Recrafting Mathematics: Toward a Critical Analysis of Gender and Mathematical Practice

• In Event: Narratives of Gender and Its Intersections as They Influence Identities and Participation in Mathematics

Abstract

Women have historically been denied opportunities to identify with the discipline of mathematics, stemming from previous centuries when women were barred from the study of mathematics, and persisting to current structures that continue to promote more traditionally masculine “ways of being” (Alper, 1993; Boaler, 2002; Holleran, Whitehead, Schmader, & Mehl, 2010; Riffle et al., 2013). Yet while researchers continue to describe the ways that cultural scripts around “doing mathematics” and “doing female” (Zimmerman & West, 1987) are in conflict, there are in fact many traditionally female-dominated communities of practice that make use of mathematics regularly and fruitfully. The tacit mathematical practices involved in quilting, weaving, knitting, and other textile crafts have been described in previous literature (e.g. Cochrane, 1988; Hebb, 2003). Thus we know that there is the potential to engage with mathematical ideas while participating in these crafts. However, the ways that crafters develop identities in relation to the discipline of mathematics through these activities has been largely unexplored.

In this paper, we examine how women come to identify with mathematics as it is realized in very different contexts—school mathematics, and textile crafting. It is clear that identity development takes place in relation to a set of contexts and practices, and thus we find it useful to distinguish between the kinds of identities that are available in particular settings, and how people come to identify with those available identities. Drawing on a framework presented by (Author, 2009), we identify the normative identities that are available in the domains of school math and craft math, and consider differences in the ways that women come to personally identify, comply, or challenge those normative identities.

Our analysis of interviews of over 50 women with significant experience in textile craft suggest that normative identities for math classrooms are remarkably stable across a range of ages, experiences, and locations. These normative identities fit well with existing literature, primarily involving constrained, algorithmic encounters with a prescribed sequence. For the most part, women we interviewed described either complying with this version of mathematics (“it wasn’t particularly difficult for me, but I didn’t really enjoy it”), or rejecting (or even being rejected by) it. This was in stark contrast with their description of their experience with crafting, which was an endeavor with which they universally identified. From the women’s descriptions, the normative practices of crafting always involved more diverse ways of participating, more personal agency, and more ability to determine for oneself when something was right or good.

What is clear from our analysis of women’s identities in relation to these domains is that despite potential overlap in content, the conflicting participation structures contribute to widely different identification patterns. Whereas in mathematics, women appeared to be rejecting conceptual difficulty, this was most often the case when it came fused to an external authority. In crafting, by contrast, women were identifying with the artistic elements of their craft, but also with problem solving they saw themselves doing, particularly as it came along with personal agency.

Authors

• Melissa Sommefeld Gresalfi, Vanderbilt University

• Katherine Carr Chapman, Vanderbilt University