Attending to the Intersectionality of Mathematics Experiences to Inform Institutional Change in Undergraduate STEM Education

• In Event: 53.076 - What Should Be the "Mathematics" in Mathematics Education?

Abstract

Gender equity is a perennial issue in mathematics education research that has been explored using a wide range of conceptualizations of gender and methodological approaches over the past 45 years (Author, accepted). My work uses intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 19991) with a conceptualization of gender as a dynamic social construct to pursue analyses of institutional, interpersonal, and ideological influences on mathematics experiences of underrepresented groups in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at intersections of gender and other social identities. This research aims to nuance knowledge of mathematics as a white, heteronormatively masculinized discipline to guide action in teacher professional development and STEM support program design that advances inclusion for gender variance across different intersectional identities. In this presentation, I look across three of my studies to highlight how they advance my knowledge-to-action goal as an educational researcher: leveraging the intersectionality of marginalized students’ experiences to inform institutional change in undergraduate STEM education. Mathematics and other STEM disciplines are shaped by gendered and racialized discursive binaries (e.g., masculine/feminine, White/Black) that structure hierarchies of ability (Mendick, 2006; Stinson, 2008). However, students’ negotiations of their positioning along these hierarchies become increasingly complex at intersections of identities as these binaries do not account for intersectionality of experience (Cech & Waidzunas, 2011; Stinson, 2008). As an illustrative example, our review of research that cites Faulkner’s (2000) paper -- a piece calling for disrupting the heterosexism of the technical/social dualism of engineering ability – illustrates the minimal extent to which researchers attend to intersections of gender and sexuality and thus perpetuate the privileging of technical expertise, a heteronormatively masculinized attribute (Author, under reviewa). With undergraduate STEM education intended to build students’ disciplinary practices, I argue for change in pedagogy and co-curricular programs aligned with the actual nature of STEM professions that challenges these long-standing discursive binaries and broadens opportunities for intersectional subgroups’ identifications with the academic disciplines. My work as an educational researcher is “done” when undergraduate STEM classrooms and support programs operate as relational spaces that attend to intersectionality in providing marginalized students with access to both academic and social support in navigating STEM. Taking undergraduate Latin@ students as an example, I have discussed how these student negotiate gendered cultural discourses of young mothers/caretakers and family breadwinners with their academic pursuits (Author, resubmitted, under reviewb). They reflect on how P-16 STEM teachers as fellow Latin@s understood and supported them in navigating these intersectional discourses while pursuing academic success. While I do not argue that such forms of support are contingent solely on mutual social identifications, my findings point to the need of diversifying the P-16 STEM teaching force and the potential of culturally responsive pedagogy in undergraduate STEM education (Stinson, 2016). Attending to the intersectionality of students’ experiences, therefore, is a way to inform change in undergraduate mathematics largely responsible for attrition of prospective STEM majors including future educators by carving relational spaces in classrooms and support initiatives where status is challenged and networks are meaningfully sustained (Rasmussen, Marrongelle, & Borba, 2014).

Author

• Luis Antonio Leyva, Vanderbilt University