Being, Doing, and Becoming: Textual Interpretations of Social Identity and a Case Study

Abstract

The study of social identity can unlock many features of local culture. This article presents a theoretical model of social identity as a pragmatic text iterated within routine social interaction. Identities are repeatedly claimed during social life as part of the pragmatic infrastructures through which humans interact. Qualitative researchers can study social identity through direct observations of social life and through encouraging participants to talk, in interviews, about a variety of activities in which they routinely take part. In the later stages of qualitative interview, paraphrasing and active listening responses may be appropriately used to discuss the self directly, but in terms still tied to contexts of daily activity. Subsequent analysis of identity claims must be theory guided, because of their tacit and textual properties. A case study of 20 high-achieving Hispanic students is used to illustrate our theory, and methodological implications are summa rized at the end of the article.