This study examines the identity work strategies that men students in nursing, elementary education, and social work programs employ in order to manage and assert their masculinity in the face of negative gender assessment, as well as the identity work involved in verifying their professional identities. It also examines the perceived benefits and disadvantages that men experience as numerical minorities in their fields of study. Interviews with 12 men students majoring in these disciplines reveal that while men do perceive disadvantages as men in these educational spheres, they believe that the advantages and benefits they enjoy in the form of special treatment, recognition, and access to opportunity far outweigh them. A key perceived disadvantage is the ongoing challenges they face to their social identity as men and their role identity as rising professionals. These men employ identifiable identity work strategies for doing masculinity; some of which have implications for gender equality in the educational setting, as well as in on-site training (i.e., workplace) settings as well. This study contributes to an understanding of how men verify contradictory identities, and how gender shapes, privileges, and constrains their lives. In addition, it builds on extant literature focusing on men's experiences in higher education as they prepare for careers in gender-nontraditional occupations. / Ph. D.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify, describe and develop the understanding of what aspects at work are important for individuals' identity construction. In this understanding-oriented study the empirical data consists of three different groups: middle managers, cultural workers and “Airis-managers”. I have interpreted and analysed the 75 respondents’ stories, and in their experiences found similar patterns. My conclusion is that there are different dimensions at work that may affect the identity construction. My research question: What is it about work that is experienced as important for individuals’ identity construction? can be answered with the five different identity-related dimensions that I have identified: the enabling dimension, the legitimating dimension, the strengthening dimension, the touching dimension and the constraining dimension. All these dimensions, except the constraining dimension, contribute positively to identity construction. The constraining dimension can be compensated if the other positively confirming dimensions dominate. The identity construction for each individual appears different depending on what dimensions he/she experiences. That is why work’s impacts on the individual's identity construction vary. In order to illustrate the developed typology of identity-related dimensions, I created a model that aims to facilitate understanding of what aspects at work that may be important for the personal identity. When raising awareness of these dimensions, efforts to strengthen the most important dimensions can be made. Through their leadership and ways of organizing work, managers may influence their employees’ opportunities to construct and strengthen their identity. Much of the identity research discusses the more conscious identity work. In my third study my empirical data consists of managers’ who have brought artists into their organizations, i.e. conducted an artistic intervention called Airis. My interpretation is that implementing an artistic intervention can be considered as a way to challenge and develop the managers’ identity and be a part of their identity work. This thesis deals with “identity at work” (to reconnect to the title). People seldom discuss “identity construction” but that does not mean that identity issues are unimportant. On the contrary, people often talk about their jobs and their work experiences. What this "talk" really means is what this thesis highlights: Identity is constructed and confirmed at work, especially when others are told about the work-related experiences.

This essay is a qualitative interview study that investigates what enables motivation for publicly employed nurses and how this affects their choice to be publicly employed in front of the alternative of becoming staffing nurses. As analysis tools, the sociological concepts of valuerational and rational-purposeful actions, idealization and identity work is use in conjunction with the psychological theoretical model Self-determination theory. The results of the study shows that publicly employed nurses experience a continuity in their work situation, which they imagine that they could not experience to the same extent if they were staffing employees. Continuity enables them, through their competence, to satisfy their intrinsic interests and motivations - to meet people and make something meaningful for others. / Denna uppsats är en kvalitativ intervjustudie som undersöker vad som möjliggör motivation hos sjuksköterskor inom landstinget, och hur detta påverkar deras val att vara landstingsanställda framför alternativet att bli bemanningssjuksköterskor. Som analysverktyg används de sociologiska begreppen värderationellt och målrationellt handlande, idealisering och identitetsarbete i samverkan med den psykologiska teoretiska modellen Self-determination theory. Undersökningens resultat visar att landstingsanställda sjuksköterskor upplever en kontinuitet i sin arbetssituation som landstingsanställda, vilket de föreställer sig att de inte skulle kunna uppleva i samma utsträckning om de vore bemanningsanställda. Kontinuiteten möjliggör för dem att genom sin kompetens tillfredsställa sina inneboende intressen och motivationer - att möta människor och göra något meningsfullt för andra.

