Reframing Resistance as Agency: Gendered Identities in Early Mathematics

• In Event: 41.083 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 41.083-13 - Creativity and Agency as Resistance to Governing Discourses in/Outside of the Early Childhood Classroom: Interrogations and Transformative Imaginaries

Abstract

This paper uses positioning theory to examine how dominant narratives and teacher-child interactions contribute to children’s identity as doers (or not) of mathematics. Data for this qualitative study were collected by video recording observations of two prekindergarten classrooms. We found that at only 4 years old, females are already resisting teacher attempts to mathematize play. Based on the outcomes, we suggest rethinking what counts as mathematical materials and supporting teachers to reframe children’s resistance to mathematizing play from a ‘lack of take up’ to ‘acts of agency’. In doing so, we deconstruct deficit notions of children who do not engage in the mathematics so that we support them as they develop their own notions of themselves as mathematical beings.

Authors

• Anne Karabon, University of Nebraska Omaha

• Anita A. Wager, Vanderbilt University