Discourses of Remediation: Low-Income Students and Academic Identities

Abstract

This article draws on the framework of new literacy studies (Gee, 1996, 2005) to explore remedial students’ academic identities. The authors use discourse analysis to examine students’ written assignments from one remedial summer bridge course. Student-written assignments include themes and rhetorical devices that suggest the complexities of negotiating academic identities. In particular, low-income student participants express uncertainty about their academic selves. The authors offer this framework as one means of further exploring remedial student experiences.