Syftet med denna studie är att visa hur skolorganisation, skolledning och skolledaridentiteter produceras, formas och omformas i samtalad interaktion samt att visa vilka diskursiva metoder som de samtalande använder för att bygga upp sina begrepp och kategorier och samtidigt göra dem socialt acceptabla i sitt sammanhang. Jag har tagit teoretisk och analytisk utgångspunkt i etnometodologi, socialkonstruktionism och kategoriseringsanalys. Det empiriska materialet består av inspelade ledningsgruppsmöten, som transkriberats noggrant, från en grundskola och två gymnasieskolor, samt intervjuer med tre skolledare. De empiriska studierna presenteras i fyra delstudier, där delstudie I visar hur intervjuare och intervjuad gemensamt bygger upp relevanta ategorier med hjälp av bland annat tidsbegrepp. I delstudie II analyseras hur skolledare i ett arbetslagsledarmöte gemensamt skapar den lokalt producerade organisationen-i-handling. Delstudie III fokuserar hur citeringar av sig själv och andra används i mötessamtal för att forma kategorier och delstudie IV inriktas mot att se hur deltagarna i de probleminriktade samtalen orienterar emot teamet och hur ’vi’ som grupp formas. I samtliga delstudier fokuseras hur kategoriserandet samtidigt är identitetsskapande. De samtalande framställer sig själva som bland annat problemlösare, nytänkare, förändrare och annorlunda än ’de andra’. Kategoriseringsarbete har visat sig ha stor betydelse för interaktionen och identitetsarbete är en viktig del av det som sker i mötessamtal. Skolledning framstår som bland annat gemensamt producerat och inte enbart som ett heroiskt ensamarbete. Tal och samtal kan beskrivas som en viktig del av och i ledningsarbetet. / The aim of this study is to show how school organization, school leadership and school leader identities are produced, formulated and transformed in talkin-interaction, and to show methods members use to build concepts and categories making them socially acceptable, in situ. My theoretical points of departure and analytical tools are ethnomethodology, social constructionism and membership categorization analysis. The empirical material consists of recorded talk sequences at regular meetings of school management teams, transcribed in detail, at one primary school and two secondary schools, and interviews with three assistant principals. The analysis of the empirical material is presented in four studies. tudy I shows how the interviewer and interviewee jointly construct relevant categories, using temporal terms as well as other resources. Study II analyzes how school leaders at a team meeting collectively create the organization-in-action. The focus of study III is on how team members use reported speech to produce categories, while study IV is oriented towards how we as a team is produced. All studies focus on categorization work as identity work. The team members and the interviewees give attributes to and make categorizations of themselves and others in order to produce themselves as problem-solvers, innovative, progressive and different. Categorization work has proven highly significant in the interaction, and identity work is an important component of the actions accomplished in the analyzed meetings. School leadership is not produced as a lone heroic effort, but rather as something created by members in interaction. Talk-in-interaction can be described as an important part of and in leadership work.

Employing institutional ethnography as an analytic frame, this study explicates the disjuncture felt by bisexual-identified individuals between their lived actualities and the textual realities stemming from the binary model of sexuality. This study also explores the role of online journal communities, including the capabilities and limits of this type of venue, as a rolling text that coordinates the narratives created there around bisexuality and bisexual-identification. Finally, this study critically examines the collaborative development of an experience-based discourse on bisexuality as produced by text-based identity work. Through the coordination of bisexual identity work taking place online, the venue facilitates the production of an alternative discourse that is differentiated from other sexuality discourses in its demonstration of fluidity, multiplicity, and resistance to order. In its differences from, rather than its similarities to, governing sexuality discourses, this bisexual discourse-in-production creates the possibility for a radical reconceptualization of sexuality and sexual-identification.

