“Les gens qui vous ressemblent”: Discursive Negotiation of Identity and Construction of Affiliation in the 2019 Canadian Federal Election Party Leader Debates

In the weeks leading up to the Canadian federal election, federal party leaders seek to appeal to a crucial part of the electorate - Québec voters, most of whom are of French-Canadian background - through a series of televised debates. As party leaders engage in discourse aimed at creating proximity with and enacting an affiliative stance toward these voters, the debates become a platform for discursive negotiation of Québec identity, in which identity stances and narratives are reflected, reproduced, and challenged. This study examines a corpus of party leaders’ discourse as these political actors interactively negotiate Québec identity during three party leader debates in the 2019 federal election. Following the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, the inquiry discusses the following aspects of the party leaders’ discourse: discursive representation of Quebecers’ group identity and self-positioning with respect to that identity, use of symbolic lexis and references that signal attachment to the French-Canadian majority’s collective memory, and self-positioning with respect to the French language. In addition, the discussion addresses implications of the bilingual nature of political discourse in the Canadian context, focusing on party leaders’ use of code-switching and metapragmatic commentary. Crucially, the study’s conclusions suggest that a shared vision of Québec identity has not yet been widely ratified. While the party leaders’ discourse appears largely felicitous with the inclusive, civic vision of Québec identity, the study’s findings point to continued primacy of the French-Canadian fact in its current conceptualization.

Negotiating Identity Within Diverse Educational Ideologies

We know that teachers’ identities and their ideological assumptions of teaching and learning mathematics are critical in influencing their teaching and thinking about classroom practices. To better understand prospective mathematics teachers’ identity during teacher education, this study investigates how two participants negotiate their identity within the different ideologies they experience during their teacher education program. This study takes the position that prospective mathematics teachers’ identities are understood in terms of the narratives they construct and tell about themselves and others. By using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study reveals that the participants either experienced a non-negotiation of identity or a negotiation of a new identity. We know that prospective mathematics schoolteacher’s identity and ideology have substantial consequences for the teaching and learning of mathematics. The educational ideology of mathematics, within the context of their teacher education program, can further shape the prospective teacher’s identity about the discipline. This study suggests greater focus on prospective mathematics teacher identities and ideologies and indicates the support they need through teacher education to be equipped for their future role as mathematics teachers.

Citizenship acts: queer migrants and the negotiation of identity and belonging at Toronto Pride Week 2009.

The broader goal of this research is apply queer theory to the cultural narrative of migration in order to confuse, destabilize and complicate our pre-conceived notions about what it means to “belong” to a given community of society, what it means to cross borders, and what it means to be(come) “Canadian”. Drawing on the notion of “cultural citizenship”, this research will focus on the politics of belonging that are embedded in the spectacle of Toronto Pride Week 2009, as a prominent site of negotiation for queer migrant identities. In order to get at a more nuanced and complicated understanding of integration, this research will also be centered around the subjective life experience of Luka, a queer migrant who is also a performer at Pride Week. Luka’s performance will be discussed as a liminal space, which points to multiple ambivalences, and thus acts to challenge the discourse of identity and belonging. Keywords: queer migrants, performative identity, cultural citizenship, Pride Week, Toronto.

Citizenship acts: queer migrants and the negotiation of identity and belonging at Toronto Pride Week 2009.

The broader goal of this research is apply queer theory to the cultural narrative of migration in order to confuse, destabilize and complicate our pre-conceived notions about what it means to “belong” to a given community of society, what it means to cross borders, and what it means to be(come) “Canadian”. Drawing on the notion of “cultural citizenship”, this research will focus on the politics of belonging that are embedded in the spectacle of Toronto Pride Week 2009, as a prominent site of negotiation for queer migrant identities. In order to get at a more nuanced and complicated understanding of integration, this research will also be centered around the subjective life experience of Luka, a queer migrant who is also a performer at Pride Week. Luka’s performance will be discussed as a liminal space, which points to multiple ambivalences, and thus acts to challenge the discourse of identity and belonging. Keywords: queer migrants, performative identity, cultural citizenship, Pride Week, Toronto.

