Roth y Erstad (2016)

Ethnography and Education
ISSN: 1745-7823 (Print) 1745-7831 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reae20
Positional identities in educational transitions:

connecting contemporary and future trajectories
among multiethnic girls
Solveig Roth & Ola Erstad
To cite this article: Solveig Roth & Ola Erstad (2016) Positional identities in educational
transitions: connecting contemporary and future trajectories among multiethnic girls,
Ethnography and Education, 11:1, 57-73, DOI: 10.1080/17457823.2015.1040044
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2015.1040044
Published online: 02 Jun 2015.
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Download by: [Laurentian University] Date: 23 April 2016, At: 01:39

Ethnography and Education, 2016
Vol. 11, No. 1, 5773, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2015.1040044
Positional identities in educational transitions: connecting

contemporary and future trajectories among multiethnic girls
Solveig Rotha* and Ola Erstadb
a
Department of Education and Natural Science, Hedmark University College, Elverum, Norway;
b
Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
The aim of this article is to study how young people view themselves as learners
within educational trajectories, as an alternative approach to todays emphasis on
Downloaded by [Laurentian University] at 01:39 23 April 2016
performance and standardisation. We study different learner positionings in transitions

from one level of schooling to another, using the analytic concepts of positional
identities and figured worlds. The ethnographic data were collected over a two-year
period as part of a large-scale ethnographic study in a suburban area of Oslo with a
large percentage of families with immigrant backgrounds. We focus on two girls (aged
15) who represent different educational trajectories and positional identities. Their
case histories illustrate how positional identities in educational transitions are a
complex web of formal and informal influences beyond school. The students
experience different trajectories and changes in positional identities as learners when
entering upper secondary school, which have implications for their future orientations.
Keywords: educational transitions; positional identities; figured worlds; gender
Introduction
The dominant educational discourse in many European countries during the last decade
has focused on performance, standardisation and quality indicators within key subject
domains according to international tests, especially Program for International Student
Assessment. However, other discourses draw attention to fundamental challenges such as
increasing dropout rates, disengaged students, greater student diversity and how twenty-
first-century skills and key competences challenge traditional emphasis on qualifications
within schools (Erstad 2013). These discourses and research initiatives seldom include or
refer to the students own experiences and opinions. In this article we are interested in
understanding students ways of positioning themselves as learners in educational
trajectories, both inside and outside of schools as well as over time (Rogoff and Lave
1984; Edwards, Biesta, and Thorpe 2009; Thomson 2009). One can study such learner
positionings in transitions from one level of schooling to another. Many researchers have
investigated such transitions in order to understand youths as they move from school to a
work context (du Bois-Reymond and Stauber 2005), and in view of broader issues related
to changes in contemporary societies (Tynjl, Stenstrm, and Saarnivaara 2012). Such
educational transitions involve personal development at certain key periods both before
and after the transition process, and may give rise to tensions when choices about the
future are taken. Our study explores transitions between lower and upper secondary
school as presenting possibilities for change and transformation in terms of students
*Corresponding author. Email: solveig.roth@hihm.no

2015 Taylor & Francis
This article has been amended since it was originally published. Please see Corrigendum (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457823.
2015.1061181).
58 S. Roth and O. Erstad
understanding of their own learner positions and future orientations. Changes in students
positional identities can inform us about how cultural and social practices relate to their
contexts and identity formation (Hull and Zacher 2007).
We define learners and their learning broadly, encompassing their social practices at
school and in their everyday lives that have implications for future educational
trajectories (Ludvigsen et al. 2011). We believe that the connection between learning
and identity is important because it specifies how learners engage in learning activities
across informal and formal settings (Barron 2006).
Our study uses the concept of positional identities (Holland et al. 1998) to
understand engagement in learning and transformations in students development as
learners. The research question informing our study is: How can learners positional
identities be understood, and how do such identities develop in educational transitions
from lower secondary to upper secondary school?
There is a renewed public interest in Norway about the ways girls with immigrant
parents construct their lives within their families and view educational possibilities (Kavli
and Nadim 2009). The ways these young girls experience educational transitions, in
which choices regarding the future begin to take shape, are important for future
educational planning.
The data presented here come from a large-scale ethnographic project conducted in a
multiethnic community, the Grorud Valley in Oslo, Norway. We use the case histories of
two girls from the same school class to investigate their different educational trajectories.
Important is the way they understand themselves and change positions as learners
regarding educational opportunities in the transition between schools. For one girl (Lien),
the transition results in new possibilities, while for the other girl (Amirtha), it limits her
future direction. The girls were chosen because their narratives represented different
perspectives on how learners positional identities develop across contexts, and how
educational transition is experienced as a complex web of formal and informal influences.
Positional identities during transitions

