Adolescent Identity at School: Student Self-Positioning in Narratives concerning Their Everyday School Experiences

Abstract

Identity, as a common way of thinking about ourselves and experiencing ourselves, begins to be explored and stabilized during adolescence. According to the narrative psychology, identity development occurs through self-positioning and the simultaneous positioning by others, within the discursive positions available in the present context, one of which is the school environment. The aim of our study was to explore student self-positioning in the narrated accounts of their everyday school experiences. The participants were primary school students that provided us with written accounts that represented their view of the school and of themselves. Data were analyzed in line with the principles of narrative and positioning analysis, which resulted in emergence of four types of events/experiences student accounted for: academic achievement and discipline, peer relationships, relationships with teachers and general school experience. Within these themes we further identified subthemes, the prevailing emotional tone and student self-positioning. Our findings suggest that positioning as a valuable and accepted friend was the prevailing one. We identified peer conflicts as the potential space for the further exploration of identities, and the position of the rejected student as a particularly restricting one. Interventions proposed include altering the structure of the positioning network by widening the space of accessible positions and altering its dynamic properties, so that mutual exclusiveness of some positions is removed.