Identity work by alternative high school students

This article examines the adaptive strategies of institutionally marginalized students in an alternative high school setting. Snow and Anderson's (1987) model of ''identity work '' is used to analyze the ways in which students symbolically distance themselves from certain features of their ''home'' school and embrace certain features of their alternative school. Drawing upon semistructured interviews with 25 students, it is argued that these distancing and embracement processes lie at the heart of their struggle to assemble a sense of self that is congruent with their former ''problem '' and consistent with their current institutional status. Key distancing themes are identified,including institutionalcontrols, teacher competence, peer evaluations,educational quality, and alternative school images. Embracement strategies revolve around organizational, associational, and atmospheric themes. The policy implications for a more contextualized understanding of alternative school experiences are examined, and the theoretical implications of an interactionistmodel for a better understandingof the intersectionof institutionalarrangements and student identities are discussed.