PME-NA

Exploring Teacher’s Attribution Beliefs: Unpacking the Complexities of Mathematical Success and Struggle

• In Event: Beliefs Related to Equity and Justice

Description

This paper explores teachers’ attribution beliefs about student success and struggle in mathematics. We interviewed two mathematics educators to determine their beliefs about the factors that influence mathematical success in middle school and collegiate mathematics. The results from the interviews challenge the current research that characterizes attributions as beliefs that link an outcome to a singular cause. Instead, our data reveals how attributions are often connected in clusters that are themselves linked into larger networks. Understanding the interconnectivity of teachers’ attribution beliefs has implications for teacher education and professional development designed to challenge the common-place deficit discourses pertaining to the mathematical excellence of students from marginalized groups

Authors

• Elizabeth Roan, Indiana University

• Krystal Brand, Indiana University

• Anna Gustaveson, University of North Carolina

• Dionne Cross Cross Francis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Bernard Ronald Smith, Indiana University

• Jeffery Franklin, Indianapolis University Purdue University Indiana

• Erik Jacobson, Indiana University