Political Activism Among Second Generation Tibetans in the 21st Century: The Construction and Negotiation of Identity in Transnational Social Spaces

While the majority of the studies have looked at transnational political activism among the first generation, it is clear that the experiences of the second generation is limited to a significant degree, especially in regards to the experiences of second generation Tibetan youth. Consequently, by drawing on the experiences of second generation Tibetan youth who attended the ‘March 10 political demonstration’ in Toronto, this study explores transnationalism and identity construction among the second generation within transnational social spaces. The findings of this study of six second generation Tibetan youths show that the second generation is highly selective in its transnational practices, as their level of participation is dependent on other commitment and responsibilities they may have in their personal lives. With regards to their identity, the findings indicate that they held both Tibetan and Canadian identities as they held hybrid, fluid, and situational identities that was based on having loyalties to both Canada and Tibet. Ultimately, this study reveals that the second generation are constantly negotiating their fluid and hybrid identities, as they are receiving different opposing ideas and information flows that allows them to connect with both their homeland in Tibet and Canada.

Political Activism Among Second Generation Tibetans in the 21st Century: The Construction and Negotiation of Identity in Transnational Social Spaces

While the majority of the studies have looked at transnational political activism among the first generation, it is clear that the experiences of the second generation is limited to a significant degree, especially in regards to the experiences of second generation Tibetan youth. Consequently, by drawing on the experiences of second generation Tibetan youth who attended the ‘March 10 political demonstration’ in Toronto, this study explores transnationalism and identity construction among the second generation within transnational social spaces. The findings of this study of six second generation Tibetan youths show that the second generation is highly selective in its transnational practices, as their level of participation is dependent on other commitment and responsibilities they may have in their personal lives. With regards to their identity, the findings indicate that they held both Tibetan and Canadian identities as they held hybrid, fluid, and situational identities that was based on having loyalties to both Canada and Tibet. Ultimately, this study reveals that the second generation are constantly negotiating their fluid and hybrid identities, as they are receiving different opposing ideas and information flows that allows them to connect with both their homeland in Tibet and Canada.

Being Muslim Immigrants in America: Preservation, Resistance, and Negotiation of Identity in Ayad Akhtar’s “American Dervish”

This thesis entitled ‘Being Muslim Immigrants in America: Preservation, Resistance, and Negotiation of Identity in Ayad Akhtar’s ‘American Dervish’ aims to analyze the depiction of Muslim immigrants identity in the context of diaspora. Through the lenses of Hall’s theory of identity and Clifford’s diaspora, the analysis centered on how the Muslim immigrant characters in the novel interacted with other individuals with diverse backgrounds of race, gender, and religion. This contributed towards the construction of identity through the preservation and resistance of homeland culture, dominant culture or host land culture and the negotiation between Muslim immigrants and their state and American society. Therefore, the Muslim immigrant characters in the novel hold a non-essential and fluid identity as portrayed from the perpetual construction of identity.

A Case Study for Culturally Responsive Teaching in Glodok, Jakarta, Indonesia: the Negotiation of Identity and Instruction for a Chinese-Indonesian Educator

This paper documents what culturally responsive teaching means for a teacher who is a member of a minority community of ethnic Chinese in Glodok (Chinatown), Jakarta, Indonesia. Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in Indonesia has traditionally meant implementing an indigenous, Javanese-centered curriculum where ethic Chinese identity was disparaged. The data collected in this study illustrates how an educator must negotiate identity and instruction of CRT to students of her own ethnic group with whom she does not share a cultural identity. The broader significance of this study is understanding how educators from marginalized or minority communities are vital to the creation of dialogue within the constructs of culturally responsive teaching. This study illustrates the necessity to not make assumptions that educators from culturally and linguistically diverse communities are naturally predisposed to engage in CRT; this reinforces the urgency that all teachers need proper training in order to effectively employ culturally responsive teaching regardless of ethnicity, race, or culture.