Our article focuses on both individual aspects and social interaction regarding positional
identities. Traditionally, the concept of positional identities explains how subjectivities
and identities are produced when people are cast in or called to particular positions (Moje
and Luke 2009), and explores commonplace episodes to clarify interactions and
discourses that involve people (Harr 2013). Here, our use of the concept of positional
identities is more in line with the ethnographic approach of Dorothy Holland and the way
that she links it to the concept of figured worlds (Holland et al. 1998).
Positional identities are understood as dynamic entities that are part of social
interactions between people within different contexts. Therefore, the formation of the
individuals and their understanding of themselves and their position as learners can take
place through social interaction. People might also have different positionings across
social contexts. This article investigates the interplay between the different positionings.
The challenge is that people might create different positionings that can change over time,
within and between social contexts.
Holland et al. (1998) argue that individuals inhabit many incoherent self-
understandings and changeable identities, positional or figured, embedded in specific
social contexts called figured worlds. These worlds are socially produced, culturally
constituted activities (4041) where people come to produce (perform) new self-
understandings (identities) both conceptually (cognitively) and materially/procedurally.
Ethnography and Education 59
Furthermore, identity is not bound by prescribed categories such as gender or ethnicity; it

is negotiated and socially produced in situ. Similarly, Urrieta specifies that figured worlds
are socially organised and performed [;] they are dependent on interaction and peoples
intersubjectivity for perpetuation. In them, people figure how to relate to one another
over time and across different time/place/space contexts. (2007a, 109)
Therefore, in figured worlds people figure who they are and produce personal and
social identities through negotiation of positional identities. Positioning refers to the
positions offered to people in different figured worlds, e.g., being a quiet or noisy
student in the figured world of school. Positioning is an analytically separable counterpart
to figuration; when positioned, people engage less in self-making, instead focusing on
accepting, rejecting or negotiating the provided identities (Urrieta 2007a, 111). According
to Holland and Leander (2004), positioning can reveal how social interactions contribute
to the formation of persons as positions and sites of identity, and to their own
understanding of themselves.
In our analysis, the concepts of positional identities and figured worlds will be
used to analyse the tension between young peoples educational and everyday
possibilities and the constraints and expectations they experience through family, friends
and sociocultural norms. We are especially interested in identifying girls positional
identities when they move between their families figured worlds and those of others, and
in the impact on their understanding of their position as learners and their future
orientation. We investigate the interplay between their gendered positions and their
everyday practices and academic and occupational positions. Indeed, in using cultural
resources such as leisure interests in response to present positions of identity, people can
act upon past experiences to reform their identity as an act of the moment (Holland et al.
1998; Leander 2002; Wortham 2004; Luttrell and Parker 2001; Vgan 2011).
Thomsons (2009) investigation of gender identities and the constraints that shape
future possibilities is also relevant. Following the lives of four young persons over time,
Thomson highlights the significance of intergenerational obligations, conscious emotional
attachments and processes of social mobility. Thomson transformed long-term data from
temporal processes into theme-based, biographical case histories to highlight creative
ways of handling the changing demands of personal relationships, schooling, work and
play. This method-in-practice will be used to analyse how identity changes across
contexts and in temporal processes; in our study learners positional identities. We draw
on Thomsons model to organise mid-level data into theme-based case histories to
identify positional identity changes in social interactions across figured worlds and during
transitional phases.
Research context and methodology

