino descent, showing how it strengthened their sense of self and sense of empowerment.
Vasquez, J. M. (2005). Ethnic identity and Chicano literature: How ethnicity affects reading and reading affects ethnic consciousness. Ethnic and Racial Studies 28 (5), 903-924. Case study of a Chicano literature course at the university level, showing how it transformed Chicano students' sense of self.