Education Commons^™

Finding Your Mathematical Roots: Inclusion And Identity Development In Mathematics, Linda Mcguire

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This paper details a semester-long course project that has been successfully adapted for use in mathematics courses ranging from introductory level, general-education classes to advanced courses in the mathematics major. Through creating aspirational mathematical family trees and writing mathematical autobiographies, this assignment is designed to help battle belonging uncertainty, to challenge students to self-situate in relation to the history of mathematical and scientific knowledge, and to make visible a student’s developing identity in mathematics and, more broadly, in STEM.

The construction and scaffolding of the project, assignments, examples of student work, foundational readings, assessment and outcomes, and adaptation strategies for …

Storying The Experiences Of A First-Year Teacher’S Mathematics-Related Teacher Identity With A Communities Of Practice Lens, Kelly Jean Navas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal narrative inquiry explores the influences on a first-year elementary teacher’s mathematics-related teacher identity, employing a community of practice lens. Identity is a complex concept. In this study, identity is viewed as socially constructed through new experiences. These social interactions can be seen as an individual participates in their communities of practice. A mathematics-related teacher identity intertwines a teacher’s mathematical identity with their teacher identity. This can influence their classroom decisions, as well as their planning and implementation of mathematics lessons. To gain insights into the evolution of this mathematics-related teacher identity, I listened to the stories of Suzie, …

Storying The Experiences Of A First-Year Teacher’S Mathematics-Related Teacher Identity With A Communities Of Practice Lens, Kelly Jean Navas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal narrative inquiry explores the influences on a first-year elementary teacher’s mathematics-related teacher identity, employing a community of practice lens. Identity is a complex concept. In this study, identity is viewed as socially constructed through new experiences. These social interactions can be seen as an individual participates in their communities of practice. A mathematics-related teacher identity intertwines a teacher’s mathematical identity with their teacher identity. This can influence their classroom decisions, as well as their planning and implementation of mathematics lessons. To gain insights into the evolution of this mathematics-related teacher identity, I listened to the stories of Suzie, …

Figured Worlds Of Women Mathematics Education Scholars, Lili Zhou, Jill Newton, Brooke Max, Hyunyi Jung, Lindsay M. Keazer, Bimi Kumari Sapkota, Ricki L. Geller-Mckee

Education Faculty Publications

Drawing on the concept of figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998), this project focuses on addressing, responding to, and understanding the self within the figured world of the mathematics education community. Specifically, we examine a group of women with diverse backgrounds in terms of race, class, and cultural contexts, who are engaged in various roles as mathematics education scholars, including teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. Using a dialogical self approach, we facilitate both internal and external discourses, exploring personal histories, narratives, and the development of evolving identities. Our findings reveal that culture and social positions, such as gender, class, and …

Analyzing The Influence Of Mathematics Intervention Teacher Actions On Students' Mathematics Identities: An Examination Of Bipoc Student Perceptions And Past Learning Experiences., Sydni P. Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines mathematics education's past and present state in the United States, emphasizing mathematics intervention instruction. This dissertation includes a complex and critical analysis of intervention practices and historical and structural inequities based on race present in these interventions and mathematics education. In combination, it examines the construct of mathematics identities, their role in student success with mathematics, and trends surrounding mathematics education and its impact on populations of students of color. Using Critical Race Theory as an underlying framework and Critical Counter-Narrative as a methodology, it argues a need for marginalized student voices to be present in the …

Decline Is Not Inevitable: Changes In Science Identity During The Progression Through A U.S. Middle School Among Boys And Girls, Julia Mcquillan, Patricia Wonch Hill, Joseph C. Jochman, Grace Kelly

Worlds of Connections Resources

In the United States, science capital is important for navigating many aspects of life. Yet during middle school, science interest declines more for girls than boys. It is unclear, however, whether science identity also declines during the middle school years and if there are differences by gender. The authors advance prior research by modeling changes in science identity and associations with changes in identity-relevant characteristics using growth curve analyses on four waves of data from 760 middle school youth. For girls and boys, science identity changes over time; about 40 percent of the variance is within-person change, with the remainder …

