mathematics identity thesis

• DOI: 10.1007/S11858-019-01050-Y
• Corpus ID: 151159073

Mathematics identity research: the state of the art and future directions

• Mellony Graven , Einat Heyd-Metzuyanim
• Published in Zdm 13 April 2019
• Mathematics, Education

73 Citations

Methods for conceptualizing and investigating teachers’ professional identity in literature reviews, mathematical identity in learning mathematics: bibliometric review, the experiential construction of mathematics teacher identity and the impact of early mathematical failure, transformation of preservice mathematics teachers' teacher identity orientations through a video club, elementary students’ mathematics identity: findings from a longitudinal study in an out-of-school setting, mathematics identity of prospective mathematics teachers: content analysis of open-ended survey questions, what does social realism have to offer for research on teacher identity in mathematics education.

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Critical moments: pre-service mathematics teachers’ narrative arcs and mathematical orientations over 20 years

The construction of mathematical identities among early adolescents, exploring queer and trans students’ mathematics identity in relation to stem as a white cisheteropatriarchal space, 96 references, methodological landscape in research on teacher identity in mathematics education: a review, future directions in research on mathematics-related teacher identity, towards conceptual coherence in the research on mathematics learner identity: a systematic review of the literature, pre-service teachers’ future-oriented mathematical identity work, a zone theory approach to analysing identity formation in mathematics education, connecting the dots: toward a networked framework to conceptualizing identity in mathematics education, social theories of learning: a need for a new paradigm in mathematics education, attitudes, beliefs, motivation, and identity in mathematics education, changing experiences of being, becoming, and belonging: teachers’ professional identity revisited, psychological imprisonment or intellectual freedom a longitudinal study of contrasting school mathematics approaches and their impact on adults' lives, related papers.

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2024 Theses Doctoral

Proof and Possibility: Emerging Mathematics Conceptions, Self-Efficacy, and Identity in the Stories of Contemporary Black Mathematicians

Morrison, Nasriah

A growing body of literature seeks to challenge the deficit-oriented narratives around Black students in mathematics by exploring the perspectives and experiences of successful Black students and professionals in the field—in doing so, aiming to provide counternarratives to the dominant discourse that center their participants’ voices, as well as to understand the factors that may influence Black students’ decisions to pursue advanced mathematics degrees and careers. Many such studies highlight racialized mathematics identity as a crucial factor for their participants’ long-term mathematics engagement; such studies seek to identify the sociostructural factors that contribute to its development, but generally do not examine the roles of different psychological factors. Despite evidence of the existence of relationships between mathematics identity development and specific cognitive factors such as mathematics conceptions, as well as affective factors such as mathematics self-efficacy, few studies have examined how these various constructs interact with identity development, and in turn, students’ mathematics engagement and learning outcomes. Fewer have examined these factors’ interactions for Black participants. A comprehensive understanding of how and why Black students decide to persist in mathematics necessitates an integrated approach that simultaneously examines the connections between participants’ psychological and sociostructural factors. In light of past findings around the significant role of mathematics self-efficacy in shaping students’ long-term mathematics engagement; prior findings around relationships between mathematics self-efficacy and identity; and the influences of mathematics conceptions on other affective mathematics beliefs, I chose for the present study to investigate the contributing factors for and interactions between mathematics self-efficacy, identity, and conceptions throughout the academic trajectories of several contemporary Black mathematicians. In doing so, I hoped to amplify my participants’ perspectives in the broader conversation around how to support Black students and students belonging to other historically excluded groups as they navigate mathematics learning environments that, at times, fail to stimulate, nurture, or uplift them. Using thematic analysis of several extensive semi-structured interviews, this narrative inquiry investigated these questions through the narratives of five contemporary Black mathematicians who were selected from a prior study on the impacts of sharing diverse mathematicians’ stories with students. Data sources included participants’ extant interview transcripts from both this study and other prior studies; as well as extensive follow-up interviews, online public engagement materials such as lectures and media publications, and my own memos. Data was coded using thematic analysis for both deductive themes related to the conceptual framework for this study, as well as emerging themes suggesting the existence of potential interactions between these constructs. Findings, which are reported in narrative form, suggest the importance of early and ongoing engagement with open-ended and reasoning-based mathematics tasks as a means of promoting broad conceptions of mathematics, self-efficacy for completing more challenging nonroutine tasks, as well as robust mathematics identities. Additionally, and in contrast to much of the literature around self-efficacy sources, findings from the present study highlight the particular importance of vicarious experiences of success by other Black mathematicians in shaping not only participants’ mathematics self-efficacies but their conceptions of mathematics, and accordingly, their dispositions toward mathematics.

