Function and uses (abuses?) Of historical discourses in the social construction of identity

In this presentation we aim at approaching the phenomenon of identity from the perspective of Cultural Psychology. More specifically, our study focuses on the functions fulfilled by given cultural artefacts, such as historical discourse, in the collective processes of social construction and identity negotiation. In this sense, we consider that the current sociopolitical context implies a challenge as much as a suitable scenario to develop this kind of research. And this is so due to ongoing phenomena such as immigration which put forward the relevance of a responsible use of historical discourse by educational agents in order to avoid the emergence of identities based on esencialist and exclusivist notions. Along these lines we have been engaged in two research projects which, having the same object of study, i.e. identity, focus on different aspects involved in this phenomenon: the recall of historiographic texts and identity negotiation through interaction in the class.