The Perceived Impact Of Project-Based Learning (Pbl) On Middle School Students’ Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Identity And Engagement, Jonathan Olivera

Theses and Dissertations

Despite multiple calls to action, the United States educational system is not producing enough viable contributors in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). These fields continue to grow, and the STEM workforce continues to expand. However, the pool of citizens prepared to enter these professions is not keeping up with the demand. Part of this issue can be attributed to a diminishing interest in STEM by students, particularly during their identity forming adolescent years. Active learning strategies have proven successful in preventing this decline with project-based learning (PBL) being one of the most successful active learning strategies. …

Child Science Identity Interview Guide And Protocol, Heidi Cian, Remy Dou

Department of Teaching and Learning

While many data collection tools exist to elicit how individuals think about prototypical STEM persons (e.g., the Draw-a-Scientist assessment), such tools fail to capture the nuance of how individuals think about STEM and STEM personhood and how those perceptions change according to context and “in real life”. We designed the Child Science Identity Interview Guide and Protocol to learn about how youth see everyday experiences as “STEM” (or a particular subfield) and think of themselves and those in their social orbits as STEM persons.

Validation Of The Ambassador Questionnaire For Undergraduate Students Conducting Engineering Outreach, Melissa G. Kuhn, Shanan Chappell Moots, Joanna K. Garner

Center for Educational Partnerships Publications

Although K-12 engineering outreach commonly involves college students, the young professionals who act as ambassadors for their field are less likely to be studied than the students they serve. Yet, outreach activities may offer opportunities for undergraduate students to develop aspects of their professional selves. As there is currently no comprehensive measure that allows researchers, program evaluators, and outreach advisors to examine ambassadors' professional development and growth, this study sought to develop and validate an Ambassador Questionnaire (AQ). The multi-step process included the selection and adaptation of items from extant measures of engineering students' motivation, beliefs, professional skills, and perceptions …

Learning Mathematics While Black In Rural Appalachia: Black Students' Counterstories And Freedom Dreams About Mathematics Education, Sean P. Freeland

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation aims to illuminate and uncover the experiences of Black students’ learning mathematics in rural Appalachia and specifically West Virginia. The focal theory for this study is Critical Race Theory (CRT) which centers the experience of Black students and their voices. The intersection of race, mathematics education, and the context of rural Appalachia contribute to the analysis of these experiences in specific ways. Participants for this study included six Black high school students from various communities throughout West Virginia. Through interviews and mathematical autobiographies, these students shared their experiences learning mathematics across their schooling experiences and also considering their …

Making Makers: Tracing Stem Identity In Rural Communities, Jessie Nixon, Andy Stoiber, Erica Halverson, Michael Dando

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

In this article, we describe efforts to reduce barriers of entry to pre-college engineering in a rural community by training local teens to become maker-mentors and staff a mobile makerspace in their community. We bring a communities of practice frame to our inquiry, focusing on inbound and peripheral learning and identity trajectories as a mechanism for representing the maker-mentor experience. Through a longitudinal case study, we traced the individual trajectories of five maker-mentors over two years. We found a collection of interrelated factors present in those students who maintained inbound trajectories and those who remained on the periphery. Our research …

The Ingenuity Of Everyday Practice: A Framework For Justice-Centered Identity Work In Engineering In The Middle Grades, Angela M. Calabrese Barton, Kathleen Schenkel, Edna Tan

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Inequities in opportunities to learn and become in engineering, especially for minoritized youth, are enduring and systemic. How students experience engineering education, through curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher/student interactions, all shape opportunities for identity development. In this paper we draw upon cultural studies and critical ethnography to explore how and why students engage in engineering for sustainable communities and its relationship to their identity work. We ground our work in a justice-centered asset-based stance that centers how people’s lived lives and community wisdom yield powerful forms of cultural knowledge/practice relevant to learning and engaging in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We …

