Identity and Intersectionality: the Critical
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IDENTITY AND INTERSECTIONALITY: THE CRITICAL AUTOETHNOGRAPHY OF A “TRANSPLANT” TEACHER IN HAWAI‘I A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION MARCH 2017 By Nicholas Perih Dissertation Committee: Patricia Halagao, Chairperson Margaret Maaka Sarah Twomey Christopher Au Roderick Labrador Keywords: Autoethnography, Teacher Identity, Critical Race Theory, Critical Consciousness ii © Copyright 2017 Nicholas Perih iii Dedication To Uncle Danny. Rest in peace. To my family. I firmly believe that all people do the best they can with what they have. The wound is where the light enters you. -Rumi iv Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful for my chairperson and mentor, Patricia Halagao, whose enduring efforts on my behalf speak to her selfless nature. Thank you for your encouragement, guidance and patience. I am blessed to have had you by my side throughout my entire doctoral journey. Because of your support, I not only a better educator, but a better man as well. I would also like to thank Dr. Christopher Au, whose autoethnographic work inspired me to conduct this study. You represent the best qualities of an autoethnographer, educator and father. Thank you for your advice, support and validation. You motivated me to locate my own ‘truth’ and for that I will always be grateful. I am both grateful and humbled to have had the privilege of working with Sarah Twomey, Margaret Maaka, and Rod Labrador. Your collective knowledge, vision, and support enabled me to succeed. I must also thank Carl Ackerman and Kylee Mar of the Clarence T. C. Ching Partnerships for Unlimited Educational Opportunities Program at Punahou School, who provided me with an opportunity to discover the passions which fueled my desire to heed the autoethnographic impulse. I am thankful for the friendship of Ka’eo Vasconcellos, whose disposition to serve the needs of others has inspired me to become the best version of myself. Finally, I am thankful for the opportunities that working with adolescents in Hawai‘i has provided me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the students, parents, faculty members, and community stakeholders whom I have had the distinct privilege of serving with and for throughout the course of my career. v Abstract Teacher identity has emerged as a topic amongst contemporary researchers to inform, impact, and reform professional practice in light of the unique challenges presented within education in the United States. A homogeneous teaching population, which remains overwhelmingly White and middle class, must address a demographic and cultural divide amongst students, teachers, families, as well as in curriculum and instruction. Bartolome (2004, 2008) argues that teachers must have an understanding of how their ideological orientation shapes their views of students and influences their teaching. Through this praxis, I critically explored the historically constituted subjectivities, cultural meanings, social dynamics, and discourses that shaped my teaching identity as a haole (White) transplant (cultural outsider) teacher who moved to Hawai‘i. I used autoethnographic methodology as a form of narrative writing to invite readers into my cultural experiences. This opened up a space to explore the impact of the social, cultural, historical, and political forces in Hawai‘i on my personal, professional, and situational dimensions, which constituted my teacher identity. The results indicated that I am affected by the multiple identities that I have employed to navigate educational and personal spaces. The findings revealed six major themes: (i) understanding the complexities of identity are a prerequisite for critical consciousness; (ii) being a critically conscious teacher is a habit of mind, whereas being a culturally responsive teacher is the action resulting from that mindset; (iii) lived experience plays a role in enabling an understanding of one’s cultural position; (iv) critical consciousness is an iterative, ongoing process; (v) teaching for social justice needs to be approached both theoretically and practically; and (vi) autoethnography is a relevant tool to excavate one’s identity and can reframe educators’ thinking and subsequent actions in the classroom. The study provides a framework to address the need for theoretical and methodological transparency that is vital for exploring teacher identity. vi Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................1 Overview ......................................................................................................................................3 Background ..........................................................................................................................5 Motivations ..........................................................................................................................9 Summary of Overview, Background, and Motivations .....................................................13 Overview of the Research Problem ............................................................................................16 Political Context of the Problem ........................................................................................22 Personal Context of the Problem .......................................................................................30 Purpose of the Study ..................................................................................................................34 Philosophical and Epistemological Perspectives .......................................................................36 Overview ............................................................................................................................36 Multi-Paradigmatic Approach ...........................................................................................38 Autoethnographic Methodology ........................................................................................49 The Constructivist Paradigm ..........................................................................................40 The Critical Paradigm ....................................................................................................41 The Critical-Constructivist Paradigm ............................................................................42 Theoretical Framework ..............................................................................................................43 Overview ............................................................................................................................43 Layer 1: Critical Autoethnography.................................................................................45 Layer 2: Triad of Theories from the Critical Paradigm..................................................46 Layer 3: Poststructuralist Tools ......................................................................................47 Layer 4: Teacher Identity Formation..............................................................................47 Definition of Key Terms ............................................................................................................49 Significance of the Study ...........................................................................................................51 Research Questions ....................................................................................................................52 Overview of Dissertation ...........................................................................................................52 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ........................................................................56 Overview .....................................................................................................................................56 vii Identity and Self ..........................................................................................................................56 Introduction to Theoretical Perspectives ...........................................................................57 Psychological/Developmental Perspectives ...................................................................59 Sociocultural Perspectives ..............................................................................................60 Poststructural Perspectives .............................................................................................61 Conceptual Framework for Teacher Identity ..............................................................................62 Critical Orientation ....................................................................................................................66 Critical Race Theory ..........................................................................................................66 Intersectionality ..............................................................................................................69 Cultural Capital ..............................................................................................................71 Critical Whiteness Studies .............................................................................................73