A commitment to equity in our schools ensures that every student has the access and opportunity necessary to thrive in school, regardless of race, ethnicity, language, citizenship status, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and so on. Creating and sustaining equitable spaces requires examination of the…

This dissertation takes an in-depth look at the unique experiences of five Florida State University study abroad alumni who self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer after their experiences overseas. The purpose of this research was to understand if study abroad played a role in participants' sexual identity formation. To…

The ways in which individuals act within the world around them and the ways in which individuals engage with commodities as consumers play a vital role in providing insight into innate human values and opportunities for growth. By exploring the seemingly mundane and small but meaningful ways individuals engage in the consumer process and space,…

Future advances in identity research will depend on integration across major theoretical traditions. Developmental-contextualism has established essential criteria to guide this effort, including specifying the context of identity development, its timing over the life course, and its content. This article assesses 4 major traditions of identity…

The primary objective of this inquiry is threefold: to a) forward a theoretical examination of the influence of a particular era of regional history in a way that b) simultaneously brings the past forward and the present backwards in order to c) exhume the nature of the interconnectedness of past and present in the shaping of identity, politics,…

The teenage years can be difficult, filled with questions, emotions, and decisions. For high-achieving adolescents who may experience asynchronous development or experience the world more intensely, these years can bring about intense emotions, feelings of isolation, or difficulty understanding the injustices of the world. Parents, may try to…

Reduced cognitive empathy may put autistic people at risk for bullying. We compared interpretations of bullying provided by 22 autistic and 15 non-autistic college students. Autistic (and non-autistic) students reported less severe bullying in college relative to earlier in development. Chronic bullying was associated with improvements in…

Stories live to be told to others, Dan McAdams (2008) writes: "Life stories therefore are continually made and remade in social relationships and in the overall social context provided by culture. As psychosocial constructions, life stories reflect the values, norms, and power differentials inherent in societies, wherein they have their…

This narrative inquiry is an autoethnographical account of one queer-identified middle school teacher's career trajectory in the Southern United States, and his struggle to navigate disclosure of his identity to students. Using a qualitative lens, the authors provide reasoning for the importance of middle school educators to have the ability to…

A healthy self-identity is vitally important to a child's well-being and consequent ability to learn at an optimal level. As educators and other service providers seek to ensure that the children with whom they work have the best chances to succeed, they are recognizing the need for innovative ways to support children as they build those healthy…

In many industrialized countries, the transition into adulthood has become prolonged and complex. The consequence is that the process of identity formation within various life domains is often being delayed. This study applies a qualitative longitudinal research strategy to track the experiences of 28 young Australians as they undergo the process…

"Teachers Bridging Difference" describes how educators can move out of their comfort zones and practice connecting with others across differences to become culturally responsive teachers. Based on a course developed for preservice teachers, the book illustrates how educators can draw on the visual arts as a resource to explore their own…

In the hopes of deepening Basic Writing instructors' critical awareness of their authority in assigning meaning to student experience, we present a case study of two adult-arrival immigrant students. We explore the ways that writing instructors and tutors encourage students' personal narratives of persistence--rather than actual persistence…

Employing a multiliteracies framework, this paper explores the ways in which literacy pedagogy might respond to the emergent challenges that the new information environment poses. We contextualize literacy as a socially constructed endeavor of meaning-making that ranges across multimodal texts and has implications for identity, society, and…

Queer college students experience microaggressions and macro-aggressive behaviors that may diminish positive effects of on-campus housing. This longitudinal, qualitative study examined the narratives of 12 queer college students and their experiences living on campus toward understanding the ways queer college students navigate their required…