The educational system in Norway has three different levels: primary, lower secondary
and upper secondary school. Primary school (ages 612) and lower secondary school
(ages 1316) are compulsory. Upper secondary school (ages 1618) is optional, although
over 95% of students enter upper secondary immediately after lower secondary school.
The notion of school for all is central to the Norwegian educational system,
reflecting the values of the Nordic welfare state model which provides Nordic countries
with a school system that promotes school for all regardless of background (Imsen and
Volckmar 2014). However, in Oslo, where we conducted our fieldwork, there is social
and economic inequality among school districts (Wiborg et al. 2011) because students
with similar socioe-conomic statuses tend to apply to the same schools.
We carried out our fieldwork in the Grorud Valley (130,000 inhabitants), which is a
multiethnic suburb in Oslo (600,000 inhabitants). Norwegian working-class families
originally populated the Grorud Valley, but since the 1970s many immigrant groups have
settled there. Many neighbourhoods populations are composed of more than 35%
immigrants some are up to 90%. Today, the immigrants1 in Norway comprise 15.6%
(804,965 people) of the population. A 253,483 are from Asia (including Turkey), 22,061
immigrants are Vietnamese and 14,087 are Indians. Statistics also show that 3 out of 10
immigrant students do not complete upper secondary/vocational school which is
significantly higher than the ethnic Norwegian students (Statistics Norway 2015).
Research also shows that immigrant girls have high educational aspirations in lower
secondary school, but they are in greater risk of experiencing the learning environment in
upper secondary school as less supportive. Decreasing well-being and academic self-
image may be because some start in upper secondary school with somewhat lower grades,
a decreasing friend network and less academic and social support from the teachers
(Hegna 2013). At a national-policy level, the Grorud Valley is targeted for studies of
transformations; it therefore provides a specific context for studying young peoples
views of their future possibilities in order to understand the needs and career trajectories
within the Norwegian education system (Ministry of Education and Research 2015).
An ethnographic approach
We used an ethnographic approach to explore learning trajectories and learners
understanding of themselves and their change of position across locations in a single
community.
The data presented here come from a large-scale research project titled Local
Literacies and Community Spaces: Investigating Transitions and Transfers in the
Learning Lives of Groruddalen (20092013).2 The fieldwork was conducted in two
neighbourhoods and in two 10th-grade classes (final year) in two lower secondary
schools in the Grorud Valley (Groruddalen). The students were aged 15/16 at the
beginning (2011) of the two-year fieldwork. These two schools were chosen from
the seven that participated in the main project. One class from each school was sampled.
The students represented a variety of ethnic groups. Ten female students were randomly
selected for the study presented in this article since we were particularly interested in
identifying girls positional identities when moving between different figured worlds.
Two girls born in Norway (from the group of 10 female students) with immigrant parents
were chosen because their narratives represented different perspectives on how learners
positional identities develop across contexts and on how they defined future directions.
The research started in the classroom. We did not ask if we could choose some
students as participants until we first had spent time building relationships, which
demanded a continuous ethical and critical awareness on our part. The ethical challenge
consisted mainly of gaining the girls and their families trust so that they would talk
freely. Our impression was that the girls and the parents were quite eager to talk about
growing up, their communities and education. None of the informants withdrew from the
project. The informants needed their parents written approval for involvement in the
project. All the students in the two classes received information about the research topics,
which concerned family history; the significance of moving to Norway; everyday
activities with family and peers; their own understanding of their position as learners; and
their relationship to formal learning and future plans. The subsequent interviews
elaborated recursively on the research topics from the first interview.
The data were collected using participant observation in lower secondary school and
one theme-based formal interview with known topics that lasted one hour. Furthermore,
participant observations and several open-ended interviews, at home and during leisure
activities, were conducted before and after the transition to upper secondary schools. The
informants were always allowed to introduce own topics. In the formal interview, a
separate interview room was available, and everything was recorded (audio). All the
participants were interviewed at the beginning of the 10th grade; a second time before
they made decisions about the next level of schooling; and a third time after they had
entered a new level of schooling. All interviews were recorded.
The data material used in this article is based on several interviews and field notes
before and after the transition to upper secondary school (see Table 1).
The interviews were used to gather data on the girls own understandings of their
everyday learning, positioning and identity construction. Our interpretation of the girls
own positioning across context was collected in field notes. Hence, the combination of
participant observation and interviews allowed each method to enrich the other (cf.
Holland et al. 1998). The participant observations in the community provided insight into
the practices, habits, activities and meaning making of the participants in educational
transitions. The interviews and field notes from the participation observations of Amirtha
and Lien provided the data-set for this article.
Biographic methods: creating case histories of identity in process

In order to analyse how Amirtha and Lien viewed themselves as learners and changed
position in educational transitions, we draw on Thomsons (2009) longitudinal biograph-
ical method-in-practice to create case history narratives (cf. Clandinin and Connelly
2006; Bruner 1986). The method is useful to approach individual learning trajectories in
social practice (cf. Sawyer 2006), important rich points (Spradley 1979), and tensions
and future possibilities in temporal themes. In the field of biographical research, the life
story is the data while the life history is the analytic story that is ultimately told, drawing
on a range of data sources. According to Thomson a rich data-set only becomes a
narrative through emplotment; researchers must negotiate many events and one story,
discordance and concordance and different senses of time. Therefore, Thomson uses the
term case history to reflect the transformation of the raw data through emplotment.
We draw on Thomsons method in our decisions to use a small number of cases, to
use individual life histories to present the individual data-set and to explore questions
about change of learners positional identities in social processes (in figured worlds). In
this way we can represent and interpret the girls own stories and capture the personal
dimensions of experiences as they are interrelated across social and cultural contexts and
over time. This approach can show how social interactions and positional identities, as
interrelated practices, are connected to the capacity to adapt to changing roles within
different contexts and over time. Hence, we could take account of the relationship
between biographic aspects and contexts linked to the young girls understanding of
themselves and their change of position as learners within and across figured worlds to
understand how they construct futures (Holland et al. 1998). The resulting thematic cases
reflected a transformation of the data-set through an emplotment reflecting the
participants positioning over time. These cases visualised the relationship between an
individuals account of self and different arenas of life reflecting the cultural practices of
family and friends, as well as their position as learners and their future direction in
educational transitions.
62
S. Roth and O. Erstad
Table 1. Timing of the different methods.
Time End 2011 Spring 2012 Fall 2012 Fall 2013
School Lower Lower Lower T Upper secondary 1st grade Upper secondary 2nd Upper secondary 2nd
secondary 10th secondary 10th secondary 10th R grade grade
grade grade grade A
Participants Amirtha/Lien Amirtha/Lien Amirtha/Lien N Amirtha/Lien Lien Amirtha/Lien
Data type Field notes 1 Formal Field notes 2 S Field notes 3 Field notes 4 Participation Field notes 5 Participation
and Participation interview 1 Participation I Participation observation observation and open- observation and open-
methods observation in One hour observation in T and open-ended ended interviews in the ended interviews. Caf
school individual school I interviews. Bowling or Korean class visit with friends from
interview in O caf visit with friends 10th grade
study classes N from 10th grade
Transforming two-year data accounts consisting of interviews and field notes into
case histories entailed inductive identification of everyday learning and learners
positional identities themes. Further, analysis of the data accounts in later material
recalled earlier statements. The outcome of this stage of analysis was a series of analyses
of data accounts for a single individual. The second stage entailed moving from the
component parts towards the recreation of a whole in the form of an analytic narrative.
Analysing learning trajectories across contexts over time visualises how the non-
academic factors encountered in everyday practices influence positional identities and future
orientations. Further, it demonstrates how cultural practices are shared and used as resources
that play a role in changes of the positional identities. The way we analyse the cases
documents how educational transitions open or close future options for these two girls. The
cases are written in the past tense to show that each description was based on a situated
observation; they are not intended to serve as timeless truths (Gutierrez and Rogoff 2003).
Trajectories of two girls: Lien and Amirtha

