Using I Poems to Illuminate Students' Mathematical Identities

• In Event: 73.058 - Students' Mathematical Thinking: Grades K-5

Abstract

This paper describes findings from a portion of a large-scale research project that is investigating students’ experiences learning mathematics, and the ways that those experiences contribute to students’ mathematical identities and images of mathematics. We focus on the use of I Poems, part of the Listening Guide method (Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg, & Bertsch, 2003), to better understand the multiple voices that comprise an individual student’s mathematical identity. This paper centres on one student’s interview as an example of both this analysis method and the benefits it provides.

Authors

• Jennifer Hall, Monash University

• Jo M. Towers, University of Calgary

• Lyndon C. Martin, York University