Week 12 Student Dev Paper

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University of Southern California *

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687

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Philosophy

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Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by EarlBeaverMaster989

Running head: CASE STUDY 2 1 Case Study #2 Matthew Johnson Ruben Alcala, Giovanni Diaz, Ivan Isidoro, Giselle Ramirez & Maria Robelo University of Southern California Professor Gallagher EDHP 687

Running head: CASE STUDY 2 2 Case Study 2 Often times, students’ whose outward identity might denote aspects of privilege (i.e. white, male, upper-class) are assumed to not need the attention and interventions that other students might receive. However, it is crucial that practitioners in education be mindful all students carry with them parts of their identity that may grant them privilege and those that may bring about barriers. For Matthew Johnson, a white male student who is presumed to be straight by his friends and family, his struggles with his sexuality have troubled him for some time. Introduction to Matthew Johnson To any outsider, Matthew Johnson appears to have a charmed life. In many ways he is privileged: he is a white male and from La Canada, an upper-middle class suburb of Los Angeles. Matthew was raised in a Christian home, with both his parents as pastors. Religion was a fixture of his life, and he was expected to behave like a “good Christian boy”. From kindergarten to his senior year of high school, he attended Village Christian School, a small private Christian school. He was surrounded by students who had similar upbringings to his own: highly religious and conservative . Despite these perceived similarities, Matthew felt different from his classmates. While his friends were noticing girls, he was noticing boys. His father was outspokenly homophobic so Matthew knew that at least in his family and his religion, these feelings were simply unacceptable. Throughout high school he lived his life as your typical “all- American heterosexual male”, all the while hiding who he really was. His freshman year at USC was a culture shock to say the least. Not only was it much larger than his high school, he also was meeting people from all over the country and the world. For the first time, he was exposed to viewpoints different from his conservative,Christian bubble. He was surprised to find an active gay community on campus, with organizations and even a LGBT resource center. To Matthew

Running head: CASE STUDY 2 3 the idea of “gay pride”, something he learned about through interacting with peers and in his classes, was a new and foreign concept. In his church, this was not something to be proud of. If anything, Matthew’s feelings were a source of shame, something he had long tried to repress.. Now, he found himself confronting them. In an effort to fit in, Matthew decided to pledge the popular fraternity, Phi Kappa Phi. This was his way of performing masculinity, at least in the terms he felt were expected of him. He became fully immersed in fraternity culture-networking, service work, and partying. His friends in high school never talked about homosexuality and similarly neither did his fraternity friends. Except of course in insulting and derogatory ways. Phrases like “That’s so gay” or “you’re such a f**” got thrown around so casually. To Matthew, this further signified that being gay was immoral and unmasculine. During the end of his second year of college, Matthew makes a visit to his advisor hoping to get some clarity on after graduation plans. While doing relatively well academically, Matthew is internally struggling with his identity and it causing him major anxiety in regards to his future. He had long been questioning his sexuality, but never discussed these feelings with anyone. When he met with his advisor, he noticed she had sticker on the door that said “ Safe Zone”. With that, Matthew felt safe to disclose and unloaded years of repressed thoughts. Baxter Malgolda’s Self-Authorship Theory Establishing a secure and consistent sense of self that aligns with an individual’s beliefs, goals and values is important in creating a future that is both rewarding and fulfilling. Baxter Magolda’s Self-Authorship theory provides a framework that helps illustrate Matthew’s struggle with his sexuality, family and societal expectations, and the necessary actions needed for him to find his inner voice and construct a life that is dictated by his decisions and values. Baxter Magolda’s self-authorship theory includes four distinct phases that show an individual’s

Running head: CASE STUDY 2 4 progression in decisioning-making from externally influenced ideals to autonomous thinking and beliefs that aligns with the individual’s own interests and desires (Patton et. al., 2016). Since childhood, Matthew has primarily been immersed in phase one, following formulas. Within this phase, Matthew is socialized by his conservative parents to follow heteronormative expectations and internalizes the belief that a man must marry a woman. His experiences and interactions with other students in the private school he attends further highlights the establishment and constant socialization of this expectation. From his knowledge, there are no LGBTQ students at his school and the limited diverse perspectives he is exposed to, from teachers and students, does not help bring to light the notion that it is possible to follow god and be Christian while being openly gay in the world. As Matthew enters puberty and experiences various bodily and hormonal changes, he begins to question his sexual identity, which prompts movement to the second phase in self- authorship theory: Crossroads. At this phase, Matthew experiences cognitive dissonance due to his newfound attraction to male peers and his familial and societal expectation that he must like and marry a woman. As he continues to experience discomfort from cognitive dissonance, he also begins to question the external formulas, family and societal expectations, laid out by his parents and society. He feels that he will not be able to rest easy and live a satisfying life without exploring these newfound interests and ideas. However, in order to do so he needs a sense of direction and support from others. Matthew’s transition and exposure to diverse student backgrounds, opinions and campus organizations at USC gives him the opportunity to explore his sexuality further—to extents that would not possible in his conservative household and community. As Matthew begins his undergraduate study, he is still in phase two of self-authorship theory. In order to move forward to the next phase, he will need additional support from various resources on campus to solidify

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