Fostering Cultural Self-Awareness and Building Community Using Identity Boxes

Katherine Moore, Arcadia University

In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, my university sponsored several faculty to attend the transformative SpeakOut online summer institute. It was in one of these sessions that I learned about the successful implementation of the Cajita (“sacred box”) Project (Pulido, 2002) in cultural studies courses. I immediately saw the application to my own Cross-Cultural Psychology course and set out to design my own version.

For the Identity Box assignment, just as with the Cajita Project, students collect items (artifacts, photographs, jewelry, keepsakes, sacred items, etc.) that represent their cultural identity, and place them in a meaningful box (e.g. a suitcase to represent a student of divorced parents moving between two homes throughout childhood.) Students learn about and reflect on their culture, and define what culture means to them (i.e., not merely ethnic countries of origin or religion, but also examples such as disability culture or gaming culture.) Once assembled, students share their boxes with the class, explaining the items and their significance. They also write up this information and connect their personal examples to course themes (e.g. an academic award, having grown in up a European-American culture valuing individual achievement.)

A key feature of this assignment is its scaffolding and timing. To warm students up to the idea of making an identity box and sharing it, students share one item from their future identity box in the second week of the course, when we are first getting to know each other. The tone of the classroom immediately changes after that initial share—students are more talkative and comfortable with each other and with engaging vocally with the course content. Just after we’ve learned about cross-cultural notions of “self” and “identity,” students present their boxes over a two week period, which is about the midpoint of the semester. Sharing at the midpoint instead of as a final project allows us to have built up enough rapport to be vulnerable with each other, while also giving us the final six weeks of the semester post-share to enjoy our now-strengthened connections with each other.

The addition of the Identity Box Assignment to Cross-Cultural Psychology changed this course from a “great class” to a transformative experience for students (and their teacher!), which we have enjoyed every through remote, hybrid, and fully in-person learning. As some students wrote in course evaluations, “LOVE THE IDENTITY BOX. … It is very cool to reflect on things in your life and get vulnerable with classmates”; “I love the identity box. This helped connect course material and it helped me to really acknowledge my culture in a way I don't think I would have otherwise”; “I love hearing my classmates talk about their experiences. The identity boxes are so interesting and with a lot of things, they have made me feel not as alone with the things I’ve experienced.”

A version of this assignment may be fruitful in a variety of Psychology courses. If you strive for enhanced connection among students and for students to explore their cultural and social identities, I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Reference

Pulido, A. L. (2002). The Living Color of Students’ Lives: Bringing Cajitas into the Classroom. Religion & Education, 29(2), 69–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2002.10012310