Negotiating Identities: Appalachian Voices in Academia

This study reports the experiences of five Appalachian students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The investigation seeks to understand how students from Appalachia negotiate their identities in their academic writing and, as a result, suggests implications of current writing assessment measures related to Standard American English conventions. Participants completed semi-structured interviews to explain their experiences with preconceptions about Appalachia, feedback on their writing, and negotiations of identities in their writing. Based on interview responses and current literature, this study provides a deeper understanding about the relationship between personal and academic identities and how writing feedback from instructors affects both identities. This study offers recommendations for future research, which may include intentional diversity of participants, commentary from instructors on how they approach feedback, and a greater consideration of how students maintain multiple identities.