The following data relates to two young girls born in Norway to immigrant parents from
Vietnam (Lien) and India (Amirtha). Both Liens and Amirthas parents arrived in
Norway in the 1970s as refugees. The narrative trajectories focus on the girls
understanding and change of learner positioning in the transition from lower secondary
to upper secondary school.
Liens case
Our first impression of Lien (Field notes, end 2011) was that she was a quiet and
discontented student with below-average grades. However, Lien changed her positioning as
a learner into a self-assured and motivated student during our fieldwork. At the beginning,
Lien described her everyday routine as consisting of school, homework, taking care of
siblings and hanging out with friends. She did not participate in organised leisure activities,
but she enjoyed reading books, particularly the Twilight series and crime stories. Liens
family history boat refugees from Vietnam was a strong narrative in her life:
L: My uncle was a boat refugee. He came to Norway and went to school here; he got a
certificate of apprenticeship, and then he helped my mother to come to Norway. My mum
says that my father stopped her educational plans when she married [] My mother warns
me that I should not marry too early [].
I: How do your parents motivate you to do your schoolwork?
L: They come up with speeches like You can choose whatever you want to be []
Sometimes they boast about Ann [her best friend] and I lose my self-confidence as a
learner.
I: What is more important for your parents, your duties at home or schoolwork?
L: If I have a lot of homework, they think I should prioritise that. They argue that I should
use the possibilities that life offers to climb the social ladder. (Interview 1, Spring 2012)
It is interesting to see how Lien understood how her mother positioned her; it was
important to postpone marriage and family life and to focus on education. Lien accepted
the need to concentrate on her education without any strict gendered focus, although she
indicated that there were some academic and social tensions connected to her educational
ambitions.
Lien explained that after the transition from primary to lower secondary school (at 13
years of age), she was placed in a different class than her best friend Ann. Lien said she
felt lonely and social insecure in the new class:
L: It is complicated, because our class is divided into two groups, the noisy and the quiet.
I am in the quiet group [] You get a lot of attention if you stay with the noisy group. []
Three of the boys, they bully the weaker ones []
I: So, these boys, they decide the class rules in a way?
L: They do not want to intimidate a boy, so they pick a girl. It makes them feel strong.
I: And that is why you refuse to speak in class?
L: Yes. (Interview 1, Spring 2012)
Without Ann Lien does not seem to handle the social challenges in class. We can see that
Lien analysed the power relations in the class in a gendered context: the boys chose to
harass the girls. She interprets her quietness and student position as a result of lack of
friends (Ann) to handle the behaviour of the boys.
Several of the field notes taken during the observations of Liens 10th-grade classes
indicated that she did not like to speak up in class and thus missed many of the social
interactions related to the subjects she liked, such as mathematics. This also affected her
grades negatively. The following field note gives an impression of the participation of
Lien and other students in classroom activities:
The subject is Norwegian. The class is reading an article out loud, in unison, from a
newspaper. When finished, the teacher summarises some of the difficult phrases in dialogue
with the students. The classroom interaction is a bit chaotic. The teacher both tries to silence
the class and to encourage them to explain concepts. Marjan, Amirtha, Ndey, Tariq, Bjrn
and Mohammad, discuss the meaning of difficult concepts with the teacher. Some of the
others are constantly talking to classmates during the session. About half of the class is silent.
The quiet group is the same as usual, except for Bjrn, an ethnic Norwegian boy who is
frequently given the responsibility of explaining Norwegian phrases to the other students.
Hanne, Lien and Narnia sit, as usual, in total silence. Lien has hidden her face in her hands,
Narnia is completely quiet. (Field notes 2, Spring 2012)
It is obvious that Lien does not participate orally in the class. In the figured world of
school, we see how Lien takes the position of a quiet student who distances herself from
the noisy group, probably in order to protect herself socially.
Towards the end of their last year in lower secondary school, Lien, her friend Ann
and another schoolmate decided to work together to improve their grades. Ann, the best
student, helped the others. They aimed for a good inner-city upper secondary school.
Although Lien did her best, she struggled to improve and did not get the grades to
enter that school with her friends. Her new interest, Korean hip-hop, however, became
a rich point (cf. Spradley 1979). After that Lien began to take control of her learning
identity:
L: A friend of mine in the old class, Martin, you know him, the [Turkish-Norwegian] boy
with really good grades, introduced me to Korean pop music towards the end of tenth grade.
He showed me a k-hop music video and Korean drama series when we used the computers at
school. Martin showed me the style and how we can find things on YouTube. I was
immediately interested he likes emotional girl things. (Field notes 3, Fall 2012)
Lien said she started to participate in online Korean hip-hop blog communities and used
them as a source of inspiration. We can see that the introduction to Korean hip-hop and
popular culture had a fundamental impact on her. Soon she changed her educational
interests and improved her self-confidence as a learner.
Lien decided to apply for a programme with courses in the Korean language:
L: I decided to choose Korean as my second language in upper secondary school. That

