Identity Is More Than Just Mathematical: Queering/Cripping/Neuroqueering Mathematics Teacher Identity

• In Event: 21.019 - Queer Disruptions With/in Mathematical Identity: Postintersectionality and Mathematics Education

Abstract

Objectives. This theoretical paper offers a framing literature review and some preliminary thoughts towards a model of mathematics teacher identity that accounts for the (queerly, cripped, and/or neuroqueered) intersectional nature of identity.
Perspectives. The initial two versions of the model are augmented version of Van Zoest and Bohl (2005)’s nine-part mathematics teacher identity model and a third model is based on Davis and Sumara (2000)’s discussion of fractal organization of curricular forms.
Methods. This paper is based on a review of n=18 articles on various types of teacher identity (such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability). The literature review is inspired extension of Lutovac and Kaasila (2017) but, given that they gave only cursory coverage of intersectional identities, extends its inquiry to include research into other identities (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, disability) as well, in both teacher identity in general and mathematics teacher identity.
Data Sources. The eighteen articles considered about intersectionality teacher identity plus two additional framing articles, Van Zoest and Bohl (2005) and Lutovac and Kaasila (2017).
Results. This paper explores several different options for revising Van Zoest and Bohl’s theory, including an additive model where intersectional identities would represent a third category and a more integrative model in which intersectional identities are incorporated into each section of both the in-the-head identity and social identity. A final option involves queering the dichotomy between the social and the in-the-head and the linear presentation of Van Zoest and Bohl’s model, reconceptualizing teacher identity using a fractal model (inspired by Davis & Sumara, 2000)
Scholarly significance. Moving beyond traditional notions of teacher efficacy or agency, scholars studying mathematics teacher identity emphasize the dual nature of identity, being both individual and social (Van Zoest & Bohl, 2005) . Present models of mathematics teacher identity, however, do not account for the way in which mathematics teacher identity is gendered, sexualized, racialized, and dis/abled. Although a few articles address the intersection of race and gender with mathematics teacher identity (e.g. Chao, 2014, Clark, Badertscher & Napp, 2013; Vomvoridi-Ivanović, 2012), the studies are primarily empirical, and additional work is needed to reformulate theories of mathematics teacher identity to incorporate these intersectional approaches. Additionally, although sexual orientation and disability are covered in the general teacher identity literature (e.g. Paparo & Sweet, 2014; Dvir, 2015), the mathematics teacher identity literature does not address these dimensions of identity; this paper offers preliminary thoughts about how these aspects of identity will fit into an overall model and lays out an agenda for future empirical research in this area.

Author

• James R. Sheldon, The University of Arizona