Spaces of a Student
This project examines how students code-switch in the various spaces they find themselves in. I want to answer the question of why this behavior of code-switching occurs and what are the different effects it has on students. Once we deepen our understanding of why students code-switch, I want to highlight different ways students can combat code-switching. I am interested in looking into code-switching among students because I have recognized my habit of code-switching, and this project is an opportunity to be a space and platform to do research and reflect on it. This project will not only help me but also my peers who are facing the same experiences.
In this project, I see spaces as a group of people with a title who have similar interests or relate in some way. These spaces include but are not limited to sports teams, academic clubs, childhood friends, housemates, sororities, fraternities, immediate family and extended family, and cultural groups. Students can label many things as a space. Spaces have an enormous impact on a student, which depends on how much the student cares about being a member of that space and how much they are involved in it.
When students are a part of many spaces, there is often a range of different people or values in each space, which results in code-switching. Code-switching is when a student consciously or unconsciously changes the state of how they speak, behave, or appear to conform to the dominant culture (Cooks-Campbell, 2022). I am a part of two spaces being a USC student-athlete - student and athletics. While on my athletic team, I do not have to overthink how I say things. I can use slang words as I speak, and I do not fear being deemed dumb or slow. However, in the space of students, such as in the class setting or group projects, I withhold myself from using slang, but I think about using big words to help me sound educated. This example demonstrates code-switching from African American Vernacular English to the dominant way of English socially accepted in the academic setting. Code-switching can be as little as not wearing your hair in a certain way to change your whole personality.
Students feel they need to code-switch because of the social norms and stereotypes in each space they belong to. For instance, a girl, let us call her Neveah, grew up poor in South Central and then grew up to attend the University of Southern California for college. Neveah has childhood friends from her neighborhood who did not grow up to go to college and ended up staying in South Central. However, Neveah has made new USC friends who grew up wealthy and are future doctors, lawyers, and engineers. When Neveah is with her USC friends, she is quiet. She does not talk with her hands and uses big words in her jokes. While at home in South Central, she acts the opposite by talking with her hands, laughing as loud as she can, and making jokes with every curse word in the book. However, Neveah knows if she acts the way she carries herself with her childhood friends her USC friends will look down upon her and label her as ratchet and uncivilized. In contrast, if Neveah acts the way she acts with her USC friends with her childhood friends, they will deem her as white-washed and an Oreo. An Oreo is used to describe a person who is black on the outside but white on the inside, which is like the makeup of an Oreo. This example shows the conflicts many student experiences in the two different spaces of their childhood vs. adulthood friends.
The fear of being outcasted by our peers in spaces makes us act in a certain way to avoid that experience. Students conform by doing or saying things they perceive they should, which reminds me of a poem called Diaspora by Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha. A diaspora is the dispersal of people, willing or unwilling, from their homeland. In the poem, she describes, “You are always looking over your shoulder. Packing. Always panicking that this place won’t let you come back” (Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha). Even though, this poem is about the feelings one feels when one has to pack up their belongings and leave their homeland to another country. We can relate this to the feelings of a student masking or tweaking their true identity in a space they are in due to the fear of not being accepted. The student always looks over their shoulder to make sure no one in their space realizes they do not belong or make sure they are packing and stowing away their perceived unfavoured qualities from the group because they fear once the group witness those traits they might not let them back in that space.
