Most of us hold concurrent social identities? (consciously or unconsciously) based on socially constructed? catego

Most of us hold concurrent “social identities” (consciously or unconsciously) based on “socially constructed” categories: for example, on our personal and physical characteristics, our moral beliefs and values, on our ages, abilities, socioeconomic class backgrounds, and on our cultural, racial, ethnic, national, linguistic, sex, gender, sexual and affectional, and religious identifications. Sometimes these identities are ascribed to us by others (sometimes at our birth), and/or sometimes we self-identify, or these identities are achieved (throughout our lives). 1500 words.

Description of the Assignment: This assignment requires you to use yourself as a “text” to describe and analyze yourself from at least four specific vantage points. (NOTE: please include those layers of yourself that you feel comfortable sharing. Also, somewhere in your paper, include your Myers-Briggs Personality types and analyze whether you feel this personality inventory represents who you believe you are.) Myers-Briggs website: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

1. Body Identity: identify your physical description. How do you see YOURSELF

physically?

2. Social Identities: identify the external cultural norms/social meanings associated with yourself in terms of physical description, skin color, “race,” ethnicity, nationality, religion, linguistic background, sex assigned at birth, gender identity and expression, sexual identity/orientation, ability/disability, socioeconomic class background, age, and any other aspect of your identity for which you identify and would like to share. Include here your Myers-Briggs Personality Profile. Chart the trajectory of your coming to consciousness of your and other’s “race,” and other social identities like sex and gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual identity, socioeconomic class, linguistic background, nationality, ability/disability, and other identities.

Social identity

Male

Asian

Chinese

Free thinker

Male

Heterosexual

Upper middle class

3. Moral/Attitudinal/Affective Identity: identify your internal personal values and beliefs, the elements that comprise your personality and your character, and articulate how they do or do not align with your social identities. (Do others truly see YOU when they see you, or do they see something/someone else?)

4. Incorporate a description of your experiences as a student in P-12 schools (discuss what school was like for you generally). Then suggest how your social identities may have affected your understanding of cultural and individual diversity in schools.

Objective: Students will develop insight about the relationship between their collective (group memberships/identities) and individual identities. It will assist students in addressing Dr. Stephen Brookfield’s first phase of critical thinking, specifically to discover the assumptions that guide their decisions, actions, choices. (See “Critical Consciousness” discussion in your course syllabus, pages 13-14.)

Methods: To complete this assignment, you will need to step away from yourself and think about how others see you, how you see yourself, and critically evaluate the dis/connection(s) between the two. You will convert the information learned into an effective paper. How you present your “reading” of yourself is up to you. You must,