ABSTRACT
Social interactions and relationships among and between individual students, groups of students, and teachers are lived through a multitude of identity dimensions, such as ethnicity, culture, race, class, socioeconomic status, gender, ability, nationality, sexual orientation, and age. In classrooms, these interactions shape and are shaped by the ways certain identities are given meaning. Thus, particular dimensions of students’ identity can provide, enhance, or deny students access to resources present in classrooms. For example, students who can display rather than privatize aspects of their ethnic identity experience a harmonious cognitive-social developmental process or students who can use friendship connections have access to consensual validation, social support, and coping assistance to stressful events.