Students often do not want to show their attributes that do not align with the commonality of that space. We see this in the infamous childhood movie High School Musical. In the song, Stick to the Status Quo, each different type of group from the athletes, the skaters, to the nerds sings about sticking to the status quo. In the song, one of each member in the group sings about having another hobby they are interested in that they have been keeping a secret. The one person builds up the courage to speak about their interest that differs from the common interest of the space, and immediately the group shuts them down and tells them, “No, no, no, Stick to the stuff you know, it is better by far, to keep things as they are, don't mess with the flow, no, no stick to the status quo” (Highschool Musical, 2006). Spaces can have this idea of sticking to a certain status quo intentionally or unintentionally. For example, athletes do not care for grades, while students care. During my freshman year at USC on my basketball team, I kept hearing the saying, “Cs get degrees”, which meant that a C was good enough. It was a shared belief that there was no need to get a better grade because they only cared about being eligible to play, and getting a degree and getting Cs in their course allowed them to do that. Compared to my space of students who were on the pre-med track, getting an A- was stressful because it would drop their grade point average (GPA), and it would not result in applicants for medical school. In my athletic spaces, I could not show my frustration in getting a B in a class because I would be seen as weird or being too hard on myself. After all, a B is satisfactory. While in a space filled with my pre-med friends, being satisfied with my B shows them the image of me not being a serious student or caring about my future of going to medical school.
Code-switching is not a bad thing to do in certain situations, but students who feel they need to code-switch from space to space to fit in can have consequences on their identity. Code-switching is inevitable in certain situations, like when trying to communicate something to another person in a way they can understand, like switching from two different languages. Also, in a professional setting, when wanting to hold an image for a company or business. However, these types of code-switching should occur for a short period of your whole day. But students who change their behaviors throughout the day can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Also, they are less likely to enjoy their experience of being in college and, potentially, later on, regret it once outside of college. Finally, college is for students to find their identity. Constant code-switching does not allow them to find their true identity but establishes the idea that their identity revolves around the people they are around. The character qualities of not being true to yourself and being a people pleaser are not qualities one wants to develop. A people pleaser's goal is to please others by behaving the way they perceive that other people would wish for them to act for people to like them. Often disliked because people eventually notice they have no opinions or values for themselves.
The way to avoid or combat the negative effect of code-switching is first to acknowledge where and what spaces the student finds themselves code-switching and why. After answering this question, the student should challenge themselves to open up and show their concealed side of themselves and see what happens. As humans, we assume the outcome in our heads by projecting our fears, but in reality, the outcome is the complete opposite. We live in a day and age where students are open and do not believe in social constructs of different social groups. However, if the student opens up and is immediately judged or criticized by the group, they should rethink if they should be in a space where they can not act like themselves.
Students should join a space “where [their] desired behavior is the normal behavior and [they] already have something in common with the group (Clear, 2018). Spaces like these help build good habits and allow students to find themselves. However, the most essential part is that individuals in the space provide the student to be themselves; when they show the side of their identity, that differs from the common of the group, they do not feel like they belong but is exhilarated about their new interests. Students picking their space wisely eliminates the pressure of code-switching because the intersectionality of the spaces start to form when the student is mostly themselves throughout each space they walk into.
As a junior, I found myself code-switching in the spaces I was a part of for the first two years of my college career due to trying to please everyone. However, I became tired of changing myself to make others comfortable and happy. So, I changed up the spaces I was in and joined other spaces where I could be my authentic self without feeling ostracized. I have been able to find myself and build confidence to be myself.
Students who understand the meaning of code-switching, realize when they do it, and choose to avoid doing it to please others will become happier and content with themselves and their identity. Also, they can break the social stigma placed on the unique characteristics they often hide in spaces. Also, change the stereotype of spaces, having a stereotype of only particular people with the same mindset can be in that space. Code-switching will not disappear, but the student should remove it as a tool to mask or alter their selves consistently in different spaces.
Work Cited
Bisma Anwar, L. (2023, February 24). Code-switching: Exploring the mental health costs. Talkspace. https://www.talkspace.com/blog/code-switching-what-is/#:~:text=Code%20switching%20as%20it%20relates,with%20the%20people%20around%20you.
Book summary: Atomic Habits by James Clear. Sam Thomas Davies. (2023, July 13). https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/book-summaries/self-help/atomic-habits/
Cooks-Campbell, A. (n.d.). What is code-switching and how does it impact teams? BetterUp. https://www.betterup.com/blog/code-switching
High school musical cast – stick to the status quo. Genius. (n.d.). https://genius.com/High-school-musical-cast-stick-to-the-status-quo-lyrics
Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L. (n.d.). BodyMap Poems (Diaspora).