Science And Mathematics Teacher Communities Of Practice: Social Influences On Discipline-Based Identity And Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Samuel J. Polizzi, Yicong Zhu, Joshua W. Reid, Brandon Ofem, Sara Salisbury, Michael Beeth, Gillian Roehrig, Margaret J. Mohr-Schroeder, Keith Sheppard, Gregory T. Rushton

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Faculty Publications

Background
Teacher communities of practice, identity, and self-efficacy have been proposed to influence positive teacher outcomes in retention, suggesting all three may be related constructs. Qualitative studies of communities of practice can be difficult to empirically link to identity and self-efficacy in larger samples. In this study, we operationalized teacher communities of practice as specific networks related to teaching content and/or pedagogy. This scalable approach allowed us to quantitatively describe communities of practice and explore statistical relationships with other teacher characteristics. We asked whether these community of practice networks were related to identity and self-efficacy, similar to other conceptualizations of …

The Role Of Resilience In The Stem Identities Of Post-Secondary Students: A Qualitative Metasynthesis, Karen Benn Marshall, Sylvia M. James

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this qualitative metasynthesis is to explore the relationship between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) identity and resilience in racially and ethnically diverse post-secondary students. This study identifies experiences that impact STEM identity development in diverse undergraduate and graduate students. The results of a constant targeted comparison (an analytical technique not often used in educational studies) between STEM identity and student resilience suggests that STEM identity contributes to resilience in diverse students. Findings suggest that common adverse experiences that may impact racially and ethnically diverse students can be overcome in the presence of a well-developed STEM identity. …

Escapando Las Trampas: Teacher Preparation For Mexicanas, Larissa Perez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Developing Maestras face and overcome linguistic, academic and cultural forms of gatekeeping while trying to navigate through our current education system. For this Capstone Project, the impact that gatekeeping has on developing Maestras and how it affects their academic and professional aspirations was investigated. This is an important issue for developing Maestras, the University of Gringolandia as well as for the education system of Nepantla county. The success of developing Maestras Mexicanas closes the racial gap and directly impacts the student success rate within Nepantla county. The literature and data results analysis indicate that the gatekeeping practices that keep Mexicanas …

Let’S Talk: An Examination Of Parental Involvement As A Predictor Of Stem Achievement In Math For High School Girls, Nicol R. Howard, Keith E. Howard, Randy T. Busse, Christine Hunt

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This research was conducted to examine the influence of parental involvement, in the form of parent conversations, on mathematics achievement for high school girls. Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) public-use file provided a sample of 13,694 students, including 6,592 girls for our analyses. A scale for measuring parent conversations was developed and regression analyses were conducted to examine whether this scale variable predicted mathematics achievement. Results indicated that conversational parental involvement was a significant predictor of mathematics achievement for Black and White girls, but not Hispanic and Asian. Implications for research and policy initiatives are …

High School Engineering Students’ Identities And Interest In Stem, Morgan Lane

Theses and Dissertations--Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education

With a national push toward improving STEM education, it is imperative for researchers to study what makes students want to pursue STEM education and STEM careers. To learn about this in the context of one high school’s engineering program, this study used student interviews to gain insight into how student identities influence their interest and experiences in STEM. Five components of student identities were revealed to be influential on a student’s interest in STEM: (1) an early interest/skill in STEM, (2) familial involvement in STEM, (3) self-motivation, (4) gender, and (5) socioeconomic status.Race/ethnicity, peer influence, and teacher influence did not …

Stem Roles: How Students’ Ontological Perspectives Facilitate Stem Identities, Dina Verdín, Allison Godwin, Monique Ross

