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Full-Text Articles in Education
College Students’ Images Of Mathematicians And Mathematical Careers, Katrina Piatek-Jimenez, Miranda Nouhan, Michaela Williams
College Students’ Images Of Mathematicians And Mathematical Careers, Katrina Piatek-Jimenez, Miranda Nouhan, Michaela Williams
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
In this paper we report our findings of college students’ images of mathematicians and we reflect on different methodologies used to assess this information. The study reported in this paper was conducted in two stages. During the first stage, we asked 179 college students to “draw a mathematician” and also asked them to list five characteristics and five careers for a mathematician. In the second stage of the study, we conducted four focus group interviews with a total of twelve college students. During the focus group interviews, we showed the students 16 photos of real people and asked them to …
Telling Women's Stories: A Resource For College Mathematics Instructors, Sarah Mayes-Tang
Telling Women's Stories: A Resource For College Mathematics Instructors, Sarah Mayes-Tang
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
Stereotypes about mathematicians that conflict with ``traditionally feminine" identities are widely held by people from middle-school-age onwards, and can influence their participation in mathematics and related fields. Simply being exposed to women in mathematics is not enough to change students' perceptions of mathematicians, and may even decrease girls' interest in mathematics. This paper proposes a storytelling strategy to help change students' perceptions of mathematicians. It includes several activities for intentionally incorporating women's stories into the post-secondary classroom and a list of resources for finding existing powerful stories. The diverse stories of women mathematicians, including details of their personal lives and …
On The Persistence And Attrition Of Women In Mathematics, Katrina Piatek-Jimenez
On The Persistence And Attrition Of Women In Mathematics, Katrina Piatek-Jimenez
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics
The purpose of this study was to investigate what motivates women to choose mathematics as an undergraduate major and to further explore what shapes their future career goals, paying particular attention to their undergraduate experiences and their perceptions of the role of gender in these decisions. A series of semi-structured, individual interviews were conducted with twelve undergraduate women mathematics majors who were attending either a large public university or a small liberal arts college. This study found that strong mathematical identities and enjoyment of mathematics heavily influenced their decisions to major in mathematics. At the career selection stage, these women …