“Taking Up Our Space”: Becoming Competent Mathematics Learners in the Mathematics Classroom

• In Event: Poster Session 20
  In Poster Session: Attitudes, Metacognition, and Problem Solving

Abstract

The call for all students to be mathematically proficient is a worthy aim and an unrealistic expectation given the unlevel playing field for different groups of students within mathematics education. Students with negative perceptions of themselves as math learners particularly struggle. In contrast, research suggests that activity structures that support participation in a practice in ways that are consistent with the person one is becoming can engage a range of learners. Case studies are developed of two students who became engaged in their mathematics class, despite having weak mathematical identities. They explore the processes by which the students came to “take up space” in the mathematics classroom, and posit features of mathematics classrooms that supported students’ practice-linked identities.

Authors

• Victoria M. Hand, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Stephanie A. Barr, University of Colorado - Boulder