Do we have to choose sides?

Proposal for a Research Study on the Identity Creation of Bilingual Students

Living across Multiple Figured Worlds

Annica Schjtt Voneche

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 In Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language Umberto Ecco (1986) makes the claim that

world visions can conceive of everything, except for alternative world visions, (p. 12)

immediately followed by the slight modification that this is true except if it is done in order

to criticize them and show their inconsistency (p. 12). In my proposed research study I intend

to use as the tool and unit of analysis a specific way to understand peoples world visions: the

concept of figured worlds (Holland et al. 1998). A figured world is

a socially and culturally constructed realm of interpretation in which particular

characters and actors are recognized, significance is assigned to certain acts, and

particular outcomes are valued over others. [] populated by a set of agents [] who

engage in a limited range of meaningful acts or changes of state [] as moved by a

specific set of forces (Holland et al., 1998, p. 52).

The goal of my research study is to test the underlying idea that different world visions in

the shape of figured worlds are incompatible and incapable of understanding each other. If

this is true, and we live simultaneously within numerous figured worlds, as Holland et al. (1998)

argue, how then can the participants in these various figured worlds mediate between them?

Do we simply leave the convictions, beliefs, and meanings generated within one figured world

behind when we cross over to another, the same way we figuratively put on different hats

when we switch from one social role to another, such as when we go from the figured world

of our work place to the figured world of our family? In cases where the values and practices

of the various figured worlds in which we participate are starkly different, or even

contradictory, do we feel compelled to choose sides, participating only reluctantly in certain

figured worlds and wholeheartedly in other, favored ones? Or do we carry over some of the

artifacts and meanings from one figured world into another, thus laminating (Jurow, 2005)

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several figured worlds and realizing the potential for renewal from within the figured world

mentioned as a possibility by Holland et al?

Background

In this proposal, I submit the design of a research study focused on examining these

and other related questions in the context of an American bilingual elementary school

program. The study would examine the attitudes and practices of students in a dual curriculum

French-English program housed by the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (ALES) in

Chicago, IL. The children in this program, in existence since 1981, are enrolled simultaneously

at a regular Chicago Public School elementary program at Lincoln Elementary and at the Ecole

Franco-Amricaine de Chicago (French-American School of Chicago, or EFAC). From

Kindergarten to fifth grade (the French equivalent of which is Grande Section, GS, to Cours

Moyen de Deuxime Anne, CM 2) the EFAC program is recognized by the French Ministry

of Education, meaning that the students diploma are the equivalent of what they would have

received had they attended a public school in France. The students spend the majority of their

school day integrated in their American class (with 2-3 EFAC students in each class), but leave

for EFAC classes for a total of three hours per day. The two programs run parallel, each

governed according to the French and American curriculum, respectively, for each grade,

which means that the children take all subjects required by each school system in their

respective language and in accordance with the respective national education standards. Thus,

they take certain subjects in parallel. In order to be accepted into the program, the students

are required to be fluent in French, and to live with at least one French-speaking parent, given

that no classes of French as a second language are offered by EFAC. The majority of the

students have one French-speaking parent and one American parent. The second largest

student group in EFAC consists of students with two French-speaking parents. Finally, a

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minority of the EFAC students has one French-speaking parent, and one parent using neither

French nor English, but a third language when communicating with their children.

Although housed in the same building and sharing students, the two programs very

rarely intermix. The children have French in a different classroom from where they have

classes with their non-EFAC classmates. They use different school material, including

different books, notebooks, and even different pens, glue, rules and erasers. Different rules,

practices and regulations apply depending on whether the children are in their ALES or EFAC

classroom. In addition, the techniques used for writing, doing math or other subjects differ

between the two systems, even in cases where similar topics are covered. In their EFAC classes

the students are not allowed to express themselves in English, and any utterance made in

English by a students in an EFAC classroom will immediately be repeated in French by the

teacher, who then asks the student to repeat it in turn. In the English classroom the students

refrain from using French, even with other bilingual students, presumably due to a fear of

being seen as different from the other students.

Despite the fact that all non-EFAC Lincoln Elementary students study French from

Kindergarten on, ALES do not use any of EFACs resources for teaching French, and the

EFAC students are generally not present during these French classes. The only time ALES

uses the EFAC as a resource is during a five-day French camp the school organizes for fifth

graders. In order for the Lincoln students to hear French being spoken around them ALES

invites all EFAC students, independently of their grade, to participate in camp, and the

chaperones are all EFAC parents who also teach classes, such as dance, arts and crafts and

sports, in French during camp. With this one exception, the two schools thus form two closed

systems with the EFAC students moving between them throughout their school day.

