Cooperative learning is a pedagogic approach that is prevalent in all levels of education as it is seen to yield higher learning outcomes than individual learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2009). In the global university, it is believed to have the potential of increasing intercultural contact since students work together in small groups to conduct projects related to their discipline. The assumption is that students will learn the intercultural skills they need for an interconnected world by studying and learning in groups with linguistically and ethnically diverse others (Association of Community Colleges Canada, 2010). Although cooperative learning is based on social interdependence in which group members work together for the mutual benefit of their group, there has been very little research conducted into the relationships that the group members actually have with each other. It is the aim of this study to examine these relationships and find out their impacts on cooperative learning experiences. Drawing upon insights from pragmatism and dialogism, in this thesis, learning is conceptualised as an embodied, socially situated, and relational process. This means that the key to learning is the relationships that learners can construct with others. An integral part of forming relationships is the negotiation of identities in which people see themselves and others as certain kinds of people. In learning in cooperative groups, the ability to negotiate legitimate, competent identities is regarded as essential. For this reason, the study reported in this thesis uses a view of identity as socially constructed as a lens though which to analyse relationships in cooperative learning. The study focuses on the experiences of 12 students participating in group learning projects in first year business courses. Narrative inquiry is the methodology used as it is ideal for highlighting the complexities in human relationships and issues of power. The narratives of four international, four Canadian immigrant, and four Canadian-born students are analysed. A key finding from the analysis is that the relationship students are able to negotiate in cooperative groups and the types of identities they are able to construct with others strongly impacts their learning. There appeared to be a hierarchical order to student identities in groups with Canadian-born students assuming more powerful identities. Frequently these students are results oriented showing only interest in achieving high marks in their group projects. This leads to an absence of emotional connectedness amongst students and a disregard for the process aspect of working together which is core to cooperative learning. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the ways that cooperative learning could be changed to make it more process oriented. Finally, I make recommendations for further research which can build on the findings from this study.

Equality and diversity legislation across the UK and Australia has stimulated the health profession sector to make workplace equality and diversity policies transparent to service users (Wadham et al.2010; RCN 2016; GMC 2016; WGEA 2012). However, research literature has identified inequalities within the healthcare workplace as reported by health professions students. Specifically, research has identified issues concerning identities (gender, age, sexuality etc.) adversely interplaying with students' workplace learning experiences (Rees & Monrouxe 2011; Illing et al. 2013;Monrouxe, Rees, et al. 2014). Such negative learning experiences (i.e.discrimination, abuse) have been found to affect students' retention and success (Northall et al. 2016). Despite research shedding light on these issues, studies have typically explored individual identities and demographics and neglected how students' intersecting identities shape their learning experiences, retention and success. Furthermore, research has only offered recommendations for enhancing retention and success of students, rather than exploring the issues affecting retention and success in health professions education. This thesis explicitly explores what and how multiple intersecting personal and professional identities shape healthcare students' learning, retention and success in the context of gendered environments and professions (i.e. male- and female-dominated contexts). Underpinned by social constructionist, narrative and feminist methodologies (Kitzinger 1995; Hunting 2014), I conducted a large secondary analysis on 2255 workplace learning experiences from across the UK and Australia as well as multiple health professions. To follow on from the secondary analysis, I led a multi-site longitudinal audio diary study across two sites in the UK, to explore health professional students' workplace learning experiences in the context of male- and female-dominated environments. Multiple cross-sectional and longitudinal qualitative approaches were employed to explore the data, including thematic, narrative, positioning, and case-study analytic methods. Novel findings from my thesis highlight how participants narrated their intersecting personal and professional identities within male- and female-dominated contexts. I found how recurrent tensions and power imbalances between intersecting identities, learning experiences and environments across time led to an adverse impact on healthcare participants' thoughts and reflections about their learning, retention and success in the health professions. Sensitising the participants to tensions concerning how they negotiate their intersecting personal and professional identities are valuable for understanding and influencing their retention and success. Furthermore, findings from my thesis provide critical recommendations to enhancing healthcare students' workplace learning, retention and success in the health professions, through incorporating intersectionality into healthcare education curricula. The recommendations made in this thesis contribute to helping understand and support a diversifying healthcare workforce and shed light on potential issues around healthcare workforce shortages, which can be addressed through enhancing health professions' educational policies and practice.

