Identity - who am I? : Cultural identity, learning processes and image creating

In my BA-thesis I examine how young Gambian students´ creation of identity can be expressed in a learning environment, through image creating. I did my field study in Banjul, the Gambia, by teaching in a school.With this project I wanted to give the students a chance to focus on themselves and feel like active participants of creating their identity. I wanted to find out how Gambian students identity work could be expressed in a learning environment, through image creating and if exploring of identity and identity formation could be an entry to intercultural teaching. I wanted to show that it can be both giving and suitable to let students work with their identities through image creating. Most societies have students with a foreign background and it is important to acknowledge that we all might understand, act and express ourselves in different ways, and none of them are more accurate than the other. To have a positive attitude towards groups, such as school classes, with a versatile cultural background or students with a multiple cultural affiliation, instead of focusing on problems connected to multiculturalism, will not only help the students with their identity creating process by developing a healthy self-image, but also change the attitudes of the social and cultural environment. I hope that this essay can contribute to knowledge and reflection about intercultural teaching and cultural awareness, and I wish that it can be used as an inspiration in teaching – learning situations.In the identity project my students represented themselves in writing, visually through photographic portraits and orally. I have chosen to visualize the result of my study in a book where the portraits and written texts are presented together. Furthermore, in the exhibition I displayed 91 photographs with quotes from the students texts on the back, in a see-through plastic with pockets, that allows the visitor to pick up, have a closer look, turn, read and move around the photographs – an interactive collage