Michael Hogan

Part I:

On the first day of school, from the front row of the well-worn wooden gym bleachers in

Gray Ledge High School I shifted my body to study the faces of the ninth grade students.

Pacing, though never breaking eye contact with the crowd, “Mr. Miller,” the school climate

officer, flanked by uniformed police officers, parsed out the Philadelphia School District’s rules,

distinctions, and consequences surrounding fighting: one-on-one, two or more-on-one,

suspensions, and expulsions. The students’ expressions ranged from indifference to fear, though

many students made an effort to mask this feeling, as if to communicate that this introduction to

the neighborhood high school was standard fare. The distinction between neighborhood schools

and special admissions and charter schools felt tangible in the room, as if underlying Mr.

Miller’s lecture. This distinction establishes a hierarchy that casts students in neighborhood

schools as “less than,” in so far as they are more prone to violence, than students in

Philadelphia’s selective schools. Mr. Miller, responding to this hierarchy, cast Gray Ledge as a

violent space and, ultimately, offered a nuanced response to fighting that permeates the culture at

West: do not fight, but if you do fight, pick a fight you can win. In the context of a set of

challenges that students at Gray Ledge face, namely exposure to community violence and a lack

of access to appropriate academic and psychological support, fighting is both a problem and a

solution. The challenge, for Mr. Miller and many staff members at West, is to provide students

the skillset to analyze possible confrontations and to make decisions based on whether fighting,

that is, engaging in risk taking behavior, will yield a positive, or less negative, outcome than the

alternative. For students at West, this is the process of establishing a “hard” identity. The
Michael Hogan

challenge for me, as a white male with a particular set of values and identity, is to both work to

understand how students are analyzing and deciding whether or not engage risk taking behavior

and how to support them in a responsible and culturally responsive way.

Fighting, at West, occupies a liminal space between being officially discouraged, per

district policy, and accepted as an unfortunate reality in less formal spaces and contexts. Mr.

Miller alluded to this in his speech on the first day of school, and it has been a challenge for me

to navigate the school culture in that way. For students, a similarly nuanced and contextual

sentiment exists surrounding fighting: it is avoided when possible, but it is accepted as a reality.

Rather than avoid fighting entirely, then, students, develop an identity that enables them to

maintain their physical and psychological well being, and that of close friends and family. The

central tenet of this identity is hyper-masculinity, understood as being “hard.” This nuanced

understanding of, and response to, the prevalence of fighting relies on an implicit understanding

of the role that risk taking plays in the lives of adolescents in this West Philadelphia

neighborhood and school. Nakkula and Toshalis (2006) argue that, “...adolescent risk taking is

an effort toward creative expression, an effort to create an interesting and unique self” (42). In

the context of West, “an interesting and unique self” is constructed against a backdrop of, and

through the incorporation of, physical and psychological safety. Fighting, understood as a risk

taking behavior, has been appropriated by staff members based on an understanding of the acute

challenges that students face and the role that fighting has come to play in developing an identity

that allows them to overcome those challenges.

An aspect of the way fighting is understood at Sayre that I find particularly challenging to

grapple with is the ways in which students, reflecting the attitude of staff members, engage in,
Michael Hogan

and come to accept, fighting. To illustrate this point I will describe my experiences with

adolescents at West, though it is helpful to begin by drawing upon Marcia’s concept of

moratorium and foreclosure, drawn from his identity status paradigm. The risk taking that the

young adolescents, namely the ninth grade students, at Gray Ledge are engaging in, through

fighting, is an important part of identity formation. In the context of identity moratorium,

Nakkula and Toshalis argue that, “Attempts to try on ways of thinking and being are often not

simply to be rebellious but to search for expressions of the self that feels authentic and internally

consistent” (36-37). For the students at West, there is an aspiration to be seen as capable of

protecting one’s self and close friends and family. Students use fighting as an exploratory

mechanism as a result of a particular way of thinking about how to achieve this capability, and

to be recognized for it by achieving a “hard” identity. Conversely, many of the older

adolescents, particularly seniors, err on the side of a foreclosed identity surrounding fighting,

viewing it as largely unavoidable in some capacity, at least as long as they are a member of the

community that they grew up in. Kroger argues that, “Foreclosures are happy and may be

smugly self-satisfied; they are very authoritarian and unbending in their opinions of ‘the right

way’ (Kroger, 2004, 41). Based on my conversations with students and staff members at Gray

Ledge there is a sense that fighting is ‘right,’ in so far as it serves the development of a ‘hard’

identity that is crucial for survival, though I would push back against any sort smug

self-satisfaction. Rather, there is a distinct sense of sadness attached to this reality and a desire

for something better.

