The Influence of School Communities on Student Identity
- ISBN-10
- 0599840633
- ISBN-13
- 9780599840638
- Pages
- 436
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2000
- Publisher
- Cornell University, Aug.
- Author
- Craig Truett Vivian
Description
This study looks at six schools in order to investigate the presence and effect of school communities on students' actions, attitudes, and understanding of who they are and how they make sense of the confluence of present and future roles which become salient issues during adolescence. It used both large-scale attitude surveys and in-depth interviews with students to investigate the relationship between a school's emphasis on creating and articulating an overarching vision of human flourishing and students' ability to assimilate aspects of that community vision into a personal sense of self. The study suggests that there are three types of community along a continuum which can exist in schools: communities focused on actions, communities focused of interactions, and a community focused on ideals. (1) Communities of local action exist when students and teachers are relying on sub-communities or actions to give definition to individuals. No ideal exists in the school that is used to help redefine individuals. Students rely on adolescent ideals to create self and others. (2) Communities of inter-action exist when students and teachers no longer rely on sub-communities to give definition to individuals. But no ideal exists in the school that is used to help redefine individuals. Students still rely on adolescent ideals to imagine self and other. (3) Communities of ideal action exist when students and teachers use an overarching concept linked to the ideal and mission of that school to create shared meanings and to partially define self.
