The key purpose of this research has been to study and understand how young people with Syriac ethnicity experience their identity, when living in two different cultures. The Syriac minority is something of a special case when it concerns establishing the identity of an individual, since syriac´s do not have an official country. To be able to do this research an interview has been done with four young students with syriac ethnicity. The four of them is attending their final year at “gymnasiet” in Sweden which is equivalent to USA’s senior year in high school. The multicultural school is today a fact and many immigrants attending the Swedish schools today feels misplaced when they meet the Swedish culture through fellow students and society. A clash between cultures occurs and most of the students, with non-Swedish ethnicity, live some kind of dual life. One side of this twin identity represents the ethnic identity which dominates at home and around relatives. The other side is displayed in circumstances outside of their home, which is at school and in the Swedish society in general. This research shows the general opinion, among syriac high school students, concerning the individual identity and in which way they handle their own identity development when living within two different cultures. One of my main questions to investigate is to find out if young students, with syriac ethnicity, develops a weak root in their ethnic identity by living outside of the syriac community. One of my conclusions is that a student with syriac ethnicity, whom is educated in an intercultural school is rather encouraged in seeking his/her roots. Since the multicultural environment awakens a curiosity in students to seek their own ethnic identity.

This narrative research study investigated the identity development process of a group of beginning teachers participating in Teach For America (TFA). The participants (n=3) were middle or high school teachers who had taught in high needs, low income urban school settings. They had also blogged on the “Teach For Us” blog hosting site about their experiences in the classroom as beginning teachers. Through the lenses of Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) narrative theory of identity and Mead’s (1934) social theory of identity and the role of the “Generalized Other”, narrative research techniques were used to analyze the stories found in their blog postings. Their stories show that these teachers were ill prepared for the realities they would face and that teaching in a challenging, high poverty, urban school setting was at times overwhelming. The duality and struggle between their Generalized Other concepts of a TFA corps member and who they were becoming as a teacher was found throughout their stories. The stories also show that over time, each became more confident in their abilities and in who they were becoming as a teacher. With this growth came more job satisfaction, yet each decided to leave their TFA placement schools after their second year to pursue other options. Themes include the struggles the teachers faced their first year, the transformation that occurred during their second year, the conflicts between their TFA identity and their teacher identity, the impact of high stakes testing and racial issues, and the cathartic nature of blogging.

The current study employed a mixed methodology to investigate whether emerging adulthood differs based on vocational setting. Quantitative questionnaires were completed by 18-29 year-olds from university, vocational college/trade school, and the labour force (without post-secondary) to examine conceptions of what marks adulthood, perceptions of having reached adulthood, perceptions of having reached markers of adulthood, identity development, identification with themes of emerging adulthood, and the importance of vocational setting in shaping emerging adulthood. Qualitative interviews exploring the same areas were undertaken with a subset of participants. Results revealed few associations between vocational setting and conceptions of adulthood or perceptions of having reached adulthood, with most emerging adults feeling ambiguous about their adult status and viewing independence as the most important marker of adulthood. Those from the labour force did perceive reaching independence, role transitions, and family capacities to the greatest degree; earlier adverse circumstances seemed relevant in reaching these markers. Fewer than expected from the labour force had achieved identities, yet identity development appeared to be a gradual process for all. Participants generally identified with themes of emerging adulthood, although university students did so to a greater degree in some ways. Emerging adulthood was identified as a time of fewer possibilities and diminished agency for those from the labour force. Unique life experiences and social interactions were also deemed important factors in emerging adulthood. Together, findings largely support emerging adulthood as a valid theory of development, while also suggesting some diversity in its full expression across vocational settings.

