Hip-hop music and culture have existed for decades in the United States. Since the 1970s, five critical elements have been defined as parts of hip-hop culture: the MC (oral), the DJ (aural), graffiti (visual), knowledge (mental), and breakdancing (physical). The existing literature connects each of these forms of hip-hop to the experiences of…

Much of the everyday lives of young people happens on social media, mainly those image-centric platforms, like Instagram. Participation in these platforms has increased practices of meaning-making associated with vernacular literacies. Digital production on Instagram articulates traditions from vernacular writing and photography and is…

Gilbert Valadez recalls how, when he was a 1st grade teacher, he worked with a student to overcome a situation related to her gender identity. He suggests that any teacher working in public school adopt an inclusive attitude about all students and help students become comfortable with their own gender expressions.

Namasia District, located in Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan, is home to many of the island's indigenous Bunun people. This place was one of the most damaged areas from typhoon Morakot in 2009. In the aftermath of the Morakot disaster, many of the children were traumatized physically and psychologically. I set out to design dance classes for…

People express part of their identity through their style, gestures, speech patterns, and language use. Other people read these displays as presentations of ourself, an insight into who we are. It is important, therefore, for students to recognize their own performance of identity and be able to express that identity in a clear way. By focusing on…

The expression of the self through multimodal texts is a central theme in education. While it has been suggested that new technologies act as important mediators in the relationship between texts and subjectivity, the mechanisms underlying such mediation has been a neglected topic of research. This paper considers the theoretical assumptions upon…

Self-assertion involves an individual's search for and realization of his own special path in the world, his values and purpose in life in every given moment. It is a process that accompanies a person throughout his life. Self-assertion becomes exceptionally important in adolescence as it marks a turning point in one's attitude toward oneself; one…

Identity is a vital topic for discussion, exploration, and discovery in the art classroom. The artwork of Nikki S. Lee provides an opportunity for students to begin reformulating their notions about selfhood. The work of Nikki S. Lee is significant because it blends documentary, fashion, and staged and unstaged photography to allow viewers to…

This article is based on ethnographic work with two "crews" of young graffiti artists in southern Mexico City. The crews share certain characteristics with gangs or urban tribes, but more with "communities of practice": they live in the "figured world" of graffiti, a community of practice at the local and global…

David E. Kirkland turns our attention to the ways tattoos can represent "human" stories of literacy through the power of inked flesh, the self-portrait it creates, and the words and worlds that surround the body. The body, for Kirkland, is an important site of cultural production that represents the transformative, political, and personal terrains…

Incorporating autobiography into the classroom has the potential to facilitate reflective and interpretative practices, through which self-understanding and transformative learning may emerge. Bridging theory, practice, and the personal, this paper explores how autobiographical narratives were incorporated into a 9th grade social studies class to…

Among the Xhosa tribe in South Africa storytelling is a magnificent art. But these stories are more than mere entertainment. Xhosa scholar Harold Scheub says story-telling for the Xhosa people is "not only a primary means of entertainment and artistic expression in the society, it is also the major educational device." Beyond education,…

This article explores the ways three young students expressed their perceptions about literacy and investigates how their classroom identity shapes and is shaped by those perceptions. The ways in which positioning within a writing event and the classroom culture contributed to the development of writing voice and identity are examined. In…

Describes the process of planning and implementing a women and anger group, including the theoretical framework, goals, and planning and implementation of the group. Presents a facilitator's manual for therapists, with suggestions for prescreening interviews, ground rules, identifying anger, assertiveness, values clarification, barriers to change,…

Describes concepts explaining the risks involved in self-disclosure by group members and presents a structured experience which is designed to help resolve risk-related issues in small groups. Its three goals are: revealing and processing concerns about self-disclosure, providing concepts explaining its purposes and risks, and beginning work on…