• Mathematics--Study and teaching
• Students, Black
• African American mathematicians
• Multicultural education

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Mathematical Identity: An Investigation into the Learning Journeys of Adult Learners

This thesis explores the learning journeys of 21 adult learners as they return to formal education and re-engage with Mathematics in an adult education college in England. The participants of this research, most of them women, were studying on adult Mathematics courses and two third of them belonged to the BAME (Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic) group. The aim of this research was to understand how learners construct and narrate their mathematical identities (MI), and how these identities evolve and develop over time. It further investigated the different factors that influenced the formation of learners' MIs at different stages of their lives.This study was undertaken from an interpretive and sociocultural perspective and employed identity as a conceptual and analytical lens to examine learners' relationship with Mathematics. To develop the conceptual framework for this research, I drew from the theory of social learning (Wenger, 1998), the concept of identity as recognition...

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Many people reach adulthood having been denied access to positive mathematics learning experiences. At some point during their schooling they seem to have developed a mathematics identity of failure, helplessness or fear. This study aimed to better understand how this happens by focusing on learners’ identity construction at a particular time in their schooling: the transition to secondary school. Defining identity as a performance enabled an understanding of identity as situated firmly in the social context. This drew attention to the ways that context shapes identities. The study followed 22 students through the transition to secondary school. Interviews were conducted and observations made in mathematics classes at four key points during the 18 months in which students transitioned from Year 8 to Year 10. Interviews were also held with teachers and parents of the students. The data were combined in different ways to present the learners’ mathematics identities within the metaphor...

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I explore and describe learners’ mathematical social identities and their implications for the learners’ achievements in mathematics learning. A qualitative research method was conducted with a purposeful sample of one school in Gauteng Province, South Africa; a total of ten mathematics learners and three mathematics teachers were interviewed, and the mathematics learners’ parents completed questionnaires. The data acquired were presented and critically discussed. It became evident that mathematics learners and others viewed learners’ attitudes and beliefs toward mathematics learning as natural. They are however socially constructed. Race and gender, as well as their capabilities, are not significant in the learners’ achievements in mathematics learning. The assumptions have been that most theorists’ writings on learners’ mathematical social identities and their achievements in mathematics learning are very ambiguous and confusing. This worsens the problem. Most theorists have used terminologies like mindsets, beliefs, attitudes, capability, interest, like, dislike, enjoyment, daunting and phobia. These terms make the learners, as well as others, believe that there might be something unique generating the attributes; it is what they are born with, as well as internal psychological phenomena that the mathematics learners either have or do not have. I offer conclusions and recommendations supported by the data discussed for effective mathematics learning and achievement in Gauteng Province, South Africa and beyond.

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Mathematical Identity and the Role of the Educator

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Mathematical identity is a socio-motivational construct known to be a predictor of mathematical achievement. Students who identify positively with mathematics are more likely to pursue advanced courses and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related occupations. Although mathematical identity is shaped by a myriad of internal and external factors on both a small and large scale, educators play a significant role in the formation of their students’ mathematical identities. This paper presents an overview of research regarding those pedagogical practices for teaching mathematics that can foster the formation of positive mathematical identities.

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Mathematical Identity: An Investigation into the Learning Journeys of Adult Learners

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Identity research in mathematics education

• Published: 23 March 2016
• Volume 93 , pages 19–33, ( 2016 )

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• Lisa Darragh 1 , 2  

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This paper examines the literature on identity within mathematics education published in journals over the past two decades. It analyses the theoretical underpinnings, research methods and definitions of identity, providing a critique rather than a summary of the literature. A total of 188 articles from 85 different journals are reviewed in the sample. This review finds support for common complaints of this research area as lacking in definitions of the concept of identity and suggests that the writing in this topic is at times theoretically incompatible. Furthermore, the work in this field may be coming from two distinct paradigms. Identity may be seen as an action and fit within a sociological frame or it may be seen as an acquisition, fitting within a psychological framing. Defining identity as something we do, as an action, and in particular as performative is promoted in this paper. Finally, suggestions are made for future directions in identity research.

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Identity Research in Mathematics Education: Reifications Within Multiple Theoretical Viewpoints

Mathematics identity research: the state of the art and future directions

Towards conceptual coherence in the research on mathematics learner identity: a systematic review of the literature

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Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the Centre for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE, Santiago, Chile), for enabling the writing of this article due to funding from CIAE Project FB0003 from the Associative Research Program of La Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica.

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Lisa Darragh

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Darragh, L. Identity research in mathematics education. Educ Stud Math 93 , 19–33 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-016-9696-5

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