Title: The life is too soft to accord in to tariffs: an essay about youth and families with children who are recipients of economic support, their experience of their financial situation and the reception towards the social welfare. Author: Ana Becovic & Kerstin Olsson         Supervisor: Erik Wesser Institution: Humanvetenskapliga institutionen, Högskolan i Kalmar Type of Essay: Degree project, 15 ECTS                     Date: December 2008 The aim for our study has been to examine how youth and families who are recipients of economic support on long term basis experience their contact with social welfare. The starting point for the question at issue has been the client's experience of their financial situation the reception and expectations towards the social welfare. In our B-level study we carried out qualitative interviews with social welfare officers to find out how they applied the "child perspective" in granting financial support and to what extent they felt that they succeeded in meeting the need of the client. The conclusion was that there is still room for improvement in this field and particularly a wish to focus more on the child's situation and development. The officers told us that they tried to pay closer attention to the child's situation through asking about the children and by visiting the families at home. They expressed awareness of the importance to a child's well being the financial situation of their family. They also expressed the need for the child to be able to take part in leisure time activities and having an active social life. In this study our research method is based on qualitative interviews. Our questionnaires where handed out to social welfare officers and workers in an organization aiming their work at vulnerable youth.  The target group is the parents of younger/older children and young adults between 18 - 25 years. The result of our interviews has been analyzed in relation to earlier research and relevant theories. Final conclusion; the target group expresses a positive experience of their contact with social services. It became clear that the experience varied depending on which handling officer one met. An interesting point is how different the youngsters and their parents reason around needs and expectations.

A narrative analysis of the lived experiences of seven undergraduate African American females at Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) is presented in this study. The purpose of the study was to explore the ways the seven women constructed their identity and self-concept in the context of their PWI environment. Other key purposes of the study included strategies in which the women successfully negotiated their PWI environments and the influence of the intersection of race, gender, and class on the collegiate and life experiences of these African American undergraduate females. The framework which was conceptualized from previous literature portrayed the historical context of the African American woman’s struggle for educational access as both Black and female, her life on campus, tools for success, and the identity development of African American women. Critical Race and Black Feminist theoretical frameworks, were the foundation for the study. Through these theoretical lenses, the study looked closely at the academic, social, and cultural climate on PWI campuses and the impact of these factors on the identity development and self-concept of the women in this study. The research methodology of narrative analysis was used and resulted in the emergence of three key findings in this study. The findings indicate that African American undergraduate females at PWIs engage in negotiating worlds, managing subjectivities, and redefining selves as they make meaning and walk out their individual lived experiences as students on Predominately White campuses.

This study draws from literature on acculturation, acculturative stress and gender roles as they relate to the experiences of Latin American immigrant groups. It focuses on Brazilian immigrant women, a group which has been understudied in psychological literature. This interview-based qualitative research project utilizes a phenomenological approach focusing on the personal lived experiences of Brazilian immigrant women in Texas and Massachusetts. Ten interviews were analyzed and five emergent themes were revealed. Results revealed ways in which women's immigration experiences intersect with their multiple identities, and the ways in which those identities are shaped and negotiated during the transformative immigration experience. The phenomenological approach is particularly suited to study the immigration experience, as this experience inherently involves issues of identity, transition and meaning-making within a particular contextual space. / text

This thesis is about the process of becoming, or not becoming, a primary school mathematics teacher. The aim is to understand and describe the professional identity development of novice primary school mathematics teachers from the perspective of the novice teachers themselves. The study is a case study with an ethnographic direction where seven novice teachers have been followed from their graduation and two years onwards. The ethnographic direction has been used to make visible the whole process of identity development, both the individual and the social part. The empirical material in the study consists of self-recordings made by the respondents, observations and interviews. The empirical material is analysed in two different but co-operating ways. First a conceptual framework was developed and used as a lens. Second, methods inspired by grounded theory are used. The purpose of using them both is to retain the perspective of the respondents as far as possible. At the time of graduation the respondents are members in a community of reform mathematics teaching and they want to reform mathematics teaching in schools. In their visions they strive away from their own experiences of mathematics in school and practice periods. Four cases are presented closely in the thesis as they show four various routes into, and out of, the teaching profession. These four cases make visible that the respondents’ patterns of participation regarding teaching mathematics changes when they become members in new communities of practice with mathematics teaching as part of the shared repertoire. But, the four cases also make visible that the existence of such communities of practice seems to be rare and that the respondents’ different working conditions limit their possibilities of becoming members in those that exist. During the time span of this study, the respondents hardly receive any feedback for their performance as mathematics teachers. Even if they teach mathematics they don´t teach it as they would like to and they don´t think of themselves as mathematics teachers. Two years after graduation none of the respondents has developed a professional identity as primary school mathematics teacher. A primary school teacher in Sweden is a teacher of many subjects but they are the first teachers to teach our school children mathematics. For the respondents to develop a sense of themselves as a kind of primary school mathematics teacher, mathematics teaching has to become part of their teacher identities. For this to become possible, mathematics must become a part of their image of a primary school teacher as an image of a primary school mathematics teacher. Furthermore memberships in communities of practice with mathematics in the shared repertoire must be accessible, both during teacher education and after graduation. Then professional identity development as a primary school teacher would include becoming and being a teacher of mathematics.

