Mexican-origin adolescents' language and literacy practices as windows into identity (re)constructions

The purpose of this study was to examine how three bilingual adolescents used their academic and non-academic language and literacy practices to engage in identity (re)constructions and navigate both their school and non school worlds. Paradigms that understand language and literacy use as a purposeful social practice (Gee, 1996; Street, 1984), identity as a dynamic construct that is based on every day activity (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998), and the bidirectionality of the relationship between literacy and identity (McCarthey & Moje, 2002) were used to guide this study. Data were collected through participants observations, interviews, home visits, and informal conversations with three Mexican-origin seventh grade female students and their families both in school and at their homes. Data were analyzed inductively and recursively, with the theoretical frameworks used as lenses in the later stages of the process. The three Mexican-origin bilingual adolescent girls displayed a strategic and situational use of English and Spanish and a specific understanding of literacy that felt disconnected from but also accommodated to the literacy instruction offered at school. Through their particular language and literacy practices, these young women (re)constructed their school and non-school identities that they used to navigate the different social contexts in which they were living.