subject is taught two evenings per week in a school on the other side of Oslo. I really like
this class. I have a lot of new friends in the Korean class. Their personalities are different
than mine [] I have a lot of fun with them. We go out to eat after school. (Field notes 3,
Fall 2012)
Lien spent much of her summer vacation exploring this new lifestyle, using the Internet
and preparing for the Korean language course:
L: I have browsed the Internet to watch and learn about the k-hop lifestyle. I have
downloaded a k-hop training program [] and an interesting Internet-based Korean language
course and practiced to level 3 before I entered the new Korean class. I got information about
this course from a blog I follow [] I have changed the way I dress and my hairstyle. It is
more like the k-hop style [] Nowadays I drink a lot of water and I am careful with my diet.
I have learned it from the k-hop lifestyle. This way of living is good for schoolwork as well.
(Field notes 3, Fall 2012)
Here we see how an important other (Martin) can shape engagement in a new figured
world that of Korean hip-hop. In this figured world it seems like Lien could share
cultural resources and explore a new social identity with other Korean hip-hop interested
young people. Using the blog community she communicated with people and she also
connected to a Korean hip-hop interested young girl in the new school. At the same time
as she socialised with Korean hip-hop friends Liens communication barrier in school was
overcome. The Korean hip-hop lifestyle helped her to improve in school and become
more confident as a learner.
Liens interest seemed to have a deep impact on defining her learning identity and on
her positional identity; it redirected her self-image and future educational ambitions
towards the Korean language and culture. However, in the beginning she was reticent
about the importance of this strong interest in k-hop and the Korean language. Later on
Lien reasoned that the lyrics gave her hope about how to reach her future educational
goals:
L: The hero, a young k-hop girl, has a song describing that she wanted to be a singer, and
following her dreams she made it. When she can do it, it can happen to me too. (Field notes
5, Fall 2013)
The cultural resources that Lien found in the Korean hip-hop artists lyrics encouraged
her to pursue her educational ambitions when she was not satisfied in school.
Our observations of Lien in her new Korean language class (Field notes, 4 Fall 2013)
showed her sitting in the front row of the classroom. During the teacher-guided classroom
dialogue, Lien signalled that she wanted to answer by raising her hand. She then gave her
answer, addressed questions to the teacher and smiled when she answered correctly. In
clear contrast to our observations of her one year earlier, she was actively participating in
class discussions. This was also evident when she commented on her new interest:
L: I have thought about this Korean language interest I like it because you become smart.
In the beginning we were 30 students, and one year later there are only 10 students left. It is
good for my head to learn difficult stuff. I think my brain develops.
The Korean interest also opened up new long-term plans and trajectories for Lien:
L: I want to stay one year in Korea as an exchange student to learn the language and the
culture perfectly. The plan was to do it this year but I did not manage it. I will do it in the
future. I have also started to think about chemistry after upper secondary school. (Field notes
5, Fall 2013)
Liens mother provided a future position and cultural practices, such as reading
Norwegian books and doing homework that promoted an academic future instead of
family commitments. Due to her difficult situation in lower secondary school, we can see
how Lien experienced this future position as challenging. However, we can see that Lien
wanted to succeed with her education. Her non-academic Korean hip-hop interest created
hope, confidence and future possibilities, and access to a social friendship blog
community with the thoughts and lyrics of confident Korean hip-hop role models. We
can see that Lien explored other positions than the quiet in her social interaction. Liens
positional identity as a learner underwent a positive change during her transition to upper
secondary school. She changed the description of herself from a quiet and unconfident
position in lower secondary to a confident position in upper secondary school.
Amirthas case
Our first impression of Amirtha (Field notes 1, end 2011) was that she was a hard-
working student with good grades. Amirthas father supported her educational trajectory.
Her daily routines included taking care of her little sister while her parents were at work.
Her sister was born with a disorder, which had a major impact on the family. Amirtha
usually spent the evenings doing homework, reading books, watching TV or using her
computer. Her friends were from her class and her familys ethnic network. However, her
big interest was playing chess. This interest had developed over many years; her father
had taught her how to play and had enrolled her in a chess club. She participated in
