1.2 Positionality Identity Tree
Jackie Hendricks; Amy Lueck; Loring Pfeiffer; and Maura Tarnoff
In order to consider your own identity in more depth, you will create a Positionality Identity Tree [Website] describing the different components of your identity using words, symbols, and drawings. The purpose of this activity is to become more aware of your positionality by exploring all of the factors that shape your identity.
Task: Reflect on yourself by thinking of all the past and current aspects and experiences that have shaped who you are. Present your findings in an identity tree and reflect on what this means in terms of positionality, privilege, and interactions.
Purpose:
- Develop a better understanding of yourself by reflecting on your positionality.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the implications of your positionality.
- Develop an awareness of inherited power dynamics within different interactions.
Steps:
- Think of the different components that make up your identity (up to 5 minutes).
- Sketch out an identity tree: start by writing your name in a circle at the center of a piece of paper, then link the various aspects of your identity to your name. Aspects of your identity include your cultural and linguistic background(s), education, employment, sexuality, socio-economic class, hobbies, skills, likes and dislikes, travel, and the context you grew up in (e.g., parents, siblings, and location) (10-15 mins).
- You may use a piece of paper or any of the following software: Mindmup [Website], Text2MindMap [Website], OneNote, or Google Draw.
- Now that you’ve sketched out your identity tree, think about what it means to you. Did it help you realize or rediscover anything about yourself? What opportunities or limitations did your identity tree present in regard to your privilege? What kind of person would you like to be moving forward? Write your thoughts in a short paragraph (5-10 minutes).
- Think about what your identity tree could mean in regard to others. Consider what your identity tree tells others about you and what its implications are within different interactions. For instance, what do you bring to the table, and what power dynamics are at play when you speak to different groups? What aspects of yourself should you try to be cognizant of when interacting with others? Write your reflections in a short paragraph (5-10 minutes).
Go Deeper: Compare
Mapping your identity can provide a fresh perspective on who you are and what matters to you. Looking at your own sense of identity in relation to the identities of others around you can provide further insights.
Compare your map to a classmate’s map to reflect on the ways your approaches to this task differed.
- Did a classmate name some aspects of identity—such as race, ability, status, nation of origin, or academic major—that you did not consider or include?
- What might be some of the reasons that your map includes what it does? How do systems of power and privilege shape the aspects of your identity that you chose to name and those you did not?
- How are the communities you belong to and the values you hold reflected on your map?
Practice: Narrative Pre-Writing
So far in this module, you have thought about identity as a lens for seeing the world, using mindful reading and annotation strategies to explore an example text and creating an identity map of your own, which you may have compared with your classmates’ maps to reflect on how experience and identity shape how we approach the world around us. At the end of this module, you will be asked to bring these components together, drawing on your identity map and using Nguyen as a model to narrate an experience of your own. In order to prepare for that assignment, take a moment here to engage with some excerpts from Dr. Karen Palmer’s “Narrative Writing” [Website], from The Worry Free Writer. When you’re done, return here to consider:
Apply It: Thinking Piece (Invention exercise for narrative essay)
Task: In 1-2 written pages, describe a formative experience that shaped some aspect of your identity. At this point, you are using writing as a tool for reflection. Don’t worry about structure or polish—instead, just create content. This will serve as a foundation for later work and will grow iteratively.
Purpose: This is practice with metacognitive reflection, one of the eight habits of mind identified by the NCTE [PDF]. By reflecting on your own thinking and the processes used to structure knowledge, you deepen your critical engagement with your own learning process.
Steps:
- Return to your identity map and identify one branch or node that is meaningful to you. Can you think of an experience or memory that clarified that aspect of your identity for you in some way? Have you actively cultivated that aspect of yourself? When have you felt the impact of that aspect of yourself as a resource?
- Freewrite about this experience in a descriptive, narrative mode. You might begin by setting the scene: where and when did this experience occur?
- Identify the specific facet of your identity or perspective that was affected, and define key terms you use.
- Elaborate and extend your writing through the inclusion of clarifying phrases and concrete examples (e.g., “in other words” or “for example”).
- Reflect on the ways in which your perspective on this moment today is different from the perspective you had at the time.
Resources
- “Active Learning: Teaching for Metacognition” [Website], NCTE
- Viet Thanh Nguyen, “America, Say My Name” [Website]
- Facing History & Ourselves: “The Power of Names” [Website]
- Facing History & Ourselves: “Identity Charts” [Website]
Attribution
“Positionality Identity Tree” by Jackie Hendricks, Amy Lueck, Loring Pfeiffer, and Maura Tarnoff is adapted from “Allyship” from Liberated Learners: How to Learn with Style, Edited by Terry Greene and Kyle Mackie, used under CC BY-NC 4.0. “Positionality Identity Tree” is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
