Mennonite Identity and Literate Practices in High School Students: A Social Practice Multiple Case Study

Abstract

This multiple case study describes the relationships between literate practices of five self-identified Mennonite youth and their faith identities. It also examines other salient identity enactments for each participant and the relationships among salient identities. Specifically, this research addresses the question: How do Mennonite high school students who engage in leisure reading enact identities in their literate practices? Participants were in 11th grade at a Mennonite high school. Theoretically based on the social practice theory of identity, data sources included field notes from nine weeks of observations in English and Bible classes, interviews with each participant and the English and Bible teachers, written documents from both classes, and two verbal protocols for each participant with self-selected texts, one of which was faith-related. Multiple analytics were used to analyze the various data sources. Findings suggest that the relationship between faith identity performances and literate practices plays out in different ways for different youth based, in part, on the salience of the faith identity.