competitions at the local, regional or national level every weekend. Amirtha had several
books about chess, which she studied to improve her strategies for tournaments. She
explained her interest in chess:
A: And then I learned how to play, and when I get interested, I am the kind of person who
gets completely hooked, so I got completely hooked on chess [which] I was afraid of.
Because chess was not very popular, I did not tell anybody that I played chess. And then I
became better and better [], and then everybody knew []. People said, Why are you
embarrassed of playing chess? Today, I am not embarrassed at all. (Interview 1,
Spring 2012)
Amirtha said she felt a flow when she played; chess came to her naturally it was
easy to learn. She sounded confident when talking about chess and as a learner in chess
topics.
When we observed Amirtha in her 10th-grade classes, it became apparent that she
often participated in dialogues or asked for help in mathematics. Amirtha said she liked
the mathematics teacher because he cared for the students. Our observations showed
that chess was sometimes part of their discussions. Once, during a mathematics class, the
teacher and Amirtha discussed similarities between chess and mathematics:
Amirtha and Marjan signalled that they needed help and the teacher went down to the last
row where they were sitting. The teacher explained the topic, helping them solve the problem
themselves and asking Amirtha to try again. After a while, Amirtha and Marjan signalled that
they needed more help. This time the teacher used chess as a metaphor in the way he
explained how to solve the problem: You choose a pattern or series of moves in chess, and
you choose a pattern in this program. [] Marjan felt slightly left out of the conversation,
but Amirtha seemed engaged. (Field notes 2, Spring 2012)
The classroom observations showed how Amirthas mathematics teacher emphasised her
chess skills and positioned her accordingly in mathematics; we can see that it supported
her as an engaged learner. We can see that playing chess on a high level had given her
self-confidence, which was important for her as a learner.
Things started to change when Amirtha had to turn down an offer from an elite sports
college with a specialised chess programme. This became an important rich point (cf.
Spradley 1979) for Amirtha towards the end of lower secondary school. The school was
on the other side of Oslo, and Amirtha indicated that attending would have kept her from
taking care of her sister. Furthermore, she said that she had to stop playing in elite
competitions because her family could neither afford nor manage all the travelling
involved, and she said she did not feel confident travelling alone. Amirtha had to stop
playing in elite competitions and began to reduce her engagement in chess in order to
focus on school. However, the increased focus on education was not only for herself; she
regarded it as a way of providing for her family in the future, implying that she might stay
in the local community. Opportunities that had created engagement for her came to an
end. She elaborated on this as follows:
A: In India, girls become housewives. In my family, I am the only one can get a good job. It
is my duty to be responsible for my sister when my parents grow old. My educational project
is therefore important. I have no siblings who can help me. I do not question this. (Interview
1, Spring 2012)
As a consequence, Amirtha expressed ambivalence about her future and did not have
any clear plans. She said that her father not only pushed, sometimes too much, but also
helped her with homework and tried to teach her structured ways of working. She said
she wanted to do well, but she could not find the right inspiration. Participation
observation showed events where Amirtha asked her teacher how to improve her grades
in, e.g. English and Art these talks often resulted in the teachers telling Amirtha that
she should be happy with her grades. Amirtha explained that this was frustrating.
We can see that Amirtha understands that her future trajectory depends on getting
good grades.
In addition, her sisters disorder also impacted Amirthas positioning by introducing a
tension between different figured worlds that she has to negotiate between:
A: My mothers religious views got stronger due to this while my father started to question
our religion. It has made my father understand the Norwegian society better than my
mother. I follow my father; he is my hero. My sister belongs to my mother. I really love my
mother, but I feel that I am very different [] When my father lost faith in God, I did the
same; because Im daddys girl I follow him. I admire him. Thats why Im not a devoted
believer. I believe in God, but I dont follow all the rules. I believe religion is something that
somebody has invented. My mother she really believes and I hate it. But I really love my
mother, dont think anything else. (Interview 1, Spring 2012)
Diverging religious beliefs affected Amirthas future expectations. This rich point (cf.
Spradley 1979) led her parents to having different future expectations for Amirtha. This
also concerns future marriage:
I: Are there any conflicts that you are aware of?