The students at Gray Ledge are thoughtful, ambitious, and deeply kind adolescents that

are faced with enormous and complex challenges. I will focus on two male students, two ninth
Michael Hogan

graders and one senior to further illustrate the challenge that I have laid out. I am focusing on

male students because they are engaged in a majority of the fights at West, and because,

according to Verschueren, et al. (2017):

The overrepresentation of men in foreclosure is consistent with a study by Archer (​1989​),

in which individuation, task-orientation, and agency are discussed as typical male sex
roles in our society. Hence, these characteristics could stimulate the making of identity
commitments in men. (​39)

Agency, in particular, is important in the context of West. The students at Gray Ledge face a

particular set of challenges that are tied to their racial, ethnic, socio-economic, etc. identities and

statuses. These challenges manifest, at least in part, as limitations on the agency of the students.

As Verschueren, et al. argue, this has particular implications for male students, for whom their

exist cultural expectations that require agency. Yoder addresses this concept by expanding upon

Marcia’s identity status paradigm by incorporating barriers, “​Barriers modify Marcia's ego

identity statuses to include the experiences of racism, gender bias and other socio-cultural

limitations often faced by those not of the dominant class and gender” (Yoder, 2000 100). It is

important to recognize these barriers if we are to begin to understand the ways in which

adolescents at Gray Ledge seek to establish an identity through fighting as a form of risk taking

behavior. The challenge, for me, is to do approach the challenge that fighting presents with this

in mind consistently. As a member of the dominant class I have not faced these barriers and do

not have a strong sense of how to overcome them. I am attempting to support students as I learn

from them. I will now turn to those students.

Part II:

The wide, cavernous ​ hallways at Gray Ledge High School feel more so as a result of the

low enrollment. Scattered throughout the hallways are bulletin boards, decorated by students in
Michael Hogan

a class called Peer Group Connection (PGC). PGC connects juniors and seniors with ninth grade

students once a week with the explicit goal of undermining the conflicts that escalate into risky

behavior: building community and bridging differences. The bulletin boards are partially meant

to advertise the class, but also to break up the monotony of the sickly yellow walls of the

hallways. “Santna,” an African American senior and artist recruited to take PGC by his teacher,

Ms. Marsh, designed a board in a high traffic area near the lunch room. The board features a

large drawing that DeShawn did of a character, Goku, accompanied by the message, “Don’t

Limit Your Challenges, Challenge Your Limits.” As we finish the border of the bulletin board,

Santana laments that the message will not be accepted by his peers, "It’s positive, you know?

But this school isn’t that way. You’ve got to be on here, all the time.” When I asked Santana

what he meant by “on” he explained to me that being on means, “You gotta be ready to fight.

Some kid I don’t even know tried to fight me yesterday. I would’ve had to fight him if we

hadn’t been in school.” Santana, a student that spends most of his time creating art, is not a

fighter, “I try to avoid it, but you can’t always. These kids gotta be hard. You fight when you

have to.” Santana presents a nuanced understanding of risk taking, one that works to emphasize

the desire to avoid fighting but being ready to do so. Fergus and Zimmerman (2005) establish a

model of resilience, “the challenge model,” that echoes Santana’s reluctance to fight and

portrayal that of prepared to do so as a necessity to avoid further harm:

In this model, the association between a risk factor and an outcome is curvilinear.
This suggests that exposure to low levels and high levels of a risk factor are
associated with negative outcomes, but moderate levels of the risk are related to
less negative (or positive) outcome​s (66)​. The idea is that adolescents
exposed to moderate levels of risk are confronted with enough of the risk factor to learn
how to overcome it but are not exposed to so much of it that overcoming it is impossible.
(403)
Michael Hogan

Implicit in Santana’s analysis, drawing on his three years of experience at West, is the concept

that is presented in the challenge model. For Santana, fighting when it is understood to be

necessary constitutes what the challenge model describes as a model level of risk that is

associated with either positive or, likely more applicable in this case, less negative outcomes.