Research questions

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The goal of my study is to examine the degree to which the EFAC students engage in the

different figured worlds that ALES and EFAC constitute. I am interested in examining if,

when and how the students shift their engagement from one figured world to another, if these

shifts hinge on the use of artifacts as pivots, and in what these potential shifts may signal about

the way the students position themselves relative to each of the two figured worlds. Ultimately,

my study seeks to understand how the dual, parallel curriculum influences the EFAC students

sense of identity as individuals and as part of a particular learning community, how they

position themselves in relation to the two figured worlds of ALES and EFAC, and if and to

what degree they incorporate the artifacts and practices of each in their sense of identity.

Specifically, I will examine the following questions:

How does the EFAC students involvement in two different learning communities,

each with its own curriculum, methods, language of instruction, cultural affiliations,

and so forth influence their sense of personal and collective identity?

Do the EFAC students identify more with one figured world and the larger culture

with which it is affiliated, than with the other, equally with both, or with neither, thus

creating a unique subculture, consisting of a lamination of the two?

Does the students chosen cultural affiliation change depending on whether they are

with their French-speaking or American classmates, or is it constant independently of

the context?

Do the two learning contexts allow for any type of carry over of artifacts, practices or

values from one figured world to the other, or do the students consider the two

systems as mutually exclusive?

What can the students use of specific artifacts and practices tell us about their

identitary and cultural affiliations?

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I have a vested interest in studying this learning environment as I have two children enrolled

in the program, one in Kindergarten/Grande Section, and the other in third grade/CE2. This

gives me a privileged position from which I can observe the EFAC students simultaneously

from the outside and from within the EFAC community.

Analytical Tools and Concepts

In what follows I will briefly present the analytical constructs developed by Holland et

al. and relevant for my study. After this I will explain specifically how I will use these as tools

for my analysis.

Figured Worlds

In their book Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds, Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain

(1998) introduce the concept of figured worlds, as part of a larger framework for theorizing

self and identity. Holland et al. propose the concept of figured world as one out of four

contexts within which identity is produced. They explain that a figured world is figured worlds

are simultaneously shaped by, and give shape to the coproduction of activities, discourses,

performances, and artifacts (51). By participating in activities that the figured worlds organize,

the members identities are shaped. At the same time, the members have agency to change the

figured world from within. The various figured world across which humans live out their lives

allow us to recognize each other as particular kinds of actors within a specific figured world

(such as, for example, alcoholic, good student, troublemaker, and so forth). Within the

figured world certain outcomes of activities are valued rather than others, and specific actions

are linked with meaning that may be different from their meaning outside of the figured world.

Participants may be drawn into a specific figured world or recruited into it, they may also be

excluded from certain figured worlds, due to their lack of the required rank or position, or

exclude outsiders from their own. We may participate fully in a figured world and reach a rank

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of prestige or power within it, or participate only briefly and marginally as members of a

figured world.

Holland et al. state refer to figured worlds as as if realms, as sites of possibility and

becoming offering participants potential agency, constructed in part on narratives used

prescriptively by participants, or as frames of reference used to interpret acts, individuals and

incidents. However, they are also a social reality mediated by relations of power carried out as

social processes, activity and practices in real time within the physical world.

Identity

The creation of identity is intimately connected to and dependent on the various

figured worlds in which the individual participates (Holland et al., 1998). Holland et al. (1998)

explain that identity is created when people tell others who they are, but even more important,

[when] they tell themselves and then try to act as though they are who they say they are (p.3).

They argue that these self-understandings, especially those with strong emotional resonance

for the teller, are what we refer to as identities. (p. 3). Because people live and participate

simultaneously in several figured worlds, each with its specific relationships between persons,

practices and resources, they also have multiple and shifting identities depending on the

context. Thus, the identity taken on in one figured world is constantly shifting when the

individual move into another figured world, or even within the same figured world, and the

participants are thus required to continuously renegotiate them (Holland et al., 1998; Holland

& Lave, 2001). These identities are simultaneously influenced and mediated by the specific

resources and practices within that community, and by the agency of the people within the

figured world. Certain tools and resources present within a figured world can both enable and

hinder a persons identitary development. Dagenais, Day & Toohey (2006) explain, that

access to certain resources (say, a standard variety of a language), for example, enables

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persons who have access to them to claim certain identities, and thus to engage in particular

practices, but this access may also constrain a persons claim to other sorts of identities and

legitimacy to participate in other practices. (p. 206). Thus, identity is a cultural phenomenon

that is co-constructed in a dialogic process between the individual and the various figured

worlds she inhabits. They way identities are understood and the ways their meanings change

over time are life-long processes.