A: I dont think so. We dont have too much Punjabi culture at home. I speak Norwegian, but
many of my friends have to speak Punjabi at home because they are to be married to a certain
person. I want to choose whom Im to marry []
I: You said you want to choose whom to marry?
A: My mother has always been against that. She has her views from India. It sounds like I
hate my mother, but I love her. She wants to choose my future husband. She married my
father without knowing who he was or anything. It was a good choice for them. Her brothers
arranged marriage is not so good, there is a lot of whining, but no relationship is perfect.
Obviously, arranged marriage is a 50/50 chance. (Interview 1, Spring 2012)
To learn and understand more about this positioning she borrowed books at the library
about related (multi)cultural topics. One novel was important:
A: My favourite is Thousand Splendid Suns [by Khaled Hosseini (2007)]. I have read it four
times. It is like India, forced marriages; you associate yourself with that story. The girl in the
story ends up with the wrong man. It could happen to me. I have to think about what I can do
[] I am not sure whether I want to marry or not in the future. Perhaps I just end up in a
partnership? (Interview 1, Spring 2012)
We can see that Amirtha thinks about marriage as a part of her future positioning and how
to deal with that in the present.
During the fall semester in the new upper secondary school, Amirtha said she felt
lonely and missed her friends. She experienced great dissatisfaction with the teachers in
the new school. During a caf visit in the community with some of her friends from the
old secondary school, it was clear that Amirtha was quieter than before. She played a
game on her iPhone and kept her eyes on the phone rather than on us. The other girls did
not comment on her silence.
The girls ate pizza, laughed and talked about news concerning their old classmates and
teachers. They also talked about their new schools and how they liked the new situation. []
At one point Amirtha was alone with me. She looked up from her iPhone and whispered, I
do not like my new school at all. I feel alone, I even feel alone here today because we are
students in different classes. Then Marjan returned and Amirtha went to the restroom. (Field
notes 3, Fall 2012)
Amirthas position as a confident learner seemed to have vanished. She said she had
discussed the social and academic challenges with her father. Together they decided that
if the situation did not improve during the first year in upper secondary school Amirtha
should start the second year in the local school where her friends from 10th grade studied.
Amirthas father did not particularly like the local school but she said he agreed to
the plan.
In the beginning of the second year in upper secondary school, Amirtha and Lien met
again:
The girls talked about their results and grades in different subjects and the program that they
had chosen this year. Lien had chosen general studies with natural science topics and was
happy with her results. [] Amirtha said she had changed from the natural science to the
social science program. She said to the others, I am not as smart as I thought I was. (Field
notes 5, Fall 2013)
Although Amirtha could still not say where she would be in five years time, she
emphasised that she wanted to study. Amirtha did not see herself leaving the local
community.
We see, essentially, that in the figured world of family, Amirtha was to be positioned
differently by her parents regarding her future and that these positions interrelated with
chess, marriage and education. Obviously, these different expectations created tensions,
and she had to negotiate between these future positions. Amirtha accepted the
breadwinner position that was being given to her. When Amirtha quit chess she lost a
substantial part of her friend network.
Amirthas positional identity as a learner underwent a somewhat negative trans-

