Identity mapping project
Introduction:
What is your proximity to people in influential positions? If a parent is fired from a job, will s/he have a long list of people she or he can call to help find a new job? Where do we get our values, experience and models for success—and do they serve to maintain our access to or denial of access to privilege? What barriers or limitations to privilege do our social networks reinforce? Do your social networks increase or decrease the extent to which you will experience hardship? Does your network expand or limit your opportunities, relative to others?
Part of our work this year is Praxis: to begin seeing the world through the lens of social justice, to form questions about what we see, and to begin the work of transformation based on how we understand our new vision. Seeing the world through a social justice lens helps us reimagine our identity, not simply as something of our own making, but as something constructed by our social world. This includes our relationships and social networks. From a young age we are taught to see ourselves as individuals; true, we are all unique as individuals. This project, however, should prompt you to see yourself, who you know and your choices and opportunities as structured by the forces of race, class, neighborhood and more. It is the culmination of our first quarter work on identity.
For this project, you’ll make a map of some of your relationships: a web of your social network. You will map the influence, resources, and benefits that arise from your social network. You’ll evaluate the influence that ethnicity, class, occupation, parent’s education, neighborhood where you live and more has in determining the amount of power and privilege you have. Recall: praxis requires that we see our circumstances as something created by larger forces of injustice and inequality. Ultimately, this project may reveal how much privilege you have or lack that you took for granted. Hopefully it will reveal the hidden power of race, class, education, etc. that circumscribes your choice and opportunities.
The Project
You will make a visual representation of your Identity Map. You may do this on paper (as a drawing, collage, etc.) or you may do this on computer (such as a Prezi)—or some other way. Begin by making a draft, which will likely be messy. I suggest you do NOT use thick markers for this—it will get messy and you won’t fit much writing into it. Neatness and organization matters. See the examples provided by Mr. Grande.
Keep in mind: Access to privilege may come from relationships with people you are not close to (a “weak tie”), but that you can draw on that relationship because of who you are, who you know or your connections. Include both strong and weak ties in your project. So, include some weak ties and strong ties.
Presentation and confidentiality: You will bring your final product to our Race and Racism training at the end of first quarter and discuss it within a small group of students. Do NOT share information about others’ Identity Maps with anyone outside of your small group. The information is personal, private and should not be discussed. Respond to others work in a mature, interested and encouraging way.
Project Timeline:
Draft of Network diagram:
Draft of Essay:
Final diagram and Essay:
Part I: Mapping your social networks
Write “Me” or “My Family” in the center of the paper (or whatever medium you are using). Draw lines to people you are connected to you, forming a web: For each contact draw a shape (circle, square, etc.) around their name and connect that shape with a line to “me” or to another person in the network who connects to “me.” Before doing this, create four shapes, one for each type of Contact, and at least 5 types or colors of lines to indicate the type of connection you have with that person (see below for examples).
Contacts: You should have at least 3 contacts from each group below. Use a different color or shape around the person’s name to indicate which group they fit in. Inside each shape, write the person’s name, sex, age (approximate if you don’t know), and their relationship to you (“boss,” “friend,” “teacher,” “sister,” “acquaintance,” “coach,” “guidance counselor,” “friend of parent,” etc.).
Type of Connection: On the lines connecting “me/my family” to your contacts, label and describe how this contact in your network is significant. Use a different color or type of line (dashed, dots, etc.), or label them in some way, to indicate the type of connection.
Additional considerations:
Part II: Analyzing your social networks and social capital
Analyze your Identity Map and share your insights with others at our training. Prepare a one page document of notes (ie bullet points) that you will use to present your web of contacts. This is difficult and might involve some honest soul searching—please give it some effort and respond to the questions below. Your presentation will be stronger when you describe examples of real people—tell stories that illuminate your points. Be specific about relationships and experiences.