[pt] O foco do estudo são entendimentos sobre questões identitárias de adultos aprendizes de inglês em narrativas emergentes em entrevistas de pesquisa na relação de coconstrução com o professor-pesquisador. O objetivo consiste em analisar discursivamente os posicionamentos identitários de três alunos de uma escola de idiomas da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Este estudo parte de uma concepção de Linguística Aplicada voltada para a construção de inteligibilidades em contextos pedagógicos. Adota uma concepção pós-estruturalista de identidade e um modelo de narrativa com análise de posicionamentos, com interpretações da prática social de aprendizes de inglês. A pesquisa é qualitativa e interpretativa e os dados são de três entrevistas de caráter autobiográfico, transcritas, com aproximadamente trinta minutos de duração cada. Da primeira entrevista, depreende-se que a aluna entrevistada se posiciona como alguém que tem medo da língua inglesa, mas que vincula a sua realização pessoal ao domínio do idioma como forma de empoderamento. A segunda entrevista, no entanto, aponta para as ambiguidades de quem que se posiciona entre as contradições de sentir-se perseguido pela língua inglesa e a crítica do que significa, em sua opinião, saber inglês no Brasil. A terceira entrevista indica uma forte idealização da língua inglesa através da experiência de uma aprendiz que se posiciona entre o encantamento e a idealização do idioma. Sinalizamos assim para o fato de que os posicionamentos identitários de aprendizes de inglês como língua estrangeira são de grande relevância para o aprofundamento dos entendimentos a respeito do processo de ensino-aprendizagem do idioma. / [en] This study focuses on understanding how three adult English learners, studying in a language institute in Rio de Janeiro, co-construct their identities in narratives that emerged in research interviews with the teacher-researcher. The aim is to observe: how they position and construct themselves as learners and users of English; how they feel positioned and position other participants in their stories and how they position the teacher, the school and other students. The research conceptualizes the field of Applied Linguistics as a way of creating intelligibilities in pedagogical contexts. Adopting a post-structuralist view of identity, the stories told are considered opportunities for identity construction. The research methodology is qualitative and interpretive; the transcribed data consist of three thirty-minute autobiographical interviews. We infer from the first interview that the learner identifies herself as someone who fears English, but who associates her sense of achievement and empowerment to developing a good command of the language. The second interview points to the ambiguities of an individual positioned between the contradictions of being chased by English and a criticism of what it means, in his opinion, to know English in Brazil. In the third interview, English is strongly idealized in the experience of a learner who positions herself between the feelings of enchantment and deference towards the language. Finally, this dissertation highlights the fact that identity positionings of English learners are of great relevance for enhancing the field s understandings of language teaching and learning processes.

Cette recherche s’est inscrite dans le champ des études sur les perceptions liées aux langues et aux cultures, ainsi que leur influence sur le positionnement identitaire des acteurs sociaux dans un contexte plurilingue et pluriculturel. Nous nous sommes intéressés plus particulièrement au cas précis des Écoles européennes et leurs élèves, les euroélèves. Nous avons motivé ce choix par le contexte unique offert pour étudier le rapport entre l’apprentissage des langues selon une approche interculturelle et le positionnement identitaire des élèves. Il s’agissait, en somme, de mieux comprendre et expliquer la notion d’« identité européenne » et de donner un sens plus précis à la notion « des Européens » (au sens des fondateurs de l’Europe comme Jean Monnet), ceci en s’appuyant sur la politique linguistique éducative des Écoles européennes et le contexte précis de l’École européenne de Luxembourg.Dans ce cadre, nous nous sommes appliquées à étudier les expériences linguistiques, culturelles et sociales des euroélèves, ainsi que les représentations culturelles engendrées, relevant aussi bien de leur propre culture que celles des autres cultures européennes. Nous avons ensuite tenté de comprendre dans quelle mesure les interactions entre ces éléments influencent le positionnement identitaire des euroélèves et leur rapport avec les Autres. Pour ce faire, sur le plan méthodologique, nous avons mené une étude empirique dont la dimension ethnosociologique