“I just want to build a future”: Future Time Perspectives and Case Studies of Refugee Adolescent Girls
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Date
2024-08-07
Authors
DeRosia, Nicholette
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Refugee girls are underserved in U.S. schools and under-studied in educational and psychological research. Using a feminist intersectional lens and a case study approach, this project sought to illuminate how three high school age refugee girls expressed their intersectional identities and their Future Time Perspectives (FTP; Lewin, 1948) when describing their case studies. It also examined how their intersectional identities showed up in those expressions, and if/how those identities aligned with their learning environment. The study focused on the mismatch between individualistic and collectivist identities interwoven into the other identities of the three girls focused on in this study. FTP should include Collective Time Extension, or an understanding of extending thinking of time into the past and the future, as not just individual, but also inclusive of collective identity. Furthermore, the study interrogated the associated idea of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST), which posits that as life’s perceived time gets shorter that priorities shift from achievement (academic, professional success) goals, to emotional (building relationships, spending time with loved ones) goals (Carstensen & Lang, 1996; 2002; Lang, 2017; Rohr, 2017). Rather than be on one side of a binary of identities that mismatched with the context they were in, they displayed complex capacities to hold and navigate many identities and understandings at once. The girls in this study leveraged their emotional goals and collective identities; to form and make sense of achievement goals in the individualistic systems they were a part of.
Keywords: Refugee, Future Time Perspective, Intersectionality, Collective Time Extension
Description
Keywords
Collective Time Extension, Future Time Perspective, Intersectionality, Refugee