Contesting the Alamo and Smartness: Theorizing Student Identities, Agency, and Learning within the Contentious Practices of U.S. Classrooms

Identity and agency are key to understanding student learning within classroom contexts. Utilizing figured worlds and local contentious practices as analytical frameworks, identity and agency are theorized as cultural practices that occur as part of the learning process in schools. Specifically, this article discusses self-authorship and the process of self-making as agentic practices in classrooms. History lessons about the Alamo for Mexican-American students and the ways students are positioned in classrooms around concepts of smartness connect theory to practice within the article. Implications are discussed for in-service and pre-service teacher development.