When I grow up I want to be...
As a Christian youth worker, identity and more specifically identity formation is pretty high on my agenda. I’m struck more and more by the amount of identities available to us and how we are often consumed with the task of juggling these all at one time. For example, as someone who is required to be in regular contact with teenagers I have a facebook page and am constantly challenged on how I manage this. Do I have a separate FB page as a youth worker with only certain information on it, or do I allow young people access to my FB page but with only limited access, or do I allow young people full access? Fundamentally, which of my identities do I want them to know? This is a simple example, but an issue that I see more and more people facing, and especially young people as they forge their identity, in the context of a world where we are expected to hold multiple ones. “We have as many social identities as there are groups that we feel we belong to, and as many personal identities as there are interpersonal relationships we are involved in and clusters of idiosyncratic attributes that we believe we possess. Social identity can be a very important aspect of our self-concept.” (Hogg & Vaughan, 2005:127) It is this social identity, or identity in relation to others, which I want to discuss.
One of the leading thinkers about identity development is Erik Erikson, the German developmental psychologist. Erikson's theory of personality says that adolescence is when an individual first experiences identity formation, though personality continues to be developed throughout one's entire lifespan. In Erikson's model, individuals basically progress through his eight stages of development, with each stage representing a crisis that each individual must resolve in order to progress to the next stage in development. The basic conflict of adolescence then is identity and role confusion. So what is causing this confusion for young people in our present culture? It appears that as we move out of the modernist period and the quest for knowledge from the enlightenment philosophy which partnered it, we have seen these grand narratives thrown into doubt. The loss of a grand narrative leaves us with a world where we each have our own story, the only one to matter to us, the rise of the individualistic culture.
However, according to Erikson, adolescents are looking for affirmation from peers and leaders in their lives who allow for free expression of ideas and ideals to form a secure identity. In a world where anything goes young people appear to be looking for a set of guiding principles within which to explore their thinking. For me this is where the church could take real effect in young people’s lives. “Thus the Church serves the world by giving the world the means to see itself truthfully.” (Hauerwas, 2001:377) It is a call for the church to be a community that tries to develop the resources to stand among young people as they define who they are. One of the main ways we are able to achieve this as youth workers is through participation. It’s about encouraging imagination, going beyond clichéd symbols or catchphrases, and allowing young people to articulate their own questions. It starts with the reality of who young people are, and the questions they are asking. This will involve a primary focus on who young people want to become rather than what young people should be doing - on identity formation rather than moral decision making. Within participation our aim is to understand how young people see themselves and how they would like to be seen: who they would like to become. As Rowan Williams suggested, this community of participation between adult and young person, if effectively used, it can bring us into a dialogue both with God and each other which can offer us a framework or story in which to place ourselves and explore our self. This is the Christian Grand Narrative (in short, created, fallen, renewed) under which Christians would agree all find their true identity and can open our world view from individualistic into a grand narrative. “… in the process of thinking and speaking we are drawn (if we are willing to abide with the necessary moments of frustration and contradiction) into an intelligent life whose perspective is neither limitedly or exclusively mine nor that of ‘no-one in particular’, and which is truthful to the extent that it transcends the perspective of any one historical agent or moment.” (Williams, 2000:177)
The notion of the ideal self can then provide a framework in which young people can begin to explore what will help them reach this goal and provide them with an ethical framework in which to make decisions and choices. In this model of participation, the young person as an individual drives their own development, and the Christian youth worker’s role becomes one of offering them the framework to reach their goal. Here, young people are not projects to be worked on and modelled by others, instead youth ministers and churches provide tools for young people to steer their own development. All the while, as Christians, we are sitting under the authority of God and the belief that all are children of God, ultimately created to be in relationship with Him, and it is here we believe that young people will find their ideal self.
As well as participation being a tool where young people are educated in the traditions of the church and their intended meaning, it may also provide an opportunity for young people to form their own authentic liturgy and rituals which express the same and unchanged narrative in a fresh and authentic way.“If Jesus is ever going to be allowed to come alive in the world of youth culture then we need to accept the fact that this will mean we will have to take Jesus out of the package. We need to look through the eyes of young people to try to find new pictures of Jesus which carry meaning for them.” (Ward, 1992:42) The importance in the process is to avoid the traps discussed around the individualistic culture where young people are left to just form their own image of Christ; however they need him to be. Liturgy as Williams (2000) said is more than just what we like or find helpful, it also challenges and changes us. Ensuring that we remain under the Christian narrative at all times and continue to do so as we work with young people will ensure that young people are able to remain authentic to themselves but also be authentically Christian.
By Lauren Crisp-Hihn
The Philosophy Takeaway 'Identity' Issue 37