25 années ont passé depuis la chute du mur de Berlin. Cependant, le chemin vers l’« union intérieure », comme l’a prônée Helmut Kohl en 1997, est encore long. Mystification et standardisation marquent le discours normatif et médiatique. Le temps semble être venu de chercher de nouveaux paradigmes ; c’est ce que tente d’apporter ce travail. Par le biais d’un procédé méthodique qualitatif novateur à partir de photo-interviews biographiques analysées avec la méthode documentaire, il propose une nouvelle perspective sur les questions d’identité et de socialisation. L’étude porte sur la façon dont les anciens citoyens de RDA, dans la confrontation avec leurs photos du passé, gèrent « habituellement » (en référence au concept d’habitus) leurs identités personnelle et sociale, ainsi que les attentes normatives. Le but est de reconstruire les structures de savoirs qui guident l’interaction et, allant plus loin, la construction de l’identité du Moi. Il s’agit d’observer si des signes de travail identitaire sont visibles, et si oui, quels sont les facteurs déterminants. À partir de l’analyse des photographies privées et de leur réception, je démontre que les individus disposent de ressources habituelles qui déterminent la construction identitaire. Ces ressources dépendent fortement d’expériences de reconnaissance qui, en partie, ont été expérimentées dans l’environnement primaire (famille et groupe de pairs). Un rôle décisif joue par ailleurs l’expérience d’une « désintégration sociale ». Je montre également que d’éventuelles césures, dans le contexte de la Réunification, étaient primairement dues à des changements à un niveau social et individuel, et non pas systémique. / 25 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin wall. However, the way to an « inner union » –praised by Helmut Kohl in 1997 –is still long. Mystification and standardisation shape the normative and medial discourse. The time seems to have come to search for new paradigmata, which this thesis wants to achieve. With the help of an innovative qualitative methodological approach, this study suggests a new perspective on questions of identity and socialisation. It is based on the analysis of biography-oriented photo-interviews with the documentary method. The examination of how former GDR citizens deal with their photographs of the past, aims at exploring how they « habitually » (referring to the concept of habitus) deal with personal and social identity as well as with normative expectations. The goal of the study is to examine underlying structures of knowledge that guide the interaction and thus the construction of Self-Identity. This project was to observe if signs of identity work can be found and, if yes, which factors are decisive. The study of the private photographs and their reception finally demonstrates that individuals are « equipped » with habitual resources that determine their way of constructing identity. These resources strongly depend on experiences with recognition, which have partially been made by these individuals in the primary environment, such as in the family or amongst peers. Furthermore, the experience of « social disintegration » has a prominent part to play. It can be seen that disruptions, in the context of the Reunification, primarily depend on changes on an individual and social level, and not on a systemic one.

I syfte att undersöka vad övergången till en aktivitetsbaserat kontorsmiljö (ABW) innebär för synen på det egna ledarskapet i relation till medarbetarna samt hur chefer hanterat övergången i förhållande till sin chefsidentitet har sex kvinnliga och tre manliga chefer från fyra olika organisationer intervjuats. Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av IPA-metoden utifrån teorier om chef-/ ledarskap i förhållande till medarbetarskap och identitetsarbete. Resultatet visar att en övergång till ABW kan innebära en ansvarsförskjutning mot ökat medarbetaransvar och ett mer strategiskt chef-/ledarskap som är baserat på målstyrning, tillit och ett större ansvar för sociala strukturer. Ett individuellt, tjänande ledarskap underlättar för ett hållbart ledarskap i ABW. Deltagande chefer har uppskattat utvecklingen av chef-/ledarskapet i övergången till ABW och det har inte påvisats några konfliktfyllda identitetsarbeten. Studien ger exempel på vad en förändringsprocess mot ABW kan innehålla. Ytterligare forskning behövs för att undersöka hur ABW fungerar för olika typer av organisationer och medarbetare. / To investigate what a change into an activitybased workplace (ABW) means to managers view of leadership in relation toemployees and how managers handles it in relation to their identity as managers,six female and three male managers, from four different organizations, havebeen interviewed. The IPA-method was used for interview analyzes based ontheories about management/leadership, empowerment and identity work. The resultshows that a transfer into ABW may lead to a passing of responsibility towardsemployees and a strategic leadership/management based on goal management, trustand an increased responsibility for social structures. An individual, servingleadership facilitates a sustainable leadership in ABW. Participants haveappreciated the leadership/management development, and no identity workconflicts has been detected. The study gives examples of changing processestowards ABW. More studies have to be done in order to investigate how ABW fitsdifferent types of organization and different types of employees.