For Santana, fighting is less a choice than a necessity. Being ‘hard’ is, above all else, an identity

that provides access to tangible benefits and resources, namely safety.

Santana’ s insights, displaying his ability to think critically about risk taking, establishing

a particular identity, and the context that these necessities exist in are grounded in years of

experience, not only at West, but in his community. As he stapled the border on his board, he

spoke about community violence, ranging from physical altercations amongst adolescents to gun

violence, “It happens a lot. I don’t like it, but it happens. I can handle it,” he added, reassuringly

in a way that betrays a deep sense of compassion, “ I don’t get involved, but it happens all the

time. Stuff happens here [at West] and it gets brought outside. There’s a lot going on around.

Gangs and fighting and stuff. You gotta try to ignore it, but I can’t always help getting involved.

It is what it is.” Santana displays a foreclosed identity as he alludes to the barriers that Yoder

addresses. Limperopulos (2013), addressing the effects of exposure to community violence,

argues that Santana’s experience is indicative of a larger trend, “A growing body of evidence

indicates that many children, particularly those in urban areas, are exposed to considerable

amounts of life-threatening violence in their communities…” (22). Furthermore, her argument

aligns with the response that many of the male students at Sayre exhibit to exposure to

community violence, ​“Research has typically found gender differences in the types of symptoms

that are expressed, with boys endorsing more externalizing symptoms, like delinquency and
Michael Hogan

aggression…” (29). Delinquency and aggression, for the ninth grade students that I work with,

are both aspects of developing a ‘hard’ identity. While Santana is in a position to speak about

these issues from a position of having made an effort to remove himself to an extent that

maintains his safety, my ninth grade students are in a position of experiencing this pressure in a

different context, namely having to develop an identity for themselves.

‘Hard’ as a hyper-masculinized identity category is accessible to both teachers and

students at West, though the understanding is nuanced and not necessarily static. However,it is

useful to draw upon Kenway and Fitzclarence (1997) to provide a broader cultural context for

this identity, especially in light of ​ Limperopulos’s argument:

...it is the characteristics most associated with hegemonic masculinity which are most
likely to be articulated with violence...hegemonic masculinity mobilises around physical
strength... certainty, control, assertiveness, self-reliance, individuality...It distances itself
from physical weakness…[and] dependency. (121)

This characterization of hegemonic masculinity, reframed simply as being “hard” at West, is

then grounded in a much broader cultural tradition. I have chosen to draw attention to the

particular qualities that are most prevalent in fighting, the risk taking behavior that the male

students are engaging in, to ground the acceptance of fighting at Gray Ledge in a shared

understanding of masculinity. The complex and nuanced ways in which this identity is explored

and performed should not be treated as anomalies, but rather an exploration of identity that is not

in any way uncommon. “DaShawn,” an African American ninth grade student who is engaging

in risk taking as a form of identity exploration, seeking to establish a “hard” identity, though he

also complicates masculinity in some important ways.

Michael Hogan

Recently, after learning that his brother, a middle school student, had been jumped on his

way to school, DaShawn became deeply upset and lashed out at teachers and staff members. A

typically gregarious and determined adolescent, his reaction to his brother being jumped should

be understood as an effort to explore agency. Embedded in the moratorium stage and determined

to stake out an identity for himself, DaShawn engages in risky behavior, initially, by lashing out

at teachers and later confiding in me that he planned to “get,” which I understood to mean

engage in a physical altercation with, the people who jumped his younger brother. In this way,

he reestablishes agency and stakes out an identity for himself, as “hard,” that is intended to

provide protection for his younger brother. However, clearly upset by the incident, this identity

exploration also serves to mask an emotional reaction that can be understood as being grounded

in victimhood. Åkerström, et al., offer a means through which to understand this apparent

paradox of masculinity and victimhood:

Abstract cultural identities such as “men” and “victim” conflict, but it seems a
simplification to argue that they are incompatible in practice. Instead, they may
constitute parallel discourses, visible during the same conversation and providing
speakers with resources as they go about making sense of their experiences and
reproducing their identities” (​Åkerström, ​et al., 2011, 104).

