Clásicos vs. Inéditas

Initial findings drawn from the participants’ self-reports (Chapter 4) highlighted the role of the ‘other’ in helping to affirm and stabilise the identities being explored.

The mimicry shown in behaviour and language from the blog analysis (Chapter 7)

demonstrates that there is a significant role that the ‘others' have to play in the development of the individual. There is a process of ‘self-making' (Urrieta, 2007: 118) that individuals undergo, both online and offline, as they hear a comment and engage with others’ verbal interactions and adjust their behaviour accordingly. It could be summarised that, relating to perspectives of lived-experience both online and offline, two key relationships are at play- the individual's internal relationship with ‘self', and their external relations with the ‘others'. Blogs can help facilitate these relationships by providing a communication platform that offers the opportunity for verbalisation of ‘internal dialogue' and sharing of emotions that they

169 present (Thomas et al., 2018: 579).

Online interactions impact upon identity development, not only through the single ‘figured world' (Holland et al., 1998) that online spaces provide, but through the interplay between the individual and the ‘others' (discussed in Section 8.2) as the individual aims to adhere to unspoken social norms to be accepted into the group. The position that a member holds within an online community also has implications for behaviour and community acceptance. Drawing upon Lave and Wenger's theory on ‘newcomers' and ‘old-timers', the findings in Chapter 7 (Section 7.7) show that blogs can present a zone for socio-cultural learning, within which both skills and identity develop through the support and interaction with others. Skills developed in this short study alone included how to change a profile picture on a blog profile, how to create a blog post, and also involving creating poems.

Figurative or narrative identities develop through the ways that people interact with each other, that socially define one another (Holland et al. 1998); this affirms the notion that ‘identities are collectively shaped, even if individually told' (Sfard and Prusak, 2005: 14). It is also worth noting the informal language that could be used on the blog, despite the

educational setting, Fairtrees Primary School, in which it was introduced. Participants seemed keen to embrace the informal language that can be employed with online

communications, such as on a blog. This informal communication enables users to better make their thinking and feelings understood, and thus is part of building an active learning community (Beins, 2016). Moments of informality, in an otherwise busy and formally- schooled childhood, may help an individual to ‘develop their social presence' (Beins, 2016: 157) in the online, figured worlds they spend time in.

One other significant finding from the blog analysis was that of ‘invisible participants' or ‘lurkers' (Gong et al., 2015), and the role that these less interactive, ‘observing’ members play in an online community. Although all thirty-four participants logged in to the blog interface at least once (and some several times), not all users chose to post or make themselves visible to the rest of the group by posting. This behaviour suggests that

communication is not always symmetrical and can be asymmetrical with the ability to read others' posts and not have to reply (or even be noticed) in the process; research shows that this practice is surprisingly common in social media (Gong et al., 2015), not just blogs. The implications of this are something considered for future research and outlined in the

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7.5 Reflection on three different methodological approaches

The first methodological approach involved following Smith et al’s (2009) IPA guidelines (Chapter 4). The associated method of interviews was employed, the self-reported perspectives analysed and synthesized to inform the idiographic case studies. Within this approach, three key themes around ‘informed’, ‘affirmed’ and ‘stable’ identities were drawn out, along with dramaturgical references to Goffman's sociological theory of self-presentation (1959) where relevant.

Upon reflection, it became apparent that the participants' self-reports alone could not present a full picture of the motivations and role of online communications in identity development. When social interactions clearly play such a big part in the phenomenon of constructing identities in virtual spaces, some analysis of these interactions needed to be conducted to verify and validate the perspectives of the self-reported cases. This process also allowed for triangulation of the data, supplementing the self-reports from interviews with both blog and questionnaire data. By utilising mixed methods research, methodologies are combined to provide ‘better answers' to our research questions (Turner et al., 2017).

The second stage of analysis (Chapter 5) drew on Lave and Wenger’s theory of ‘newcomers’ and ‘old-timers’ within a ‘community of practice’ (CoP) or ‘community of learners’ (CoL) to explore how the girls’ reported evolution of their knowledge and understanding, and the ways their online and offline identities, evolved over the length of the project. Data from three rounds of questionnaires (pre-blog, mid-blog, and post-blog) were analysed. The third

methodological approach (Chapter 6) involved the creation of an analytical framework suitable for discourse analysis of the blog posts, and triangulation through the interview data and written questionnaire responses. Recent literature revealed that a consideration of online spaces, such as blogs, as ‘figured worlds’ (Urrieta, 2007; Holland et al., 1998) would provide an appropriate perspective for the approach, with Lave and Wenger’s CoL as an adoptive lens for the analysis. The unique contribution that this study presents is highlighted further in the following chapter (Section 8.2).

7.6 Chapter summary

This chapter has reflected upon the three Research Questions, discussing and summarising the findings and linking to relevant research. Reflections have been shared on the three different methodological approaches taken during this study, and the triangulation that this provided. Areas for future research development have been highlighted and will be

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CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION

8.1 Introduction

This closing chapter will present the conclusions to this study.

The original contribution to the field will be highlighted through a reflection upon the aims and design of the study, the main findings, in light of both older and newer literature on identity, and the methodological contribution. The research methods and quality of data collected will be evaluated, while the limitations of the research will also be noted. Potential areas for further research will be considered. This chapter ends with an

autobiographical reflection upon how the doctoral research program has, in itself, provided a ‘figured world’ for the author for the past six years, and how a research degree is not simply a programme of study, but is a transformative process that allows the author to ‘figure out’ their academic identity.