a constitué l’aspect le plus important. Nous avons motivé ce choix par le caractère culturellement situé des représentations culturelles et de la manière dont les individus (ici euroélèves) interprètent leurs propres expériences linguistiques et culturelles. Aussi, nous avons procédé par une enquête ethnosociologique basée sur une combinaison de plusieurs méthodes de collecte de données (observation, entrevue et analyse documentaire). Cette approche nous a permis de non seulement identifier les représentations culturelles (au travers d’une analyse fine des paroles des acteurs sociaux interviewés), mais également de les situer dans leur contexte socioculturel. Il résulte de ces travaux de nouvelles représentations socioculturelles et une typologie inédite du positionnement identitaire chez les euroélèves, dont l’origine se trouve dans le nombre assez important de facteurs langagiers et culturels qui entrent en jeu dans la façon dont ils se perçoivent et se définissant sur le plan identitaire et dont nous avons retenu et exposé plus amplement trois formes identitaires représentatives et plus particulièrement l’« identité européenne ». Tout en confirmant le caractère dynamique du processus de construction identitaire chez les euroélèves, notre recherche met de plus en évidence sa nature progressiste, où le terme « progrès » symbolise un certain dépassement de barrières intellectuelles de la perception des Autres, lequel semble une condition nécessaire pour assurer la transition vers une « identité européenne ». Nos travaux ouvrent également de nouvelles pistes de recherche sur la question épineuse de positionnement identitaire dans un milieu plurilingue et pluriculturel dont la piste sociopsychologique, basée sur les travaux de Lev Vygotski, nous semble sur le plan théorique particulièrement intéressante. / This research is part of the wider study of how languages and cultures are perceived, and how they influence the identity positioning of social actors in a multilingual and multicultural context. More specifically, this study focuses on the European Schools and their students, the Eurostudents. This choice was motivated by the unique context these schools offer for studying the relationship between language acquisition premised on an intercultural approach on the one hand, and the identity positioning of students on the other. In sum, the point was to better understand and explain the notion of a “European identity” and to give more precise meaning to the notion of “Europeans” as conceived by the founders of the European Union such as Jean Monnet, all in the context of the European School in Luxembourg and the educational language policy it practises. I set out to study the linguistic, cultural, and social experiences of the Eurostudents and the cultural representations these engendered, both of their own culture and of other European cultures. I then tried to understand how the interactions among these elements affect the identity positioning of the Eurostudents and their relationship with Others. My methodology consisted of an empirical study whose ethno-sociological dimension was the most important one. This choice was motivated by the fact that cultural representation and the manner in which individuals, in this case the Eurostudents, interpret their linguistic and cultural experiences are culturally situated. I conducted an ethno-sociological investigation consisting of a combination of observation, interviewing, and analysis of documents. This allowed me to not only identify the cultural representations (through a detailed analysis of what the social actors said in the interviews), but also to situate these cultural representations in their sociocultural context. The study revealed new sociocultural representations and a novel typology of identity positionings on the part of Eurostudents the origins of which lie in the rather important number of language and cultural factors that affect the way these students perceive themselves and define their identity. I selected three identity positionings revealed by this new typology for wider discussion, including a “European identity”. My study confirms that the identity construction of the Eurostudents is a dynamic process, and my research also reveals that it is progressive, where the term “progress” symbolizes a certain transcendence of the intellectual barriers through which Others are perceived, which is a necessary condition for effecting a transition towards a “European identity”. My work also opens up new perspectives for further research on the thorny question of how identity is positioned in a multilingual and multicultural milieu, a question for the study of which the socio-psychological approach associated with Lev Vygotski seems to be the theoretically most promising one.