By understanding his risk taking behavior as tied to identities as “hard” and as a victim, the

nuanced understanding of fighting becomes accessible. DaShawn is, by virtue of his emotional

connection to his brother and cultural norms that stipulate his obligation to protect his family a

victim in parallel to his developing “hard” identity. In the midst of our conversation, DaShawn

broke down crying, exclaiming through tears that he intended to, “Fuck them [his brother’s

assailants] up.” This hyper-masculine declaration, delivered through tears, speaks to ​Åkerström,
Michael Hogan

et al.’s argument, and recognizing these parallel identities is crucial to approaching students like

DaShawn with a sense of empathy.

DaShawn is deeply embedded in the moratorium stage. His efforts to develop a “hard”

identity are at times in conflict with his gregarious nature and sensitivity. This is not to say that

these traits cannot coexist, but rather that this student’s identity is deeply bound to the spaces he

exists in. ​Limperopulos speaks to the fact that exposure to violence can be expressed through

aggression, and Åkerström, ​et al. show how this aggression can exist in the context of

understanding one’s self as a victim, drawing upon this identity to make sense of experiences.

DaShawn is performing his “hard” identity in a way that Santana, whom I have argued is in a

state of foreclosed identity, is not. That crucial distinction should be seen as a testament to the

ways in which schools and institutions are failing adolescents and fostering the reproduction of

this identity amongst students like those at West.

Part III:

Underpinning the “hard” identity that is prevalent at Gray Ledge is the desire to exert

control. That desire, which Kenway and Fitzclarence argue is tied to a hegemonic masculinity,

or “hard” identity, can serve as a place to begin supporting students in a meaningful way. I have

a vested interest in this support because, even as I come to contextualize and understand the

reasons that my students engage in risk taking behavior, such as fighting, in an effort to establish

an identity, I continue to believe deeply in seeking out resources and practices that can provide

an alternative means of support for my students.

I am particularly interested in social-emotional learning opportunities for students,

particularly male students who feel a legitimate need to develop a “hard” identity. Graves et al.
Michael Hogan

(2017) notes that, “Urban schools are generally associated with high rates of poverty, limited

resources, high population density, and lower academic achievement...These issues often lead to

negative social outcomes” (64). Gray Ledge shares many of these qualities, and as I have

shown, these issues have led to students engaging in risk taking behavior as a form of identity

exploration that can have negative outcomes. The authors researched the effectiveness of the

Strong Start curricula in an urban context serving African American males. This yielded some

success:

The significant and practically meaningful gains in students’ self-regulation and

self-competency were promising and offer assurance to school practitioners that
short-term manualized treatments can be utilized effectively in urban high risk
populations. These results are also supportive of the notion that skills that contribute to
aspects of resilience can [be] taught over a short period of time. (71)

It is reassuring for me, as an educator, that there are resources available to support students in

developing self-regulation and competency. My hope would be that by incorporating this sort of

programming into a classroom or school’s curricular offerings that the impulsivity that underlies

so many fights at Gray Ledge would be undercut.

These researchers, however, did not see success in all regards, “...other aspects such as

empathy, responsibility, and externalizing problems did not demonstrate statistical or practical

improvement” (Ibid). Addressing these particular challenges feels more difficult insofar as they

speak to a relatively fundamental orientation towards the world, and perhaps more significantly,

one’s community. DaShawn comes to mind here: the individuals who jumped his brother were

likely members of his community. I do not necessarily have a sense of how to address that

problem in a way that “solves” the problem, though I do think it is important, from an

ideological standpoint, to orient the curriculum towards addressing issues that are meaningful to
Michael Hogan

students. A compelling way to approach this topic is through civic engagement, “ Portraits of

effective strategies for promoting civic engagement often highlight the value of open and

informed discussions of societal issues” (Kahne, et al., 2013, 421). A first step towards building

civic engagement, or, in other words, the capacity to influence change in a community, is by

creating a space in which those issues can be addressed. It is my hope that by providing this

space, students will at least have an alternative venue to discuss the challenges they are facing

and the opportunity to develop a sense of empathy.

