The Diagram as Story: Unfolding the Event Structure of the Mathematical Diagram

• In Event: Students’ Mathematical Thinking and Learning

Abstract

This paper explores the use of narrative in theorizing new ways of engaging students in mathematical diagrams. Social and material semiotics are used as frameworks for making sense of mathematical diagrams, drawing extensively on O’Halloran (2005) and Rotman (2008). Theories of narration are discussed, exploring the way that narrators position themselves both inside and outside the story-world. Data collected from a research experiment is analyzed, suggesting that expert diagram decoders leverage narrative strategies in particular ways. The paper shows how participants switched from third-person narrating to embedded story-bound narrating, changing pronouns and points-of-view whereby they positioned themselves within the diagram (at different vantage points), narrating and recounting observations as though from various embedded positions.

Author

• Elizabeth De Freitas, Adelphi University