formation during the transition to upper secondary school. She changed from a confident
student with high ambitions in lower secondary school to one who reconciled with her
fate after the transition to upper secondary school. Non-academic factors such as having
to quit her chess career, being positioned as good in chess and in school, feeling lack of
support from her teachers, and her loss of friends appear to have influenced the
transformation of her position as a learner. We can see that Amirtha gradually felt that she
lost control over her learning identity and changed the description of herself as a learner;
she felt less smart than in lower secondary school.
Nevertheless, we can see that the tensions regarding her future positions were used as
resources to initiate an understanding of gendered cultural practices that would explain
the offered future positions. Throughout the transition period Amirtha and her father
discussed her educational trajectory. Towards the end of the study we see that Amirtha
decided to choose the social science programme which was in line with her interests, it
made her think more positively about the future. Her decision was supported by her
father.
Discussion: connecting contemporary and future trajectories

Lien and Amirtha belonged to the same class and the same neighbourhood. They had
different ethnic backgrounds, but described similar family attitudes and practices related
to education; they were positioned towards a future education and to be breadwinners.
At the same time, out-of-school interests, like Korean hip-hop and chess, seemed to
play an important role in defining their learning identities. Their future family, academic
and provider positioning held uncertainty about whether to stay in or leave the local
community. Our main interest was how Lien and Amirtha positioned themselves as
learners across figured worlds (Holland et al. 1998) such as family, leisure interests and
friendships, and how they articulated cultural knowledge and practices in terms of
education and gendered future positions.
Tensions regarding confidence, friendship and social interactions across figured
worlds were crucial to Liens sense of self; although she felt disempowered at the outset
of this study, she gradually took control. Lien went from being positioned as quiet to
being capable of creating positive future educational orientation(s). Lien seemed to find
her family trajectories and narratives both inspiring and burdensome; she was positioned
to be good in school, but when she felt that she did not succeed, she felt she had perhaps
disappointed both herself and her parents. During the study, we saw how she negotiated
and found a position of comfort between these opposing positions. Although gender was
explicit in her family narrative, Lien focused on education without putting this position in
a gendered context. She developed as a person by taking responsibility for her own
learning based on the interplay of different cultural practices available to her, such as
family values, interest in popular culture and support for making her own choices. For
example, experiencing the cool image of Korean hip-hop girls gave her the possibility of
taking a confident position in contrast to her previous quiet position. These trajectories
inspired a future position outside the community.
Tensions regarding Amirthas confidence, family, friendships and social interactions
across figured worlds were important to her positional identities and affected how they
changed over time. She experienced an increased loss of control over her own decision-
making. Amirtha was positioned as a very good chess player, which positively impacted
her position in lower secondary school, but an important turning point was when Amirtha
had to quit chess because of her family situation. As a family practice, playing chess gave
her the ambition to pursue education. Without chess her self-conception as a learner
became less ambitious. Amirtha accepted the gendered family narrative that stressed
taking care of her family as well as the importance of education. By understanding the
tensions she faced regarding the different future positions assigned to her, she could not
find an educational trajectory that would meet both needs. Her trajectories inspired a
future position inside the community.
During the two-year duration of this study, Lien and Amirtha were both hesitant and
conscious about their developing senses of self. They showed an emerging sense of
reflexive autonomy. We can see how Amirtha strove to understand her gendered future
position and how Lien worked to position herself as a student towards a specific future
trajectory. Both narratives show the connection between cultural interests and positioning
as learners in a formal school context (Erstad and Sefton-Green 2013; Rogoff and Lave
1984; Edwards, Biesta, and Thorpe 2009; Thomson 2009). One of the girls (Lien)
managed to connect her interests to formal school topics, thus improving her self-
conception as a learner and her grades. The other girl (Amirtha) lost her connection to her
main interest and struggled with motivation, and her grades suffered.
These narratives illustrate the importance of non-academic cultural and social factors in
the development of positional identities. The use of positioning theory often implies that
the researcher follows people in different activities to document how they position
themselves as learners (Hall 2004; Hicks 2004; Holland and Leander 2004). In this article
we have shown how participant observation of young learners in their everyday lives can
shed light on how they experience certain contradictory positions as learners in figured
worlds such as the family or the school setting. The concept of figured worlds helps us
explore how young girls imagine their future selves while moving within and across those
positions. As shown in this article, the transition from lower to upper secondary school has
important implications for students positional identities as learners. This transition opened
up new possibilities for Lien, while closing some for Amirtha, and reconfigured the
figured worlds (Engle 2012) of both girls.
Our study reveals the impulses and interests in students orientations towards
learning, which can provide schools and families with insight into the educational
trajectories of learners, including how non-academic factors play a role in students
positioning as learners and how such trajectories can have different implications for
different learners. For example, the teachers in the two schooling levels were not aware of
the learning trajectories that Lien and Amirtha experienced in their transitions from
lower to upper secondary school. The teachers did not seem to be actively involved in
the everyday school life and in the way the girls positioned themselves as students. The
resulting implications for the two girls indicate that family practices, interests and
learning identity in school are important factors in decision-making and gendered
future-life direction. We can see that the girls had to navigate between different future
positionings in the home and between the learning identity and student positionings in
the school. Teachers can benefit from obtaining more knowledge about the different
positionings students may experience between home and school. For example, this
study shows that the lower and upper secondary schoolteachers, should map the
academic goals of the students, how the students can reach their goals and social well-
being factors in the classroom.
In an increased multiethnic society cultural practices and gendered positionings
may differ, students can therefore benefit from participating in school communities
that acknowledge and discuss differences in personal factors and cultural practices.
The students can then feel confident in the classroom situation and in their own
process of creating future trajectories. When teachers understand the relationship
between students levels of identity, interests and learning, they can help them to
connect contemporary histories from outside-of-school and future trajectories to gain
increased self-understanding and motivation in the process of reflecting on future
positioning.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Our use of the concept immigrant population is based on Statistics Norway (2015) and
describes persons who have either migrated to Norway or those who were born in Norway to
two immigrant parents.
2. This larger project consisted of three cohorts each with 20 students (cohort one from preschool
to 1st grade, cohort two from 10th grade to 1st year upper secondary school, and cohort three
from end of upper secondary school to higher education or work). The study presented here
focus on the data from cohort two (10 boys and 10 girls). The Project Leader is Professor Ola
Erstad.
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ISSN: 1745-7823 (Print) 1745-7831 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reae20

Positional identities in educational transitions:

Solveig Roth & Ola Erstad

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Download by: [Laurentian University] Date: 23 April 2016, At: 01:39

Positional identities in educational transitions: connecting

performance and standardisation. We study different learner positionings in transitions

*Corresponding author. Email: solveig.roth@hihm.no

Positional identities during transitions

Furthermore, identity is not bound by prescribed categories such as gender or ethnicity; it

Research context and methodology

Biographic methods: creating case histories of identity in process

Table 1. Timing of the different methods.

Time End 2011 Spring 2012 Fall 2012 Fall 2013

Trajectories of two girls: Lien and Amirtha

L: I decided to choose Korean as my second language in upper secondary school. That

I: Are there any conflicts that you are aware of?

Amirthas positional identity as a learner underwent a somewhat negative trans-

Discussion: connecting contemporary and future trajectories

Tidsskrift for ungdomsforskning [Journal of Youth Research] 13 (1): 4979.

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