Mathematics Education Communities: Crossing Virtual Boundaries

• In Event: Exploring the Role of Borders in Mathematics Preservice Teacher Education

Abstract

As social media has grown, participation in virtual communities focused on the teaching and learning of mathematics has become a norm within the field of mathematics education. We refer to these online groups as virtual mathematics education communities (vMECs) in contrast to real-world mathematics education communities (rMECs). Little work has been done within the field to understand the evolving landscape these communities present and the boundaries that educators, both new and old, create, cross, or demolish through community participation.

Drawing on theoretical work in communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998; Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015) and boundary crossing (Clarke, 2015), we build a framework for understanding vMECs. Here boundary crossing describes how professionals who are newcomers in a field overcome barriers by creating a hybrid situation (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011; Suchman, 1994). In this regard, members of a vMEC can be seen as boundary crossers within social media spaces as well as real-world spaces. For example, academics who are well known within a rMEC may become boundary crossers as they begin to engage in online platforms. In doing so, they may broaden their sphere of influence and cross the boundaries created by their professional context. Importantly, unlike boundaries in the real-world, the edges of virtual boundaries are less apparent, which can further conceal the norms and assumptions of community members.

Our framework provides a lens for understanding and examining vMECs as well as tools to compare vMECs to rMECs be they practitioner focused, scholarly focused, or otherwise. We use this lens to highlight three areas for consideration when examining vMECs—(1) membership expertise; (2) communication practices; (3) platform boundaries— for understanding vMECs. Next, we use the framework to unpack a well-known vMEC, The Math Twitter Blog-o-Sphere (MTBoS) that interacts across several different platforms.

Authors

• Nicole Wessman-Enzinger, George Fox University

• Joshua Hertel, University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse

• Justin Kelly Dimmel, University of Maine