The process of self-making identity in relation to a figured world can be both a

conceptual and a material process (Holland et al., 1998) because

conceptually, figured worlds provide the contexts of meanings for concepts of

domains of action, for artifacts, and for action (behavior) and for peoples

understandings of themselves [] Materially, people enact every day performances of

these senses of self and these performances in turn constantiate relative positions of

influence and prestige in and across figured worlds. (Urrieta, 2007, p. 110).

Identities formed in figured worlds are multiple, because trajectories through figured worlds

neither take one path nor remain in the ambit of one cultural space, one figured world

(Holland et al., 1998, p. 65).

Examining identity through the lens of figured worlds affords the possibility to

understand the way in which identity is formed both within and in relation to social, historical

and cultural forces, in addition to the possibility to better understand the role played by

individual agency in this process (Morgan, 2008).

Positionality

Figured worlds thus offer a context within which social relationships are formed and

where identities are developed. This capability links figured worlds to another concept relevant

for the production of social and personal identities: that of positionality. Positionality designate

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the various positions assigned to members of a figured world, and differs from figuration in

that it refers specifically to our reactions to the various positions offered to us, which can be

accepted, rejected or negotiated, rather than the active construction of self (Urrieta, 2007).

Thus, within the figured world people simultaneously create identity through participation in

the activities that occur within the figured world, and through the acceptance or rejection of

the way they are being positioned by other people outside of or within the figured world.

Artifacts

Holland et al. underline the importance of artifacts within the figured worlds, because they are

the means by which figured worlds are evoked, collectively developed, individually learned,

and made socially and personally powerful (1998, p. 61). Artifacts are tools and objects, and

can be material, verbal or gestual. Some are concrete, such as the AA tokens symbolizing the

time passed since a member last had a drink, others are abstract, such as a pronoun used to

designate a spouse. Their meaning and value can be apparent to everybody, whether or not

they are members of a specific figured world, such as a flag or a cross, or opaque to outsiders,

such as gang signs. Finally, the same artifact can have different meaning and values in different

figured worlds, such as the poker chips representing money within the figured world of poker

and sobriety in AA.

The members of a figured world are both products and creators of culture, and in this

latter role, the production and appropriation of artifacts is fundamental. Artifacts both form

and are formed by the figured world. Holland et al. explain, that artifacts are pivotal because

they carry with the capability to open up the figured world by altering the perceptual,

cognitive, affective, and practical frame of activity (Holland et al., 1998, p. 63). By virtue of

being connected to figured worlds the cultural artifacts become powerful and significant for

humans. Lamination

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 In her analysis of how students in a mathematic classroom switches between two

simultaneous figured worlds: one being the traditional classroom environment, and the other

the imaginary world of creating a research station on Antarctica, Jurow (2005) uses Goffmans

(1974) theory of the lamination of cultural frames. Cultural frames are principles of

organization which govern eventsand our subjective involvement in them (Goffman, 1974,

p. 10 -11). These frames are specific to a given culture and shared socially. They help us

organize and interpret an experience. When several cultural frames are simultaneously

activated Goffman calls this the lamination of cultural frames. Analyzing whether or not several

cultural frames are laminated within a specific context allows the researcher to determine if an

individual engage with multiple figured worlds simultaneously or consequentially (Jurow

2005).

Previous Studies

Holland et al. have used the concept of figured worlds to analyze, among other things, critical

song writing and singing by Nepalese women, the way in which members in Alcoholics

Anonymous use story telling as a means of identity formation, and the world of romance of

Southern college women.

Other researchers have expanded the use of the concept of figured world to studying

identity, agency, and contexts in education. These studies roughly fall into one of three

categories, depending on the focus of the study (Urrieta, 2007). One category includes studies

examining identity production and positioning of minority students in the classroom (Leander,

2002; Wortham, 2004; Urrieta, 2006). Other researchers have used the concept of figured

worlds in order to examine sociocultural constructs in education, such as the meaning of

literacy practices in the figured worlds of school, family, and work (Luttrell and Parker 2001).

