Shifts in Identification in a Hybrid Space

Abstract

In a hybrid space where people enact multiple identifications across time and space, this paper examines the question of why and how students shift from one identification to another in school. Through a design-based research in a high school physics classroom enacted to bring about a convergence of students’ out-of-school discourses and school-based discourse, I analyzed the nature of identification undertaken by some students as they navigated multiple discourses. Using Bakhtin’s work as an analytical frame, I suggest that shifts in identification should be seen as a temporary appropriation of a dialogic other’s voice (or ideological stance) and suppression of one’s preferred voice that is performed strategically according to one’s situated interest at any particular point in time.