Abstract This study explored mathematical identity work by drawing on the cases of Finnish and Slovenian pre-service elementary teachers. All cases reported having had negative experiences with mathematics during their school years. These experiences were shown to have a central meaning for pre-service teachers’ mathematical identities. However, identity also extends to the future. For this reason, pre-service teachers’ anticipations of the future were also explored. The concepts of narrative identity (Ricoeur, 1992) and possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1989) were applied in the context of mathematics education. The overall narrative perspective of the study enabled a psycho-social understanding of identity. The special interest of the study was confined to an understanding of the role that educational contexts play in pre-service teachers’ mathematical identity work. Narrative inquiry was applied as a research methodology. In-depth interviews invited pre-service teachers to construct narratives of their mathematics-related experiences. These narratives were analysed holistically and categorically, as well as in terms of content and form. The findings showed striking similarities in pre-service teachers’ school-time memories. The cases in question felt like victims of their own mathematical experiences. The anticipations of mathematics teaching were also underlined by the challenges rooted in their school-time experiences. However, a surprising finding was that the identity work in which the Finnish and Slovenian cases engaged during their teacher education differed substantially. The main reasons for the differences in identity work seemed to stem from different emphases and pedagogical practices in mathematics education courses within the Finnish and Slovenian teacher education settings. The study argued that identity work can be facilitated during teacher education. To begin such a process, it would be central to focus on pre-service teachers’ biographical context through narrative pedagogical tools. The findings also showed that neglecting issues from school-time experiences might engender further challenges for pre-service teachers’ future mathematics teaching. Finally, the study argued for the need to openly address identity during teacher education. The significant theoretical contribution of the study is the conceptualisation of ‘mathematical identity work’. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin matemaattista identiteettityötä suomalaisten ja slovenialaisten luokanopettajaopiskelijoiden kokemusten kautta. Opiskelijoiden mukaan heillä oli ollut omana kouluaikanaan kielteisiä matematiikan opintoihin liittyviä kokemuksia, joilla osoitettiin olevan negatiivisia vaikutuksia opiskelijoiden matemaattisiin identiteetteihin. Koska tutkimuksessa korostuu identiteetin tulevaisuusaspekti, tarkastelun kohteina olivat opiskelijoiden tulevaisuuteen liittyvät toiveet ja odotukset. Tutkimuksessa sovellettiin narratiivisen identiteetin (Ricoeur, 1992) ja mahdollisten minuuksien (Markus & Nurius, 1989) käsitteitä matematiikan opetuksen kontekstissa. Identiteetin ymmärtämisen psyko-sosiaalisena ilmiönä mahdollisti narratiivinen näkökulma. Erityinen huomio kohdistettiin siihen, millainen merkitys kasvatuksellisilla konteksteilla on luokanopettajaopiskelijoiden matemaattisessa identiteettityössä. Tutkimusmetodologiana käytettiin narratiivista tutkimusta. Opiskelijat kertoivat syvähaastatteluissa matematiikkaan liittyvistä kokemuksistaan. Nämä narratiivit analysoitiin holistisesti ja kategorisesti ottaen huomioon myös niiden sisältö ja muoto. Tuloksista ilmenee merkittävää samankaltaisuutta luokanopettajaopiskelijoiden omaan kouluaikaan liittyvissä muistoissa. Monet esimerkiksi kuvailivat itsensä uhreiksi. Myös tulevaan matematiikan opetukseen liittyvät ennakko-odotukset olivat värittyneet opettajaopiskelijoiden omaan kouluaikaan liittyvien haasteellisten kokemusten kautta. Yllättävä tulos oli se, että suomalaisten ja slovenialaisten opiskelijoiden luokanopettajakoulutuksen aikainen identiteettityö erosi huomattavasti toisistaan. Erojen pääsyynä ovat nähtävästi erilaiset painotukset ja käytänteet opettajankoulutuksen matematiikan pedagogisissa opinnoissa. Tutkimus osoittaa, että identiteettityötä voidaan pyrkiä edistämään opettajankoulutuksen aikana. Prosessin aloittamiseksi olisi tärkeää kohdentaa huomio opettajaopiskelijoiden elämäkerrallisiin konteksteihin soveltamalla narratiivisia pedagogisia työkaluja. Sillä että omaan kouluaikaan liittyviä kokemuksia ei oteta huomioon, voi olla kielteisiä heijastuksia opettajaopiskelijoiden tulevaan matematiikan opetukseen. Tutkimuksen mukaan identiteetti on syytä ottaa avoimesti tarkasteluun opettajankoulutuksen aikana. Tutkimuksen teorian kannalta merkittävä anti on termin matemaattinen identiteettityö käsitteellistäminen.

