Students' Homage to Identity-Centered Learning
In modern pedagogy, student-centred approaches to teaching build the essential cornerstone for authentic learning. And especially in international schools, we want all learners to become genuine global citizens.
How can we sustainably amplify student-centred learning experiences in the classroom to ensure our teaching contributes to a genuine development of global competencies?
Identity-Centered Learning promises this transformative power to shift paradigms within and from there outside the school. Nurturing not only academic growth but also authentic global competencies it puts the identities of the individual student firmly at the centre of learning and teaching processes.
In the following, I highlight necessary core principles and practical applications and share real-life recordings of how my students experienced this ground-breaking method. Their stories provide tangible evidence of the identity-shaping influence and how they reflect on how it feels to foster inclusivity by sharing their learning outcomes.
Preparing for Identity-Centered Learning
Before delving into the transformative power of Identity-Centered Learning, planning a culturally responsive curriculum, putting ongoing effort into decolonising it, including its resources and surrounding systems, and creating inclusive linguistic and cultural material and assessments is a prerequisite. Embedded steps and strategies are required for educators and institutions to adopt ICL successfully. These processes are challenging and demand critical thinking and self-reflection, but they allow educators and institutions to overcome conservative, excluding paradigms that hinder necessary reforms.
Identity-Centered Learning Unveiled
ICL, therefore, shifts greers and amplifies student-centered practices to become fully effective. It goes beyond traditional pedagogical approaches to honour and celebrate students' unique identities, experiences, and voices. ICL recognises that the student's sense of self is central to their learning journey.
1. Empowerment through Authenticity
ICL places a premium on students' authentic selves. By recognising and acknowledging their identities, ICL creates a learning environment where students feel seen and heard. This empowerment is the foundation for self-directed Learning, a key element of student-centered pedagogy.
2. Tailored Learning Experiences
With ICL, the curriculum is not a one-size-fits-all affair. Educators craft learning experiences that align with the students' identities, interests, and passions. This tailored approach enables learners to explore and excel in areas they are truly passionate about.
3. Valuing and Learning from Diverse Perspectives
ICL also highlights the importance of diverse perspectives. By valuing each student's unique background, experiences, and cultural context, this approach encourages empathy and respect for others. It nurtures a broader, more profound understanding of global citizenship and supports students in taking risks to apply their global competencies actively.
The Golden Amplifier in Action
To illustrate the power of Identity-Centered Learning, my students volunteered to share their experience with this approach firsthand. Their voice recordings bring evidence of the transformative potential of ICL:
Example 1:
Here, the student speaks of how this approach helped her to explore personalised themes and artistically respond to her self-defined inquiry question, “How can creating scenic painting support and express my thoughts and identity relating to the LGBTQ+ community?” and explains how it motivated her to act in her community. She believes ICL has amplified her student agency and made her a more responsible global citizen.
Example 2:
In the second recording, the Ukrainian student reflects on how ICL impacted her artwork on canvas, responding to her individual inquiry question, “How has war shaped my identity?”. She talks about her journey in expressing her traumatised identity and how this has helped her act as a global citizen by displaying her insights into how war has shaped her identity. She believes her experiences with ICL have allowed her to reach a broader audience and make a difference in their understanding.
Example 3:
This student discusses the impact of ICL on her understanding of her Muslim identity in an international community. She recounts how his ICL experiences have led her to take the risk to share her evaluative artwork evoked from her personalised inquiry question, “How do I experience my Muslim identity in an international community?” She has expanded the audience's horizons and become a more informed and compassionate global citizen, including all learners at our school.
Institutional Responsibilities
Schools need cohesive systems to be regularly adapted to ensure a sustainable outcome of Identity-Centred Learning. Committing to a more personalised, inclusive, and equitable approach to education must be the priority.
1. Policies Alignment
Every educational policy must reflect the value and importance of ICL. Both need regular adjustments to be authentic and effectively determine processes and procedures. Even hiring policies benefit from this approach as only diversity among staff brings diversity to the preparing essentials of Identity-Centered Learning.
2. Community Involvement
Parents and communities also play a crucial role in fostering ICL. Encouraging dialogue and engagement between schools and local communities can ensure that ICL is embraced at all levels of education.
3. Teacher Training
Teachers must be equipped with the skills and knowledge to implement ICL effectively. Professional development and ongoing support are vital to ensure educators can navigate identity-centred education's complex landscape. It applies to more than just the arts, including language and literature classes. Teachers can apply its principles and concepts in any subject, as the planning phase requires a commitment to shifting paradigms that need to be surrendered in modern pedagogy as per principle.
4. Inclusive design
Interior and architecture must mirror inclusive practices to allow fair and equal access to the learning environment, conditions and experiences. Design is Expression, a creative service that often does not meet diverse needs because designers have little diversity and mandatory conservative norms do not allow adjustments. However, the demographics of our learners in schools and their needs and values change. As elaborated in "Breaking Hierarchies", students' creative input can shift mountains and help schools to develop more efficiently. Imagine it would be expected for architects and school leaders to ask students and teachers for ideas for their design needs. It wouldn't only enhance the inclusive quality of the environment; it could also increase the architects' efficiency.
Identity-Centered Learning, the Golden Amplifier of student-centred pedagogy, has the potential to transform education and mould students into authentic global citizens. By recognising and embracing students' unique identities, ICL paves the way for more inclusive, diverse, empathetic, and globally competent citizens.
As my students emphasized, this approach empowers them to excel academically and significantly impact the world. Their testimonials stress our obligation to continuously adjust our teaching to evolving identities to shape their learning experiences.
Sources
“Identity-Centered Learning”| Wickner, D.
Bantom, J. (2023). Design for Identity. How to Design Authentically for a Diverse World.
Cohen, Geoffrey L. (2023). Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides.
Mansilla, V.B., & Jackson, A. W. (2023). Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Students to Engage the World (2nd ed.).
Spencer, J., & Juliana, A. J. (2017). What Happens When Students Own Their Learning. Empower.