Social Identity Wheel – Equitable Teaching

Social Identity Wheel

Social Identity Wheel

Overview

The Social Identity Wheel worksheet is an activity that encourages students to identify social identities and reflect on the various ways those identities become visible or more keenly felt at different times, and how those identities impact the ways others perceive or treat them. The worksheet prompts students to fill in various social identities (such as race, gender, sex, ability disability, sexual orientation, etc.) and further categorize those identities based on which matter most in their self-perception and which matter most in others’ perception of them. The Social Identity Wheel can be used in conjunction with the Personal Identity Wheel to encourage students to reflect on the relationships and dissonances between their personal and social identities. The wheels can be used as a prompt for small or large group discussion or reflective writing on identity by using the Spectrum Activity, Questions of Identity.

Please leave a comment at the bottom of the page with your thoughts or experience with this activity and be sure to check out our other resource guides and activity guides to further your knowledge and practice on inclusive teaching!

Activity Goals:

  • To encourage students to consider their identities critically and how identities are more or less keenly felt in different social contexts. The classroom and the university can be highlighted as a context as a way to approach questions on barriers to inclusion.

  • To illuminate how privilege operates to normalize some identities over others. For example, a student who speaks English as their first language can reflect on why they rarely need to think about their language as an aspect of their identity while some of their peers may identity language as the aspect of their identity they feel most keenly in the classroom.

  • To sensitize students to their shared identities with their classmates as well as the diversity of identities in the classroom, building community and encouraging empathy.

Application in a STEM Course:

Fostering a sense of community in your classroom can create a sense of belonging. According to a CRLT study on retention in STEM courses, “students reported that classroom climate (including their anxiety levels, how welcome they felt in class…and instructor rapport with students) significantly influenced their decisions to stay in or leave STEM disciplines.” If students feel that they are part of a community, they will feel more comfortable engaging and participating in the classroom. In another study, peer interactions and support in STEM courses led to gains both academically and socially. The Social Identity Wheel is a great way for students to engage with each other on a personal level, creating connections that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Taking the time to complete this activity at the start of the semester will help students form meaningful bonds, allowing them to better collaborate and support each other throughout the semester.

Application in a Large Course:

Cooperative learning and small group approaches in a large course can greatly benefit student learning, engagement, and overall sense of community. Research has shown that leveraging such approaches can lead to the development of key skills such as active listening, empathy, consensus building, leadership, constructive conflict management and resolution as well as decreasing racial prejudice while increasing interracial tolerance. This activity allows students in your large course to learn from and about each other and to reduce the feeling of anonymity that can be pervasive in a large course setting. By making your large course feel smaller through this activity, you are actively working toward making a more inclusive space for all students.

Citation: Cooper, J.L. and Robinson, P. (2000), The Argument for Making Large Classes Seem Small. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2000: 5-16. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1002/tl.8101

Application in an Online Course:

Online learning can feel impersonal and disconnected, but there are inclusive teaching practices you can leverage to build community and connection in your online course. Taking the time to get to know each other’s identities through this activity can help build trust between students, which is a key indicator of whether or not students feel comfortable participating. In one study, researchers asked the question, “what did graduate students who were enrolled in an online course about teaching online find most valuable about online moderation and community building?” From the study, students stated that Student Needs and Community Building were essential components to online learning. Regarding Student Needs, one student stated, “It is necessary that everyone feels safe, comfortable, and welcomed before they will fully engage, enabling them to make personal connections and grow from each other.” Regarding Community Building, another student stated, “Learning communities often develop naturally in a traditional classroom environment, but in an online course, the instructor must make that happen.”

Social Identity Wheel Activity Guide:

Related Posts:


Facilitating the Social Identity Wheel in Your Classroom:

Social Identity Wheel starts at the 6:46 mark

59 thoughts on “Social Identity Wheel”

  1. Prof Richard Kwiatkowski

    Excellent resources with a very helpful presentation alongside. Thanks for making it public.

      1. I agree with you Mors, the information provided on the social identity wheel will allow the students and the teacher to compare their personal/social identities making it insightful and meaningful.