Étant physicienne, j’ai navigué dans un milieu où les femmes sont sous-représentées, tout comme plusieurs groupes historiquement marginalisés. Selon des principes de justice sociale, tout le monde devrait pouvoir contribuer à la construction des savoirs scientifiques : il est donc impératif de comprendre les mécanismes qui freinent la participation aux sciences de certains groupes. Alors que la notion de sous-représentation s’attarde au nombre d’individus dans une catégorie ou une autre, parler en termes de diversité et d’inclusion permet de s’éloigner du cloisonnement des individus. Ainsi, je pars du constat que les aspects, causes et conséquences associées au manque de diversité et d’inclusion dans la communauté scientifique sont complexes et se manifestent dans la communication et dans le vécu des individus. J’utilise le concept de travail identitaire pour analyser l’interpénétration des facteurs personnels, institutionnels et communicationnels qui freinent la diversité et l’inclusion dans mon organisation -- un département universitaire de physique -- et pour réfléchir sur les enjeux systémiques qui dépassent ses frontières. Profitant de mon point de vue de l’intérieur, j’ai effectué une ethnographie « chez soi ». J'y décris le travail identitaire ressenti et observé au Département de physique de l’Université de Montréal. J’ai ciblé trois éléments phares de la vie départementale, à laquelle participent autant la communauté étudiante que le corps professoral et qui peuvent déclencher un travail identitaire : les conférences, les projets de recherche et les comités départementaux. Je présente des processus de travail identitaire situés à l’intérieur même d’individus qui contribuent aux savoirs scientifiques, plus précisément, à travers des facettes identitaires historiquement peu mises de l’avant. De plus, j’explicite comment, dans un environnement donné, la confiance en ses habiletés de recherche peut s’effondrer puis se reconstruire. Porteur d’espoir, mon récit ethnographique souligne, d’une part, l’importance des comités de réflexion sur la diversité et l’inclusion à même les unités départementales et les groupes de recherches et, d’autre part, offre des pistes et des outils aux scientifiques qui voudront intégrer des réflexions sur des enjeux sociaux à même leur recherche. Enfin, il s’agit à ma connaissance de la seule ethnographie de milieu scientifique effectuée par une physicienne. / Being a female physicist, I have acted and interacted in an environment where women, like many other historically marginalized groups, are under-represented. According to social justice principles, everyone should be able to contribute to the construction of scientific knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the social mechanisms that limit the participation of certain groups. While the notion of under-representation has often been used to address the relative presence or absence of individuals in certain categories, I prefer to speak about diversity and inclusion which decompartmentalise individuals. My starting point is the observation that various aspects, causes, and consequences related to the lack of diversity and inclusion in the scientific community are complex and manifest themselves in communication and lived experience. I use the concept of identity work to analyze the interpenetration of personal, institutional, and communicational elements that restrict diversity and inclusion in my organization (a university physics department) and to reflect on systemic issues that go beyond organizational boundaries. Building on my insider’s point of view, I conducted an “at-home” ethnography in which I describe identity work at the physics department of Université de Montréal as I experienced and observed it. Specifically, I target three elements that are central to daily life in Department, that engage both students and professors, and that trigger identity work: seminars, research projects and departmental committees. Throughout this ethnographic tale with confessional tones, I link my internal identity processes as an individual contributing to scientific knowledge throughout identity facets historically marginalized. In addition, I show how, for a given environment, confidence in one’s research skills can be rebuilt after collapsing. Giving hope, my ethnographic tale highlights the importance of discussion groups on diversity and inclusion in departmental units and research groups and, furthermore, offers avenues and tools to scientists that want to engage with social issues in their research. Finally, as far as I know, this is the first at-home ethnography of a scientific community produced by a female physicist.