Chapter 2 Dual Role Negotiation as Teacher and Researcher

The rationale for conducting a study of this nature with ninth graders emerges from Erikson's (1956) eight stages of man. Erikson was particularly concerned with the idea of socialization as an impetus for identity development. Adolescents, according to Erikson, are in a peculiar position, because it is the time where all the other stages of childhood have to be resolved again. Successful negotiation of the identity-making stage requires young people to consider stories of themselves in a variety of future roles as they explore those roles socially. Because the stages must be re-resolved, ninth graders, in a psychosocial sense, are potentially facing similar crises to those first encountered in ages two and three. In this stage, young people are trying to resolve tensions around balancing the need to assert themselves socially while monitoring their own actions to conform to acceptable societal norms.