Marginalized Within a Marginalized Community: Supporting Meaning-Making

• In Event: 81.032 - MTCC Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: 81.032-10 - Who Is Good at Mathematics? Conceptions in Classrooms and Popular Culture

Abstract

We examined how three students with learning differences interacted in supplemental small group instruction designed to foster meaning for unit fractions. Results suggest decreased access to reasoning and sense making in mathematics for one student who was “marginalized among the marginalized”. Three themes (i.e., Authority; Power and Positioning; Math as “The Answer”) uncovered in the analysis raise questions about knowledge that was (and was not) valued and the impact on this student’s access to mathematics. Furthermore, explicit moves by the teacher-researcher worked to position the child as a competent mathematical thinker and was related to his increasing propensity to persevere and productively struggle to make meaning in later sessions. Future research and implications are discussed.

Authors

• Jessica Heather Hunt, North Carolina State University

• Jonee Wilson, North Carolina State University