Questions to consider for analysis: It is strongly recommended that you have some conversation about this project with parents or guardians to help you answer some of the questions below:
Assessment
You may use half numbers (ie 2.5)
1 Neatness and Organization of network diagram (5 points)
Writing is clear, easy to read. Effective and creative use of shapes, colors. Diagram is well planned, organized
2 Diagram is informative (5 points)
Includes detailed information, a variety of contact groups and a variety of Type of connections
3 Praxis (analysis) (5 points)
Considers structural factors—race/ethnicity, class, neighborhood, etc in understanding who is in your social network, how much power and privilege you do and do not have. Is thoughtful about who is excluded from network and what impact that has (beneficial, not beneficial). Uses examples and detail (specific people).
4 Challenging and reflective (5 points)
Your network and presentation was penetrating; you challenged yourself to examine honestly and thoughtfully the forces that shape who you are, your choices, opportunities and limitations.
Return to 1st Quarter work
What is your proximity to people in influential positions? If a parent is fired from a job, will s/he have a long list of people she or he can call to help find a new job? Where do we get our values, experience and models for success—and do they serve to maintain our access to or denial of access to privilege? What barriers or limitations to privilege do our social networks reinforce? Do your social networks increase or decrease the extent to which you will experience hardship? Does your network expand or limit your opportunities, relative to others?
Part of our work this year is Praxis: to begin seeing the world through the lens of social justice, to form questions about what we see, and to begin the work of transformation based on how we understand our new vision. Seeing the world through a social justice lens helps us reimagine our identity, not simply as something of our own making, but as something constructed by our social world. This includes our relationships and social networks. From a young age we are taught to see ourselves as individuals; true, we are all unique as individuals. This project, however, should prompt you to see yourself, who you know and your choices and opportunities as structured by the forces of race, class, neighborhood and more. It is the culmination of our first quarter work on identity.
For this project, you’ll make a map of some of your relationships: a web of your social network. You will map the influence, resources, and benefits that arise from your social network. You’ll evaluate the influence that ethnicity, class, occupation, parent’s education, neighborhood where you live and more has in determining the amount of power and privilege you have. Recall: praxis requires that we see our circumstances as something created by larger forces of injustice and inequality. Ultimately, this project may reveal how much privilege you have or lack that you took for granted. Hopefully it will reveal the hidden power of race, class, education, etc. that circumscribes your choice and opportunities.
The Project
You will make a visual representation of your Identity Map. You may do this on paper (as a drawing, collage, etc.) or you may do this on computer (such as a Prezi)—or some other way. Begin by making a draft, which will likely be messy. I suggest you do NOT use thick markers for this—it will get messy and you won’t fit much writing into it. Neatness and organization matters. See the examples provided by Mr. Grande.
Keep in mind: Access to privilege may come from relationships with people you are not close to (a “weak tie”), but that you can draw on that relationship because of who you are, who you know or your connections. Include both strong and weak ties in your project. So, include some weak ties and strong ties.
Presentation and confidentiality: You will bring your final product to our Race and Racism training at the end of first quarter and discuss it within a small group of students. Do NOT share information about others’ Identity Maps with anyone outside of your small group. The information is personal, private and should not be discussed. Respond to others work in a mature, interested and encouraging way.
Project Timeline:
Draft of Network diagram:
Draft of Essay:
Final diagram and Essay:
Part I: Mapping your social networks
Write “Me” or “My Family” in the center of the paper (or whatever medium you are using). Draw lines to people you are connected to you, forming a web: For each contact draw a shape (circle, square, etc.) around their name and connect that shape with a line to “me” or to another person in the network who connects to “me.” Before doing this, create four shapes, one for each type of Contact, and at least 5 types or colors of lines to indicate the type of connection you have with that person (see below for examples).
Contacts: You should have at least 3 contacts from each group below. Use a different color or shape around the person’s name to indicate which group they fit in. Inside each shape, write the person’s name, sex, age (approximate if you don’t know), and their relationship to you (“boss,” “friend,” “teacher,” “sister,” “acquaintance,” “coach,” “guidance counselor,” “friend of parent,” etc.).
- Family: This refers to actual members of your household or related family members.
- Friends/peers: This refers simply to people you call friends.
- School: This refers to teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, coaches, advisors, mentors or any other institutional contacts. This will most likely be adults.
- Other: This person might be a boss, coworker, family friend, cultural contact, mentor, neighbor, leader, religious group contact, summer camp counselor, important acquaintance, or person you know who has given you important information, know-how or resources that you could use to your advantage.