Bartlett (2007) studies the use of artifacts by Brazilian emerging literate adults and Hatt (2007)

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studies urban youths conceptions of the various figured worlds in which being streetsmart

versus being booksmart is being valued. Finally, a third category of educational research using

the concept of figured worlds is made up of studies examining a specific type educational

context and its importance to the creation of student identities and attitudes. For example,

Boaler and Greeno (2000) show how the method used for learning mathematics in the

classroom influence the learners attitudes toward the subject. Dagenais, Day, & Toohey

(2006) examine how adult actors within a figured world of multilingual students assign

meaning to one students behaviors and thus position her identity differently depending on

their own position within the figured world, and Jurow (2005) analyze how students move

between two different figured worlds present in a mathematics classroom and on how they

position themselves relative to these figured worlds.

My study falls into this third category, and is closest thematically to Jurows research of

the lamination of figured worlds. However, my proposed study differs from Jurows by

exploring specifically of what happens when the two figured worlds, between which the

students move throughout the school day, are vastly different and sometimes even

contradictory in their production of meaning and value, their use of artifacts, and so forth. I

am interested in how students construct identity based on mutually exclusive figured worlds.

The concept of figured worlds is useful in the study of the type of learning environment

I am interested in because it allows for the simultaneous analysis of how students position

themselves in these two opposing learning environments, thus allowing for a comparison of

the two. Given that the theory posits that identities are not static, but dynamic, constructed in

dialectic dialogue with the figured world, it allows me to determine the influence of each

figured world on the identity of the students within each environment. Finally, the concept of

figured worlds is ideally suited to examine what the students active engagement in activities

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and use of artifacts belonging to on or the other figured world reveal about their positioning

relative to that figured world.

Program Design

My study will explore how the EFAC students their identity by positioning themselves

relative to the two figured worlds. Specifically, I will analyze the degree to which they accept

or reject the accept the way their identities are positioned by others, as evidenced by their

choices relative to the use of specific practices and artifacts. One type of artifact of particular

interest for my study is that of discourses. Indeed, Urrieta states that discourses become

artifacts of identities in a general sense and manifest locally as the language of these identities

figured worlds (2007, p. 120). In this particular case, each figured world is identified by the

use of a specific language, French in the case of the EFAC learning context, and English in

the case of ALES, and all of the EFAC students are fluent in both. Thus, their choice of which

language to use with their bilingual peers must be dependant on other factors than linguistic

competence.

Holland et al. state that discourses are a type of artifacts that derive from a locus

outside of the figured world. However, they are imposed upon people, through recurrent

treatments and within interaction, to the point that they become self-administered (1998, p.

62). I believe the students choice of language in a non-structured setting (meaning in informal

conversation between students outside of the teachers direct supervision) are indicative of the

students willingness or refusal to take on a specific identity linked to one of the two figured

worlds. Using Gees (2013) definition of Discourses, focusing on the way in which language

is combines with other social practices, such as values, behavior, ways of thinking, and so forth

in a specific group, I would like to explore if the recurrent treatments andinteraction in a

specific language has indeed let to the discourse being self-administered by the students. In

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other words, has the mandated use of French in the French program led the students to

internalize the use of the French language, and consider themselves as bilingual learners,

equally willing to express themselves in French and in English, or do they resist this process?

Do they favor the use of the French or English language, use both interchangeably depending

on the context, or mix them within the same figured world? Do they consider one or both

languages equally valid artifacts that allow them to mediate their thoughts and feelings and

their developing identity, or do they favor one over the other?

I am also interested in studying whether or not the students spontaneously choose to

engage in specific activities, using tools linked exclusively to one of the two figured worlds, if

they engage in activities using tools from both figured worlds by laminating them, or if the

alternate their use of tools taken from either figured world, thus passing seamlessly between

them.

Method

I will base my study on the Grounded Theory approach (Glaser & Straus, 1967), aimed at

generating theory that can explain how a particular aspect of the social world functions. In

accordance with this approach, I will identify concepts, processes and structures relevant to

the understanding of the students positioning within and affiliation with a specific figured

world. The structures relevant in this case are the students acceptance or rejection of one or

both of the figured worlds present in their school environment, as well as of the tools and

artifacts that are part of each figured world.

I intend to base my study on a group of third grade (CE2 in the French system) EFAC

students, consisting of four boys and three girls, in a comparative study of their behaviors in

the figured worlds of EFAC and ALES for two hours per day over the course of two months.

The observation will occur via direct observation in classes in mathematics and during recess.

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The data will be collected via video recordings, field notes and sample student work. In

addition, I will conduct in-depth interviews with the students in an effort to corroborate or

disprove the conclusions drawn from direct observations.

