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The Importance Of Identity In Education

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As students’ progress in the academic system, they also develop a sense of identity, belonging, and individuality. The feeling of belonging to a certain group plays a role in their existence. The definition of identity according to Hernandez in her work “Diversity Pedagogy” states, “…information used to acquire a sense of self and group membership is determined by the biological, cultural, ethical, social, psychological, and political factors in one's socialization process” (Hernandez). Identities are created through a variety of reasons depending on the kind of background their childhood stage was developed in. In a classroom setting, students may feel like they have a certain reputation to uphold. However, this may differ from their identity outside of the school setting. In addition, having differential personalities inside and outside of the classroom, teaching styles can also have an enormous impact on student learning. Sometimes, a teacher must readjust their teaching style to fit the background of their students and the environment they are learning in. Educators should keep in mind of their students’ character and background when creating a lesson procedure. So that the lessons may apply to the students personally and give real life implications to their daily activities, be it inside or outside the classroom. Topic 1: Music Identity A teacher’s job is to engage all students to be active in a classroom and try to develop their educational abilities from the beginning and end of the academic term. Therefore, teachers should create a lessons that involves real life situations where the topic can be relative to the student’s identity. In “Holler if You Hear Me” by Gregory Michie, as the teacher, came up with a unique project that students might find themselves more relatable, “To listen to a song. What was the story, the message, the point? Was the song provocative, truthful, poetic, stupid?” (Michie 108). Michie wanted to identify if this project would benefit more students since it taught students to analyze the music that they would listen to daily outside of the classroom. By having the students analyze their favorite songs, this project taught each individual how to identify different types of

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