Type of Connection: On the lines connecting “me/my family” to your contacts, label and describe how this contact in your network is significant. Use a different color or type of line (dashed, dots, etc.), or label them in some way, to indicate the type of connection.
- Emotional: Provides emotional support.
- Work: Helped you find or will be useful in finding you a job; Can informally help you with “soft skills” (“people skills”) which may be more important in building work contacts than your grades and work experience. These include how present yourself to others, ways of communicating, etc.
- Information: Provides you, or could be useful in providing you, with special information that will benefit you in some way or impact your status (who to call to get what you need, how to avoid problems, how to best handle school or work situations, etc.).
- Academic: School and academic support in high school, test taking, SAT prep, etc. May help you with getting into college (especially a college you like), is an alumni, understands the application process, helps you with college essay, etc. Can informally help you with skills or advice that will be helpful in college.
- Financial/leisure: Getting discounts on goods or services; Knowledge or discounts on travel/vacations, summer homes
- Health/well-being: Health care connection: knows about, or can get you medical/dental/therapy knowledge or care provision, physical fitness. Example: when you have a medical or psychological question or problem, this person is a useful contact, and may help you skip the standard procedure.
- Legal/police/government support: information about how to handle a question or problem, or can minimize the time it takes to resolve an issue.
- Other?
Additional considerations:
- Secondary contacts: You may include people with whom you are connected through someone else (ex. A friend of a parent).
- Weak and Strong ties: Remember, some ties may be “weak”—or a person you don’t know or are unaccustomed to spending time with, but may potentially provide you with a lot of advantage. A “strong” tie is someone who you are very comfortable or accustomed to spending time with.
- Draft: I suggest you do NOT use thick markers for this—it will get messy and you won’t fit much writing into it. Neatness and organization matters.
Part II: Analyzing your social networks and social capital
Analyze your Identity Map and share your insights with others at our training. Prepare a one page document of notes (ie bullet points) that you will use to present your web of contacts. This is difficult and might involve some honest soul searching—please give it some effort and respond to the questions below. Your presentation will be stronger when you describe examples of real people—tell stories that illuminate your points. Be specific about relationships and experiences.
Questions to consider for analysis: It is strongly recommended that you have some conversation about this project with parents or guardians to help you answer some of the questions below:
- What factors contributed to the formation of your social network?
- What privileges and benefits, if any, do your connections provide: resources, favors, influence, places to vacation, job connections, insights about college? Do your connections provide you with insights and ‘know how’ about how to operate in the world and be successful in what your want to know?
- Exclusion: Who does your network exclude? Who are you less likely to meet? Do you gain or lose from not including certain people in your social network?
- Social class/family income: Are most people from the same class? Different? Why?
- What is the culture/ethnicity/race of your contacts? How diverse or homogenous is your identity map, and does that impact your power and privilege?
- Is the sex or gender of your contacts meaningful?
- How does the neighborhood where you live influence who you know—and DO NOT KNOW. How connected is this to class, race, parent’s background, etc.)?
- Do your parent’s education and jobs impact your network and influence?
- What else should you consider?
- What does your network tell you about your own life and about social networks in general? To what extent do structural factors—rather than your personality or even your choices, etc.—give you access or limit your social network?
Assessment
You may use half numbers (ie 2.5)
1 Neatness and Organization of network diagram (5 points)
Writing is clear, easy to read. Effective and creative use of shapes, colors. Diagram is well planned, organized
2 Diagram is informative (5 points)
Includes detailed information, a variety of contact groups and a variety of Type of connections
3 Praxis (analysis) (5 points)
Considers structural factors—race/ethnicity, class, neighborhood, etc in understanding who is in your social network, how much power and privilege you do and do not have. Is thoughtful about who is excluded from network and what impact that has (beneficial, not beneficial). Uses examples and detail (specific people).
4 Challenging and reflective (5 points)
Your network and presentation was penetrating; you challenged yourself to examine honestly and thoughtfully the forces that shape who you are, your choices, opportunities and limitations.
Return to 1st Quarter work