Self in Context

(Edited)
Context mapping is a technique to gain deep insights into a person’s identity. Mitch asks Julian to list he various spaces and relationships he must negotiate each day. Through this Mitch learned about people who play a major role in Julian’s life, his “co-authors”. Youth are still figuring themselves out, and they need to experiment. Through experimentation they learn what they like and don’t like. They see what makes sense for them in life. In the reading the author lists four identities. 

Foreclosed Identity- An identity that is simply accepted as is, "with little reflection". The person stays committed to their identity without thinking or fighting about it. This can be someone who lives in poverty and believes that they will always live in poverty, unable to get out because they just accept that.

Diffuse Identity- This identity is easily influenced. There has been little exploration in this identity, and one does not commit to one. They change constantly.

Moratorium- In the identity moratorium, one actively explores different parts that make up their identity. However there can be a lot of anxiety in this identity because  of the pressure of finding who you are, and not choosing the "right" one.

Achieved Identity- This is where the identity crisis is resolved and there is a commitment to a selected identity. There was a lot of experimentation to come to this conclusion. A person becomes more comfortable with who they are.

   “Idealizing these figures is a way of trying on what it would be like to emulate them and chart a life path that might reach similar heights…The emotional and intellectual investments these figures represent are as hopeful as they are fleeting.” I agree that having big dreams and forming what you want your identity to be is great, and it’s important for youth to have hope, however there has to be an understanding or a realistic outlook that sometimes things do not work out.  

My Context Map

What contexts and relationships do you encounter on a weekly basis?

·         Rhode island College

o   YDEV, Management

·         Library

·         Explorations After School Program

·         Pawtucket, RI

·         Daughter, big sister, cousin, friend and co-worker

·         Professors/Previous teachers

My multi-authored life

First off, there were many concepts in this week's reading The Construction of Adolescents that I felt that were essential to the major concepts of the text.

• Just as children require near-constant support from others to access the material from which they will start building their lives, adolescents and adults likewise depend on ongoing support to construct their realities and the internalized stories of those realities.
• All stories are multi-authored
• Theme of education is critical
•  Being disappointed by his teachers [Antwon]
• No meeting of the minds [Antwon & Teacher]
• Just as educators play critical roles in the construction of their students’ life texts, so too are students critical to the life texts of their teachers, principals, and counselors.
• Trained to promote youth development via range of teaching, counseling, mentoring and prevention programs.

There was a few concepts that I did not know previous to reading this chapter.

            - Zone of proximal development

            - Scaffolding

            - Reciprocal transformation

 One of the most important concepts in my opinion from the list I gathered was that there was no meeting of the minds between Antwon and his teacher Ms. Petersen. They both did not know where the other one was coming from, and if their was open communication, things might have been different.

Now about my own life story. It was hard to come up with 10 people who have co-authored with me. I tried to pick people from all different parts of my life.

1.   Mom
2.  Dad
3. Grandmother
4. Alex
5. Mrs. A
6.  Mark
7.  Patricia
8.  Ethan
9.  Angel
10. Student from volunteering

We were told to pick and talk about one person who helped co-author our lives and I decided to pick my mom. There is no other person in this world that I can say shaped me more than she has. I mean how can there be, she’s been there for me every single day of my life. If anyone would ask, I would deny that I’m anything like my mother, however the truth is I’m just like her and I'm proud of that. She is the toughest person I know, the hardest worker, and I work every day to be like her. From the moment she arrived in the United States she worked from the bottom up to get where she is now. I can honestly say I am a strong independent women, and this is because of my mom.