Shaping Our Identities Informative Speech
Good morning, everyone. If someone asked you, “Who are you?”, how would you answer? You
might give your name, your profession, your nationality, your interests, or describe the people you
care about. But none of those answers completely explains who you are. Identity is built from many
experiences, relationships, beliefs, memories, and choices. And one of the most powerful forces that
can shape that identity is education.
“Shaping Our Identities” is the title of a TEDxUniversityofMalaya talk by Dr. Shirin Shafiei Ebrahimi,
delivered in 2019. Dr. Shafiei, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in English, discusses identity
and the role education can play in helping people understand themselves. The talk presents
education not simply as a way to collect qualifications, but as a process that can influence how
people understand themselves, their communities, and their place in the world. This speech
explores that idea and the broader ways identity develops.
Identity is not something that appears fully formed at birth. Some aspects of who we are are
connected to biology and family background, while others develop through experience. As children
grow, they learn language, values, social expectations, traditions, and ways of interpreting the world.
Family members, teachers, friends, communities, and later workplaces all provide feedback about
who we are and what we are capable of becoming. Over time, people accept some messages, reject
others, and create their own understanding of themselves.
Education can be especially influential because schools are not only places where information is
taught. They are social environments where students learn how to communicate, cooperate,
question ideas, solve problems, and participate in communities. A student who learns to express an
opinion in class may begin to see themselves as confident. A student who discovers an ability in
mathematics, writing, science, music, or sport may develop a new sense of possibility. These
experiences can become part of identity.
Teachers also influence identity through expectations. When an educator communicates that a
student is capable of learning and improving, that message can affect how the student approaches
challenges. On the other hand, repeated negative labels can influence self-perception. This is one
reason educational language matters. Saying “you are not good at this” presents ability as fixed,
while saying “you have not mastered this yet” leaves room for development. Small differences in
language can communicate very different ideas about who a student can become.
Identity is also shaped by culture and language. The language people speak carries histories,
traditions, values, humor, and ways of describing relationships. Learning another language can
therefore do more than add vocabulary. It can expose a person to different ways of expressing ideas
and understanding other communities. At the same time, maintaining one's home language and
cultural traditions can strengthen a sense of belonging. Education can create space for both:
learning about the wider world without requiring people to erase where they came from.
Peer relationships are another powerful influence. Students constantly compare themselves with
others and receive signals about what is considered popular, intelligent, attractive, successful, or
acceptable. These judgments can shape confidence and belonging. A supportive classroom can
give students opportunities to see differences as normal rather than threatening. When students
encounter people with different experiences and perspectives, they can also learn that identity is
more complex than the labels they may have previously used.
The digital world has added another layer. Social media allows people to present selected versions
of themselves to large audiences. Profiles, photographs, comments, achievements, and interests
can become part of a public identity. This can provide opportunities for creativity and connection, but
it can also create pressure to perform a particular version of the self. The person we present online
may be similar to our offline identity, but it is not necessarily the whole story.
Education can help people become more aware of these influences. Critical thinking is not only
about evaluating information. It can also mean examining the assumptions we have about ourselves.
Why do I believe I am good at one thing and bad at another? Where did that belief come from? Was
it based on evidence, experience, encouragement, or someone else's expectation? Asking
questions like these can help people distinguish between an identity they have consciously
developed and a label they simply inherited.
Identity also changes throughout life. The person entering elementary school is not the same person
graduating from high school. A college student may discover interests that were invisible during
childhood. A professional may develop a new identity through work. A person who becomes a
parent, moves to a new country, learns a new skill, or experiences a major challenge may rethink
how they see themselves. Change does not mean that earlier identities were false. It means identity
can evolve as experience expands.
This is why education can be a life-changing experience. The most valuable outcome of learning is
not always a grade or certificate. Sometimes it is the moment a person discovers a question they
want to explore, realizes they can solve a difficult problem, finds their voice, or begins to understand
someone else's experience. These moments can change the story people tell themselves about who
they are and what they can contribute.
At the same time, education does not shape identity by itself. People are influenced by family,
culture, friendships, economic circumstances, media, community, work, and personal choices. Two
students can attend the same school and leave with very different identities because they interpret
and experience the environment differently. Education is therefore one influence within a much
larger system of human development.
The deeper lesson is that identity is both received and constructed. We inherit names, languages,
histories, and circumstances, but we also interpret them. We learn from other people, but we can
question what we learn. We are influenced by expectations, but we can decide which expectations
deserve to guide us. Education is valuable partly because it can give people the knowledge and
confidence to make those choices consciously.
So when we ask, “Who am I?”, there may never be a single permanent answer. We are shaped by
where we come from, what we experience, what we learn, the people we meet, and the decisions
we make. Education can become one of the places where we discover those influences and begin to
shape our own direction. The goal is not to create one identical kind of person, but to help people
understand themselves well enough to participate thoughtfully in the world around them.
Our identities are not simply labels written on us by other people. They are living stories that develop
over time. Education can influence those stories by opening new possibilities, challenging old
assumptions, and giving people the tools to understand both themselves and others. If learning
changes what we know, it can also change what we believe is possible. And sometimes, discovering
who we can become is the most important lesson education can offer. Thank you.
