Citation

Wortham S. Am. Educ. Res. J. 2004; 41(3): 715-750.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, American Educational Research Association, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.3102/00028312041003715

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

When students and teachers discuss subject matter, at least two processes generally occur: Students and teachers become socially identified as recognizable types of people, and students learn subject matter. This article contributes to recent work on how social identification and learning systematically interrelate by describing one complex way in which these two processes can partly constitute each other. The article analyzes data from across an academic year in a ninth-grade classroom, exploring how one student developed a social identity through the same conversations in which students learned aspects of the curriculum.