The following essay describes a study made in Sweden in the autumn of 2010 at Södertörn University. The main purpose with this study is to find out and describe how people´s own understanding of being multilingual has influenced them. The objective behind this is to create a wider understanding for the phenomena. Therefore, the phenomenological perspective is used to describe the subjective reflection of a phenomena, in this case multilingualism. A qualitative method is being used for data gathering, implying conversational interviews with six multilingual people born in the 1970s and 1980s. The results show that the people interviewed mostly use their mother tongue in conversations with their parents and relatives today. Their multilingualism has not been particularly acknowledged in school, where Swedish has been the language of instruction. Some of the interviewees expressed a feeling of not knowing any of their languages perfectly. The results also show that the interviewees have a positive attitude towards their multilingualism on the whole and see several advantages with it. The results do nevertheless not show any pattern of differences between the people born in the seventies and the ones born in the eighties.

Parental behaviors and socialization practices are among the most cited micro-level factors related to adolescents‘ performance in school. For African American youth, families provide the foundation for negotiating their identities and learning ―how to go to school‖ in a racist and sexist society (Hill, 2002; Jeynes, 2005). Yet, a sparse amount of research has examined familial factors that shape African American girls‘ identity development and academic outcomes. This mixed method study examined how racial socialization, ethnic socialization and parental involvement influence African American adolescent girls‘ multiple identities and academic performance. Participants included African American girls (N=106) between the ages of 11 and 14. Data were collected using a questionnaire and focus group interviews. The questionnaire included racial identity, gender identity, racial socialization, ethnic socialization, and parental involvement scales. Student grades were retrieved from schools administrators. Stepwise regression analysis was employed to examine the associations among familial socialization and involvement, identity factors and academic performance. Socialization messages regarding African American history, and coping with racial discrimination were negatively related to African American girls‘ academic performance. Socialization messages regarding African American cultural values were positively related to African American girls‘ academic performance. African American girls who were frequently exposed to African American cultural expressions, taught the African American value system, and taught strategies for dealing with racial discrimination were highly aware of how others view African Americans, had positive feelings about being Black, and their blackness was central to their identity. Gender identity exploration was linked to transmission of African American values and celebrating African American heritage. Gender belongingness/affirmation was predicted by messages about African American history. Six focus group interviews were conducted with girls (n=45) randomly selected from the larger sample. Participant answered questions about their feelings about their gender and racial groups, preparation for womanhood, and parental messages about academic achievement. A modified ground theory of data analysis was used to examine the focus group data. Four themes emerged from focus groups: (1) the importance of race and gender, (2) socialization for black womanhood, (3) avoiding a legacy of school failure, and (4) using education as a tool for personal advancement.

This thesis examines the way in which youth between the ages of sixteen and eighteen envision their future possible selves with respect to their possible careers and roles in the community. The youth were recruited from members of the Fusion Youth Activity and Technology Centre (a.k.a. Fusion) in Ingersoll, Ontario; population 12,146 (Statistics Canada, 2011). Situated in the context of small-town youth who attend afterschool activities aimed at providing skills in business, the arts, media and technology, the study asked youth to consider what their future possible selves would look like ten years from now. Using Q-methodology, the participating youth were asked to complete a 55-statement Q-sort with statements relating to careers and community roles generated by a focus group of Fusion youth and from the relevant literature. Using identical statements, the sort was conducted under two conditions of instruction; thinking of your hoped-for self in the future and; thinking of your feared self in the future. Factor analysis was conducted on both sets of Q-sorts (hoped-for and feared) and three factors were extracted for each. In keeping with Q-methodology, composite sorts were generated giving three distinct profiles of statement placement for each of the hoped-for and feared selves. Hoped-for profiles included community-minded professionals, independent creatives and no-plan dreamers. Feared self profiles included, disengaged problem citizens, trapped labourers and unhappy average citizens. These six different viewpoints of their possible futures indicate that youth see their futures (both good and bad) very differently and that their career foci and community involvement hopes and fears are far from homogeneous. This opens an opportunity for youth programs like Fusion to develop programming specific to these groups that may help to make hoped-for selves the more probable outcome.