My Learning and Identity Formation Through Social Groups

When I started studying Bracher’s Radical Pedagogy: Identity, Generativity, and Social Transformation (as listed on Chapters.ca), I was drawn to the ideas that he proposes related to self identity, how the need to be recognized motivates people, and how this allows people to learn in both positive and negative ways. As Bracher explains in great deal in chapter two (pg, 17-30), individuals’ actions are primarily motivated by the recognition and value others in their peer group and society place on those actions, which forms the individuals’ identity within those groups. This especially hit home for me, as I am lucky enough to have a group of friends that I have been close with since I was 11 years old. Although I knew that they played a very important role in my life, I never thought about them impacting my personal identity and how much their recognition has meant to my decisions over the years.

When I think back to when my friends and I were teenagers, we were always seeking validation from each other by  dressing a certain way that the others approved of, taking part in different activities or groups at school that were accepted as being “cool”, and so on. In terms of our scholarly learning, we all did very well in high school and, although I never thought of it this way before, the need to be recognized and accepted by our peers motivated us to keep up our grades so we’d continue to “fit in” with our peer group since that group formed so much of our identity. Huh.

Everyone wants to know, "Where do I fit in?"



Following high school, “the thing to do” was to go on to university and obtain a bachelor’s degree in something we were interested in. For one friend and I, that was a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Saint Mary’s University (SMU). Although I had considered going to Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), my friend convinced me that Halifax was the place for us and a four-year program (as opposed to the five-year program at MUN) would be a better option. So we lived together during our Undergraduate years and she molded many of my experiences at SMU, including working for the Students’ Association for three years (she prompted me to apply for a job with her when I just didn’t feel like it), and what my course schedule looked like for my first two years (we planned our schedules so we could be in classes together). Although I was a young adult learner at the time, it was much easier to decide to skip a class here and there if I had a friend who wanted to skip it with me. But this dynamic also benefitted my learning, since she helped me study for exams in the courses I lacked skills in and I helped her through the assignments and material in the classes she wasn’t as proficient in. As we learned through reading Wenger’s Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (as listed on Chapters.ca), we are all part of numerous communities of practice in our lives in which we learn from, add value to, and contribute to. This friend was a big part of my identity as a member of the Saint Mary’s University community of practice since we had many mutual friends, classmates, and co-workers. Without a doubt, my identity formation and learning during my Undergraduate degree would have been different if we hadn’t gone to university together.

Jump ahead to current day and I’m still very close with the group of friends I mentioned above, along with some great friends I’ve made along the way in Halifax. However, life continues to change for everyone and the majority of my girlfriends are now married, some with children. Talk about a shift in identity and being able to relate to each other!  As soon as my friends became engaged or pregnant, they started to become involved in new communities of practice and social groups based on their new life events. They learned many new things about the exciting life events they were experiencing, none of which I could relate to. Initially, when the wedding and baby boom started I felt somewhat overwhelmed just being on the outskirts, taking it all in. In hindsight, I can see how I was likely feeling beset, since the dynamics of the group were changing and I wasn’t sure where my place was anymore – My identity in a group I had been a part of for so long was threatened.  Now, however, I’ve become proficient in all-things weddings and babies, not because I have experienced those things myself, but because I have learned so much from being with my friends as they go through them. Much of the group conversation now trends towards house purchasing, wedding planning, pregnancy, and babies. So, as a learner in my major social groups, I’m becoming well informed (and prepared?) by my friends passing along what they consider culturally important information on how to improve these processes or tasks in the future. As we know from Tomasello (as listed on Chapters.ca), this is an important part of human cultural transmission. 

Here I am with the girls I grew up with on Canada Day in 2006. Since then, we've added four (soon-to-be five) husbands and two (soon-to-be six) children to our community of practice.

By reading about the impact social groups have on identity formation and internalizing it from my own life’s perspective, I have a much greater appreciation of where others may be coming from in a scholarly, social, or workplace setting. It’s helpful to know that everyone we encounter has many different factors that impact their identity and in turn influences their behavior, a very important factor being the social groups they are a part of.