Learner agency in the construction of their identity in school discourses

Abstract

Using a mixed method approach, a case study and narrative inquiry approach, this study explored how learners exercised agency in the construction of their identity in school discourses. The study investigated different discourses that existed in schools and the meanings that learners attached to these discourses in their understanding of what it meant to be a learner at schools. Data capture incorporated a mix of survey and semi-structured interviews and a researcher journal. Data was analysed using content analysis. A total of 90 learners participated in the survey. Fifteen learners and three teachers participated in the semi-structured interviews. This study juxtaposed two theories: theory of power and theory of performativity to explore the construction of learner identity and exercise of agency. Findings of this study were threefold: First, schools had used Foucault’s mechanisms and instruments of constructing learner identity. Learners were subjected to a constant gaze at schools. Second, learners had used internal and external influences in their negotiation with school discourses. Their identities and agency was a product of these influences. Third, learners became agentic in schools and asserted their own identities. Some of these identities clashed with the identity of the ‘ideal learner’ of schools. Despite established subject positions in schools, learners created their own subject positions as they believed that the school was limiting and constraining their abilities. The study makes the following recommendation: Schools must be welcoming and accommodative of identities and discourses that learners bring to school.