The authors go on to argue that service learning could also be beneficial. Given that

these opportunities are substantive and ideally grounded in solving a challenge in the community

that students are invested in, I see this as a positive step to take following a discussion of the

issues and challenges. Kahne, et al. write that, “ They [Youniss and Yates, 1997] argued that

developing agency, social relatedness, and political-moral understanding fosters the development

of commitment to and capacity for civic and political engagement” (Ibid). My intention here is

for students to feel a sense of agency and address the features of a hegemonic masculinity as

articulated by ​ Kenway and Fitzclarence. While I certainly do not see, and would not want this

to be, a gender-specific opportunity, I do think it is important to structure any such opportunity in

a way that addresses the particular and unique challenges being faced by my male students.

Civics education in conjunction with social-emotional learning is a place that I would like to

begin supporting my students.

Fighting occupies a liminal space at West. Students and staff members share in a

nuanced and contextualized understanding of the role that fighting plays in the lives of

adolescents in school and West Philadelphia neighborhood. Even as I have come to make sense
Michael Hogan

of fighting, a form of risk taking that adolescents are engaging in to develop a “hard” identity

that will enable them to maintain their physical and psychological safety, but also that of their

close friends and family. By drawing upon my experiences with a student displaying a

foreclosed identity and a student in a moratorium I have worked to show that this risk taking

behavior is associated with a sense of thoughtfulness and complexity that does not seem to

always be appreciated. That empathy for students, however, is essential if we are to provide

opportunities for adolescents in urban schools, like West, to experience a sense of autonomy and

agency and to develop a sense of empathy. This is a challenge that I will continue to engage

with moving forward, and I believe that I will be able to do so with a greater sense of

understanding and empathy.

Michael Hogan

Works Cited

Articles:

Åkerström, M., Burcar, V., & Wästerfors, D. (2011). Balancing Contradictory

Identities—Performing Masculinity in Victim Narratives. ​Sociological Perspectives​,

54​(1), 103–124. ​https://doi.org/10.1525/sop.2011.54.1.103

Fergus, S., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2005). ADOLESCENT RESILIENCE: A Framework for

Understanding Healthy Development in the Face of Risk. ​Annual Review of Public

Health,​ ​26(​ 1), 399–419. doi: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.26.021304.144357

Graves, S. L., Herndon-Sobalvarro, A., Nichols, K., Aston, C., Ryan, A., Blefari, A., Schutte, K.,

Schachner, A., Vicoria, L., Prier, D. (2017). Examining the effectiveness of a culturally

adapted social-emotional intervention for African American males in an urban setting.

School Psychology Quarterly, 32(1), 62–74. doi: 10.1037/spq0000145

Kahne, J., Crow, D., & Lee, N. (2013). Different Pedagogy, Different Politics: High School

Learning Opportunities and Youth Political Engagement. Political Psychology, 34(3),

419-441. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23481170

Kenway, J., & Fitzclarence, L. (1997). Masculinity, Violence and Schooling: Challenging

poisonous pedagogies. ​Gender and Education,​ ​9(​ 1), 117–134. doi:

10.1080/09540259721493

Verschueren, M., Rassart, J., Claes, L., Moons, P., & Luyckx, K. (2017). Identity Statuses

throughout Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Large-Scale Study into Gender,

Age, and Contextual Differences. ​Psychologica Belgica​, ​57​(1), 32–42. doi:

10.5334/pb.348
Michael Hogan

Books:

Kroger, J. (2004). ​Identity in adolescence: the balance between self and other.​ New York, NY:

Routledge.

Nakkula, M. J., & Toshalis, E. (2006). ​Understanding youth: adolescent development for

educators.​ Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Dissertation:

Limperopulos, N. (2013). ​We all dreamed that one day we would be kings: The effects of chronic

exposure to community violence on urban male adolescents​ (dissertation).