To address the needs of middle school students who experience difficulty with reading, students are often placed in reading intervention programs to improve literacy skills. This study explores the question: in what ways do students successfully and unsuccessfully use self-initiated comprehension strategies in their efforts to engage with…

Using theories of positioning, emotion, and power as a lens, this study explores the lived experiences of a reader labeled as struggling who was enrolled in four different course contexts: traditional high school English, high school remedial reading, high school Young Adult Literature, and college English. Interview data suggests the participant…

This article reports on a cross-institutional, mixed-methods research study designed to gather data on first year writers' language backgrounds at three North American universities. Researchers administered a language survey to 1,870 first year writing students and led follow-up focus groups with 32 participants. Researchers utilized three methods…

Students who are in developmental education (DE), like students with disabilities and other students receiving learning supports, are often identified as such a priori, which means the students have already lost control over a certain amount of information about their identities. A student may feel marginalized by the attitudes that others have on…

"Coming out" is a powerful way for individuals to disclose, constitute, and perform membership in stigmatized identity categories. The practice has now spread far beyond its LGBTQ origins. In this essay, I examine how atheists and other secularists have taken up and adapted coming out discourse to meet their situational and rhetorical…

Historically, identity researchers have placed greater emphasis on processes of identity development ("how" people develop their identities) and less on the content of identity ("what" the identity is). The relative neglect of identity content may reflect the lack of a comprehensive framework to guide research. In this article,…

Words and labels used about a person inevitably have an impact, whether intended or unintended. This article discusses the need for intentional and overt, critical reflection and discussion in higher education regarding the language faculty and students use. The authors provide language examples commonly used in courses that could have varied…

Frequent discussion in the field of disability research focuses knowledge on rehabilitation for students with disabilities. However, lacking is a focus on student identity development in the face of a highly stigmatizing and stigmatized label. Semi-structured interviews with four freshman males labeled with high incidence disabilities were…

We investigate Grade 10 learners' mathematical identities, with a focus on influences on the learners' identities. A mathematical identity questionnaire was given to learners and their test scores accessed. Four learners were purposively selected for interviews on the basis of interesting relationships between their questionnaire responses and…

A positive teacher-student relationship has for long been considered, a developmental asset for children from kindergarten to high school (Birch & Ladd, 1997). Such a relationship is usually characterised by less conflict and increased understanding between both. Students who enjoy a supportive relationship with their teachers, achieve at…

This study investigates correlations of course level, gender, and ethnic identity labels with attitudinal dimensions toward Spanish by Spanish as a Heritage Language Learners in New Mexico. Participants in first-semester (n = 327) and fourth-semester (n = 174) Spanish as a Heritage Language courses rated twelve items designed to index language…

Historically, schools have been homogenizing institutions that often disadvantaged people of color and ethnic and religious minorities. In this article I examine Roma education in Hungary, focusing on (re)production of racial identities and the negotiation of ethnic labels. I distinguish two models of education as they relate to ideas of…

In this series of candid reflective writings, a former high school teacher interrogates her teaching practice, students' identity development, the giftedness label, and differentiated instruction.

This study critically examines how the geopolitical configuration of identities, through the medium of the institutionalized label of "English language learners," can shape and constrain localized experiences for learners. An ethnographic video study was conducted in the context of a mathematics unit ("the transforming recess…

Acknowledging that the ADHD literature is shaped by male experiences, the purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of female adolescents with ADHD and the impact of the label in their family relationships. Four Greek adolescents aged 13-18 with a diagnosis of combined-type ADHD were interviewed through a purposive criterion…