  2. It is necessary that everyone feels safe, comfortable, and welcomed before they will fully engage, enabling them to make personal connections and grow from each other. Its a great post. This excellent article and helpful post thanks for sharing.

  3. This is very good ideal to have student know about there on culture and also get to know more in other in Class: this activity can be done in different age labels . Thank you

  4. The activity was very meaningful since it gathered great information which lends to how people think and react to everyday situations.

  5. These exercises are very valuable in gathering information so as to be able to deal with the changing face and pace of education in many multicultural classrooms.

  6. The Social Identity Wheel worksheet is a worksheet that challenges students to identify social identities and reflect on how those identities become more visible or felt at different times, as well as how those identities affect how others perceive or treat them.

  7. Hi there

    Very nice content and blog, I found it very informative and useful, hope to read more nice articles like this one around here,

    Keep sharing the best content,

    Best regards!

    Your follower

    Salvatore

  8. Good effort. However, the underlying logic of the entire enterprise is a bit presumptuous. The categories and identities do not all make sense to an immigrant student, or international students. Western social categories abound here in a way that makes them normative even in non-Western societies.
    This should be addressed and corrected or at east noted.

  9. The Social Activity Identity Wheel wheel is a nice mechanism to introduce and presenty to students and teachers. It was nice to have a tool and resource to guide students while learning about their culture, identity and discovery more about them selves.

    After listing the interview I probaly would use this in my class.

    Jan

  10. The Social Identity Wheel activity is precisely what I was looking to use next semester and share with my colleagues. I also plan to use the Personal Identity Wheel and Spectrum Activity! Thank you for sharing these wonderful activities, explaining how to use them, and also for including your students’ voices in the video! Love it!

  11. I have used this activity with my members for 2 years, in 3 different cohorts. I’ve found a way to do it virtually and the members are always so engaged and have great dialogue about their identities.

  12. This activity can provide students and teachers with useful communication and better understanding of one another.

  13. I do agree with all the ideas you’ve presented in your post. They’re really convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too short for novices. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post

  14. I just learned from this topic in one of my MPH courses at UC Berkeley and it is very interesting to reflect on my own social identity. Excellent topic!

  15. I appreciated the opportunity to be able to learn of the Social Identity Wheel activities. This gives teachers another forum to utilize in the classroom where they and students can gain insight to each others likes and dislikes. Such information can be helpful in how one approaches learning from one another.

  16. I can see the Personal Identity wheel being a great tool for the first day of school so students and teachers can get to know each other.

  17. I am grateful for the chance to discover the Social Identity Wheel activities. These activities provide teachers with an additional platform to employ in the classroom, enabling both educators and students to gain insights into each other’s preferences and aversions. Such knowledge can be valuable in shaping how individuals engage in learning from one another.

  18. Thank you for this information. I am holding a social identity wheel workshop for students as an activity and this really helps me to make it most effective.

  19. The Social Identity Wheel activity seems like a valuable tool for encouraging students to explore and understand their identities, fostering empathy, and building a sense of community within various educational contexts. It’s great to see efforts being made to create inclusive spaces in both physical and online classrooms. Building connections among students based on their diverse identities can lead to a more supportive and engaging learning environment. Thanks for sharing this insightful approach to teaching.

  20. These are excellent activities. I’ve always felt most comfortable in classes that did this type of ice breakers activities before starting a class. They helped me feel more comfortable relaxed and connected to the other students.

  21. The social identity wheel is an excellent tool to represent the various aspects of a person’s social identity and encourage self awareness.

  22. Browsing your blog post is a real wonderful experience. Thanks again for thinking of readers like me, and I hope for you the best of achievements as being a professional discipline.

  23. Great ,This is Informative article! I hope others people in education get help to read this informative article. Thank you for sharing.

  24. Amazing post and outstanding work.I’m enjoy to read your article.The information on this content is very good and well to know.I appreciate your effort you put in this article.keep it up.Thanks for sharing valuable information.

  25. Never delved into such nuanced depths of culture and its invisible role on communication. A mind opening read!

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