The reason I have chosen third grade math classes is that the French and American

curricula for third grade cover roughly the same material at the same time, but teach and

promote different techniques for solving the various math problems. For example, both

curricula share the goal of teaching the students to multiply two two-digit numbers using pen

and paper, but the techniques they teach for doing so differ. The teachers in the respective

figured world insist on the students use of the specific method mandated in that classroom,

and the students are reprimanded if they use a method different from the one taught.

In accordance with Holland et als (1998) conclusion that that identity is performed

rather than passive and constantly negotiated, I hypothesize that a students choice to

consistently favor techniques from one figured world for solving math problems over

techniques from the other is indicative of her willingness to affiliate herself with a specific

cultural identity supported in each figured world. Using techniques to the same extent from

each figured world, on the other hand, would indicate that the student affiliates herself equally

with both figured worlds. If this is the case I would deepen the analysis in order to determine

if the choice of computational method is dependant on the context, or if the student laminates

the two figured worlds by using methods linked to both worlds simultaneously.

The other activity I am interested in observing is EFAC students interaction with

bilingual peers during recess. My goal in observing the students during recess is to determine

which language they chose to use in their non-structured interactions with bilingual peers in a

situation where they are in a neutral space, the playground, linked to both figured worlds, and

out of teacher supervision. It is my contention that their choice of language is a cultural artifact

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in Holland et als sense of the word, and as such indicative of the figured world with which

they identify to the largest degree. There is also the possibility that the students employ code-

switching, meaning the switching between the two languages, which might indicate that they

create a hybrid bilingual and bicultural identity containing elements from both figured worlds,

thus laminating them by carrying one artifact over to a different figured world.

In order to confirm or disprove my theory of the link between the students choice of

method for solving math problem and of which language to use on one hand, and their

identification with one or both figured worlds on the other, I intend to perform interviews

with the students. I will ask the students to describe themselves in terms of cultural affiliation,

whether they consider themselves as French, American, or both. I would also like to ask them

about their preferences for which methods to use in math class, which language they prefer to

speak during recess, in class and at home, and whether or not they see their participation in a

dual language program as an asset, or as troublesome for any reason. In addition, I am

interested in asking them about whether or not they would have enrolled in a bilingual or

monolingual program had the decision been left entirely up to them. Finally, I would like to

know whether or not their preferences for the use of a specific language and calculation

method are respected by their teachers, and how they feel if they are not, to get a sense for

whether or not they accept or reject others positioning of them within the figured worlds.

These interviews aim at determining how the students position themselves relative to

the French and American educational figured worlds, and their feeling of their parents and

teachers positioning of them as French, American or bilingual and bicultural students. In

analyzing the video material and the students written school work I am also interested in

identifying potential direct references to their willingness or resistance to engage in one or the

other of the figured worlds and its activities and artifacts. Bartlett and Holland (2002, p. 14)

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has pointed out that while social positioning [] generally remains out of awareness, semiotic

mediation through cultural artifacts offers one means of acquiring some voluntary control

over ones thoughts, feelings, and actions. Therefore, I believe that an examination of the

students use of artifacts and activities is a better indication of their affiliations with the two

figured worlds than their answers to direct questions of their cultural affiliation. However, I

believe the interviews may serve as a way to check the relevance of the observations made

during math class and recess.

Conclusion

In his review of collaboration in pedagogical discourse, Donato (2004, p. 296) signals

that some classroom practices create hierarchies between teachers and students and

disaffiliations among student groups. In my analysis of selected classroom practices of each

of the two figured worlds, such as, for example the strict adherence to specific computational

techniques, or related to the prescribed use of the right language in the classroom, I wish to

determine whether or not the outcomes of these interactions are the creation of such

hierarchies among the students, or between students and professors. The EFAC students are

in a rather unique position in that they are simultaneously enrolled in two parallel and distinct

learning environments. I believe that a study of this particular environment, and an

investigation of the students willingness or refusal to be positioned sometimes as American,

English speakers, sometimes as French monolinguals, but never as both simultaneously can

tell us much about the way in which young people react in a situation where their multiple

cultural affiliations are presented as mutually exclusive.

It is my hope that my study will provide part of the answer to whether or not Ecco

was right in stating the world views are incapable of conceiving of other worlds views, other

than to criticize them, and if indeed figured worlds are ontological obstacles in intercultural

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relations (Clammer, Poirier & Schwimmer, 2004) as the title of a book on the often difficult

cohabitation of different ethnic groups within the same territories suggests.

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