“I Feel Myself in a Cage of Bird”: Berber Female Students’ Self-Identification in the Algerian Society - A Phenomenological Study

Abstract Algeria is flavoured by a diversity of ethnicities and languages. The country is dominated by two ethnic groups: Arabs and Berbers. My concern falls upon identity negotiation within the latter group and exploring how women within the Berber community represent themselves and how the society perceives them. To answer this question, I explored the autobiographical stories of three Algerian female students who study English as a foreign language at Bejaia University, and who grew up amongst Berbers. They took part in a forum theatre course I ran at their University to explore EFL learner identity. Adopting an idiographic case-by-case phenomenological analysis to the written stories of these three students brought my attention into the self-image they gave to themselves to articulate their identity. This study also looked at the factor of power relations in their experiences drawing on Bourdieu’s perspective. The findings of this phenomenological analysis revealed the impact of culture and ethnic norms on these students’ s freedom, desires, and transitions in education. This impact was at some stage distinctive. I discuss in this further in this paper.