Student Identity -- Adolescent Psychology Applied to Education

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Subject: Student Identity

Author:
Carolyn Brown

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Date Posted: 22:09:50 02/23/08 Sat

Discussions about adolescent identity have to go back to how students interact in social settings. For the last several days, I encountered different sides of individuals I had only known as faces in a hall or stairwell. I saw the individuals as young people who laughed, clowned, sagged, or yelled during class transition or in the cafeteria lines along with their friends. This week I saw them for the first time in the classroom. In the classroom interactions, I saw student behaviors that made me reexamine what I thought about particular students. Students who appeared in the hall as self-confident young males turned out to be bullies who used their bravado to cover academic insufficiencies and wimpy behaviors. The self-assured students whined at mere paper-cuts. They were different people in different settings and with different relationships. On the other hand, I saw new sides to students I thought I knew well last semester. One student last semester was a boiling cauldron of emotions but now functions calmly when stressed by the same irritant of last year; smiles replaced the glowering expressions and foul language. What happened in three months? This student is no longer an outcast and has been accepted in her peer group. She easily maneuvers from group to group without the attending conflicts and outbursts that characterized her moody behavior months ago. She manages to respond appropriately in the classroom setting with teachers. She shows none of the bruises from fights that were routine last year. She has reached an emotional competence in her responses at school. I do not know about her other experiences that may shape this new side of her identity, but at least I see a transition from an angry defensive person to a self-assured pleasant one.

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