Educational and Cultural Identities in Virtual Social Networks

Introduction

Identity has a double sense, where it refers to social traits, and at the same time, to the sources of a person's self-respect or dignity (Fearon, 1999). In this research we assume that identity is not a fixed and coherent set of traits, but something complex, which is subject to change across time and place (Morgan, 2004). Identities thus could be influenced by different factors as history, experiences and belonging groups. Specifically, teachers and students' identities are influenced by individual factors, as well as social ones. At the same time, these identities influence teachers' practices in the classroom, as well as students' learning, where positive image of the identity influences positively teaching and learning consequences and vice versa. An issue which attracts researchers' interest in the evolving virtual social networks is their ability to behold educational transactions and the influence of these transactions on students and teachers' different identity aspects. This research attempts to examine the identity aspect of working educationally in virtual social networks, specifically in Facebook, where three educational mathematical sites were constructed: a character representing a historical mathematician: Al-Khwarizmi; a fan group of another historical mathematician: Al-Khayyam; and a page about a mathematical phenomenon: the golden ratio. In this article, the first two sites are considered, where post-graduate students developed social, cultural and mathematical talks, connecting past and present and at the same time discussing their cultural and mathematical present, in addition to possible teaching and learning acts that could change that present.