"A Little Surprising to Do Math Art": Transdisciplinary Identities in Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education

• In Event: 63.026 - Teaching and Learning Mathematics: How Identity Keeps Count as a System Premised on Multidirectional Dimensions

Abstract

Theoretical Framework
An established stereotype groups the STEM subjects as the (masculinized) ‘hard sciences’, in opposition to the (feminized) ‘soft’ arts. Many new secondary mathematics teacher candidates, male and female, bring these stereotypes to teacher education programs as part of their emergent identities as math teachers (Schommer-Aikins, Duell & Barker, 2003; Kreber & Castleden, 2009; Flores & Day, 2006).

This identification is challenged as mandated curricula become more transdisciplinary (English, 2016; Clark & Button, 2011) and STEM is expanded to STEAM with the inclusion of the arts. The benefits of integrating the arts with STEM subjects has been proven beneficial as (a) work with the embodied expressivity of mathematical patterning in the arts helps develop deeper understanding of mathematical concepts, and (b) transdisciplinary work across mathematics and the arts provide new forms of inquiry and invention in the application of mathematics (Land, 2013; Bequette & Bequette, 2012). STEAM is now well established in the academic world, as is the field of mathematics and the arts (see the twenty-year archives of the Bridges Math and Arts conference at , the Mathematics Association of America SIG on Mathematics and the Arts, and the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts), but this news has not always reached teacher candidates and schools. Splitting identification with mathematics or the arts reaffirms gender divisions and blocks potential benefits of STEAM approaches for generations of learners -- and our societies.

Purposes/Research Questions
Is it possible to challenge new mathematics teachers’ stereotypes by integrating math/arts inquiry in secondary mathematics methods courses? How might this intervention affect new teachers’ identification as mathematical artists in transdisciplinary STEAM approaches?

Modes of Inquiry and Evidence
The author has undertaken design experiment interventions in teacher education courses for three years with n=60 participants, documenting teacher candidate responses using several qualitative approaches. Student reflections on math/art assignments with regard to their identities as mathematics teachers are triangulated with pre-/ post-questionnaires and individual and focus group exit interviews after successful completion of the course. This evidence is analyzed in a grounded theory paradigm, with special attention to dilemmas and contradictions encountered by new teachers when encountering practices challenging established identities and expectations.

Results
Initial findings show that new secondary mathematics teachers have difficulty taking on an identification as mathematical artists, even those who identify as both mathematicians and artists on arrival to the teacher education program. Cultural stereotypes and anxieties as new teachers play into an initial wish to maintain firm barriers between identities in these ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ fields. However, there is clearly movement in the direction of developing identities as mathematical artists, especially through (a) introducing math/art inquiry early in the teacher education program, and (b) direct, reciprocal contact with established mathematical artists as part of this approach.

Scholarly Significance
This study has implications for the design of teacher education programs to support STEAM and related transdisciplinary approaches through effective interventions supporting broader teacher identity development.

Author

• Susan Gerofsky, The University of British Columbia