In recent years, learning scientists have attended more and more to the study of learning as a uniquely human endeavor that occurs in the context of cultural practices and that is linked to values and future imagined selves. In so doing, the field has taken considerations of identity seriously. In this chapter, the author explores some of the challenges in studying identity in learning contexts. It is her intention to offer a set of ideas that support nuanced and contextualized accounts of identity processes in youth's lives that may be consequential for youth's social futures and to outline implications for research on these topics.