ABSTRACT
When most people think of identity, they often think of the ways in which people identify at the individual level. Sometimes identity is conceptualized through our relationships with others. The meso level is where our identities are formed as a result of our relationship to others and to varying communities. Knowing how the meso level of identity is intimately connected to the relations with others, the educators, as members of school-based literacy and learning communities, must be exceedingly mindful of how they perceive, and thus interact with, the students they have within their care. Too often, deficit-based views of students’ literacy and language practices lead to their marginalization within classroom spaces, which can have profound impacts on their identity development both within and outside of the spaces.
