Constructing ethnicity and identity in the online classroom: Linguistic practices and ritual texts.
Macfadyen, L.P.
Proccedings of the 6th International Conference on Networked Learning
useful phrase to describe a particular view about online community
' authenticity ( and therefore trust) can only be guaranteed by physical presence and the evidence of the senses'
- The article calls on an analysis of dialogue from successive courses offered to International students in Pesrpectives in Global Citizenship.
- Argues that ' text-based virtual learning environments begin the process of co-constructing a virtual learning culture by performing and sharing their unique virtual identities, and that one of the key strategies that individuals and newly forming virtual communities make use of is ritual' p561.
- Transforming practices that previously took place through embodied action and sensory perception now take place through explicit articulations in text.
Definition of ritual for Sociology
Lukes, 1975 ' rule-governed activity of a symbolic character which draws attention to of its participants to objects of thought and feeling that they hold to be of special significance'
'rituals are expressive and are expressive by their conspicuous regularity'
'rituals are both performative and creative. They acknowledge and commemorate existing elements of shared identity and they contribute to the construction of new forms and interpretations of community and collective identity'
Theorists have historically understood ritual practice to be embodied however now some examination of ritual practice in online environments http://www.rituals-online.de/
Performing the self in text
use of linguistic markers eg canadian 'eh',
'Very quickly, however, student communication on the course fulfil the claim that essentialized models of 'national' culture are insufficient markers of individual identity' p564 . In general analysis of this dialogue supports Hewling's contention that culture is 'an ongoing iterative process' rather than a static set of assumed structures envisioned in esentialist perspectives' and that ' individual identity is an active act of meaning making and contest over definition'
Rituals
of initiation
'two dominant sets that seem to counterbalance
- performance of credentialling
- performance of humility ( e.g. begging leniency from the group and from instructors'
of resistance
this can happen with occasional students
of community
increasingly write about we
International membership in learning requires
shared understanding of the methods of argument.
also
author argues ' learners must first be able to enact their authentic and differing identities in the learning space', p560
