Difference Matters: Embodiment of and Discourse on Difference at an Urban Public High School

Abstract

This article examines how students and teachers at an urban public high school embodied and understood various social categories of difference. Although ascriptions and experiences of racial and gender identities varied, these identities were often viewed as biological in origin and static in nature. The complexities and contradictions evident in the everyday conversations about difference at the school might serve as effective starting points for discussions about the social construction of difference. [race and gender, everyday discourse about difference, high school, race as a biological category] Karen Levy was reviewing the week's vocabulary words in her 9th grade English class. To explain the word "adherent," Mrs. Levy asked if one could be an adherent of a racial group. Before the students answered, Mrs. Levy asked the students to raise their hands if they were Catholic, Jewish, and so on. Mrs. Levy then said that there are some things one can choose and others that one can't. Race and ethnicity, she said, were identities one could not choose, while religious and political affiliations were chosen identities. Tyler, an African American male student, said, "You can choose

Identifications et rapports entre majoritaires et minoritaires. Discours de jeunes issus de l’immigration

“…C'est aussi le constat d'autres études empiriques sur le sujet, menées dans d'autres contextes nationaux. En effet, plusieurs de ces études rapportent que les jeunes issus de l'immigration de deuxième génération ont tendance à utiliser majoritairement la nationalité de leurs parents pour s'identifier, et ce, tant à l'international (Chikkatur 2012 ;Fuligni et al 2008 ;Portes et MacLeod 1996 ;Sabatier 2006 ;Verhoeven 2006) qu'au Québec (Banting et Soroka 2012 ;Chastenay et Pagé 2007 ;Lafortune et Kanouté 2007 ;Meintel et Kahn 2005 ;Potvin 2007). Si la majorité des jeunes de notre corpus utilisent la nationalité de leurs parents pour s'identifier, plusieurs parmi eux se réclament néanmoins d'identifications à trait d'union (ex.…”

“…Les résultats de ces recherches présentent des conclusions assez similaires en ce qui concerne l'identification des jeunes issus de l'immigration de deuxième génération. Elles montrent que ces jeunes utilisent une variété de termes afin de définir leurs identifications ; ils semblent avoir des identifications multiples, à trait d'union, contextuelles et mouvantes (Chikkatur 2012 ;De Villers 2005 ;Sabatier 2006, Verhoeven 2006. Qui plus est, les jeunes d'origine immigrante de deuxième génération ne s'identifient que très rarement à la seule identité nationale du pays d'accueil et, s'ils le font, c'est en la combinant avec une identité se référant au pays d'origine de leurs parents.…”

The influence of researcher identity on ethnographies in multiracial schools

“…In this article and in our studies (Chikkatur 2009;Jones-Walker 2008), we draw upon definitions of identities that integrate micro-level interactions and aggressions with macrostructures, cultural and ideological representations, and the material impact of these processes. We suggest that an understanding of racial and gendered identities both as embodied and lived and as affinities, interests, and commitments can help illuminate the role of researcher identity in ethnographic research.…”

Teachers' Work, Food Policies, and Gender in Argentina

“…“Doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological. Once the differences have been constructed, they are used to reinforce the ‘essentialness’ of gender.” Drawing from this argument, Anita Chikkatur () writes that, “institutional arrangements—such as designating bathrooms and locker rooms as male or female—appear to be responding to already existing ‘normal and natural’ differences when, in fact, they produce these differences” (p. 82). Likewise, if unquestioned, the requirement—and the taking up—of additional care work by high school teachers reinforced and shifted upwards feminine and feminized feeding responsibilities at a moment when the school was considered to be the last remnant of the state serving citizens in many areas of the nation.…”