| Summary: | On the basis of knowledge and learning as social and subjective in nature, this paper explores contemporary notions of identity and discourse to inform an argument on how sites of formal education can confine students in oppressive subject positions but also potentially allow students to exert agency in the constructions and performances of their own identity. This paper argues that if education is to incite self-empowerment and social change, discursive understandings of identity formation and socialization must be reconciled with pedagogical conceptions of agency and social justice. To this end, postcolonial arguments on resistance and criticality are drawn upon to posit that identity is important in struggles against oppression, and as such is a central concern for critical pedagogy.
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