‘Who am I? Where do I fit in? What do I want to be?’ These are common questions we associate with adolescent development. For young people who have left care through adoption, these questions about identity and self have added layers of nuance and complexity that may not be fully appreciated by peers, extended family or adults in the school workforce. These extra layers, and their potential implications for educational experience, are explored in this blog post and discussed in greater detail in our study (Brown & Shelton, 2023).
Our study considers the potential of applying a ‘narrative adoptive identity’ perspective (Grotevant & von Korff, 2011) to answer questions about how adopted young people experience school as an ‘adopted’ person; that is, how does their lived experience as an adopted member of a school community impact on how they engage with their school, schoolwork and social network? We theorise that by taking this approach to understanding adoptees’ unique challenges, opportunities for better educational experience may be enhanced.
Our study shows a dearth of academic research into adoption and education, and that the voice of adoptees is strikingly absent. The irony of not being able to include the voice of the very adoptees we were writing about was not lost on us. Fortunately, I was contacted by an adoptee who had read our paper. This adopted young person, Rosie (pseudonym) offered unsolicited, but most warmly welcomed, feedback on the article. [For context, Rosie was taken into care at four years old (with her siblings) and found an adoptive family at age six (with her siblings). She is now 26 and living independently]. With some trepidation – because, with all due respect to peer reviewers, the response from adopted people is a critical acid test – I read her feedback.