La communauté latino-américaine représente la troisième minorité visible en importance au Québec. Malgré tout, les recherches concernant les jeunes issus de l’immigration latino-américaine sont peu nombreuses. Ces personnes, qui sont nées au Québec, mais dont au moins un des parents est originaire de l’Amérique latine, gèrent de multiples identités culturelles. Elles négocient constamment des significations et des repères culturels, passant de ceux qui sont propres au Québec à ceux de la culture du pays d’origine de leurs parents. Étant donné que les frontières entre ces différentes identités culturelles ne sont pas toujours clairement définies, il était pertinent d’analyser les interactions des jeunes pour mieux saisir leurs expériences. Cette étude repose donc sur deux théories qui supposent que la communication est inhérente au processus de construction identitaire : le positioning de Davies et Harré ainsi que la mise en scène de la vie quotidienne d’Ervin Goffman. La présente recherche a privilégié les expériences personnelles de trois jeunes issus de l’immigration, celles de leurs parents et celles de leurs amis. La méthodologie utilisée reposait sur des entrevues individuelles avec les jeunes, sur l’analyse de photos ainsi que sur deux rencontres de groupe dirigées : la première réunissait les jeunes et un de leurs parents; la deuxième réunissait les jeunes et un(e) ami(e) de leur choix. Cette étude a constaté que les jeunes issus de l’immigration possédaient des identités culturelles hybrides. De plus, ils ne pouvaient contrôler la perception que les autres avaient de leurs identités culturelles, car certains éléments de celles-ci étaient négociés, voire imposés lors des interactions. Ainsi, ce mémoire contribue à la littérature sur le positioning en expliquant comment ces jeunes se positionnent devant les autres afin que plusieurs identités culturelles coexistent chez eux, tout spécialement dans une ville multiculturelle comme Montréal. / The Latin American community constitutes the third largest visible minority in Quebec. Despite its importance, research regarding youth of Latin American origin is limited. These young people, who were born in Quebec, but who have at least one parent from Latin America, must juggle multiple cultural identities. They are constantly negotiating cultural meanings and references from Quebec, as well as from their parents’ culture of origin. Given that the boundaries between these different cultural identities are not always clear, their interactions needed to be analyzed to better understand their experiences, hence I mobilized two theories that underscore the role of communication within identity construction: Davies and Harré’s theory of positioning, as well as Erving Goffman’s theory of the presentation of self in everyday life. This research focused on the personal experiences of three young people of Latin American immigrant background, those of their parents and those of their friends. To do so, methodology consisted of photo analysis and individual interviews with the young people, as well as two focus groups: first, with the young people and one of their parents, and second, with the young people and a friend of their choice. This study revealed that youth of immigrant background have hybrid cultural identities. Moreover, the young people were not able to forge their own unique cultural identities, because some aspects of their cultural identities were negotiated and even imposed during interaction with others. As this thesis offers a rich portrait of how these young people positioned themselves both front- and back-stage, this paper also contributes to the literature on positioning and empirically shows how several, sometimes contradictory cultural identities can co-exist in youth of immigrant background in a multicultural city like Montreal. / La comunidad latinoamericana representa la tercera minoría visible más importante en Quebec. Pese a su importancia, las investigaciones con relación a los jóvenes de descendencia latinoamericana son limitadas. Estos jóvenes, nacidos en Quebec pero que poseen al menos un padre o madre nacido(a) en Latinoamérica, deben manejar múltiples identidades culturales. Por ello, deben acomodar diferentes significados y referencias culturales de Quebec, así como de la cultura de origen de sus padres. Debido a que las fronteras entre dichas identidades culturales no son siempre evidentes, las interacciones de estos jóvenes fueron analizadas a fin de comprender mejor sus experiencias. Por ello, abordé dos teorías que ven la comunicación como una parte esencial del proceso de construcción de las identidades: la teoría del positioning de Davies y Harré, así como la teoría de la presentación de la persona en la vida cotidiana, de Erving Goffman. Esta investigación se enfocó en las experiencias personales de tres jóvenes de descendencia latinoamericana, sus padres y sus amigos. En este sentido, la metodología estuvo compuesta por entrevistas individuales con los jóvenes, análisis de fotografías y dos grupos focales: el primero, con los jóvenes y uno de sus padres; el segundo, con los jóvenes y un(a) amigo(a) de su elección. La investigación reveló que los jóvenes de descendencia latinoamericana poseían identidades culturales híbridas. Asimismo, que no podían forjar sus propias identidades culturales, debido a que algunos de los elementos que las conforman eran negociados y hasta impuestos por los demás mediante las interacciones. Por tanto, esta tesis contribuye a la literatura sobre la teoría del positioning, ya que explica cómo estos jóvenes se posicionan delante de los demás a fin de permitir que múltiples identidades culturales puedan coexistir en su interior, especialmente en una ciudad tan multicultural como Montreal.