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Educational researchers have explored the importance of performance, recognition, and interest in establishing and maintaining a STEM identity. Research has also demonstrated that the ways students describe themselves and how they participate in STEM communities can provide insight into their role identity salience; however, there has been little work to explore the ontological beliefs of students about STEM people and how this influences their ability to see themselves as possessing a STEM identity. This research explores the ontological beliefs of high school students, with specific attention to the ways in which they describe what constitutes a math person, science person, …

Understanding Stem Identity Construction: An Ethnography Of An All-Girls Stem Club, Pasiewicz Marie Loyola

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative ethnography follows 11 high-school girls through their experiences in an all-girls after-school STEM club in a privileged school setting. This study uses Gee’s concept of identity and a feminist poststrutural framework to understand their experiences and how they use the club to re/construct their gendered STEM identities. Through interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis, this study found that the after-school club offers girls a space to not only learn about STEM, but also provides a space for girls to understand the gendered nature of their interactions with peers and adults in STEM classrooms. Data shows that girls …

Beyond The Bench And The Bedside: Examining Women’S Success In Stem Via Active Learning Projects, Sarah E. Thoman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Gender inequality is a persistent challenge in fields related to science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) in the U.S. The current study aims to advance the literature in a burgeoning area of inquiry by identifying factors that may help to account for women’s success in STEM. To evaluate STEM success, I used a mixed methods design to investigate STEM identity, career identity status, career commitment, and both individual and situational resilience among women undergraduates. Students were engaged in two project-based STEM programs organized at a large, diverse, research intensive university in the Southwest U.S. Associations between resilience and career commitment, …

Evolving Identity: A Case Study Of Mentor Science Teachers, Melissa N. Ortega

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of how mentor science teachers understood and presented their experiences, challenges they faced, and learning of being and becoming a mentor teacher while they participated in a year-long district mentoring program. The purpose of this study is to examine what science teachers learn in their experiences as mentors and the role this learning played on their identities as professional educators. According to Bullough (1997), teacher identity is of vital concern to teacher education as it is the “basis of meaning making and decision making” (p. 21). Existing research on science teacher identity indicate that …

Evaluating High School Biology Modeling Instruction In South Florida: A Comparative Case Study, Feng Li

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation, with a collected papers approach, focused on evaluating the implementation of MI curriculum in high school Biology I classes in south Florida. The dissertation included the development and validation of the Biology Identity and Persistence Survey (BIPS), the connection of instructors’ teaching practices with students’ biology identities, evolution identities, and career aspirations, and the connection of instructors’ teaching practice with students’ conceptual understanding in evolution. In the first part of the dissertation study, the BIPS was validated through expert review and student cognitive interviews for its face and content validity. Confirmatory factor analysis addressed the construct validity of …

The Interactions Of Relationships, Interest, And Self-Efficacy In Undergraduate Physics, Remy Dou

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collected papers dissertation explores students’ academic interactions in an active learning, introductory physics settings as they relate to the development of physics self-efficacy and interest. The motivation for this work extends from the national call to increase participation of students in the pursuit of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Self-efficacy and interest are factors that play prominent roles in popular, evidence-based, career theories, including the Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and the identity framework. Understanding how these constructs develop in light of the most pervasive characteristic of the active learning introductory physics classroom (i.e., peer-to-peer interactions) has …

Metaphors And Mathematical Identity: Math Is Like A Tornado In Kansas, Carmen M. Latterell, Janelle L. Wilson

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Mathematical identity is an individual’s concept of who he or she is mathematically. In this paper, metaphors for mathematics from elementary education majors are compared to metaphors created by secondary mathematics teaching majors. The analysis demonstrates a basic difference in the mathematical identity of the two groups, with the latter group having more holistic conceptions of mathematics than the first group. Elementary education majors describe mathematics as an ongoing struggle in which the mathematics is active, and they are the victims. The secondary teaching mathematics majors describe mathematics as an ongoing struggle in which they are active.

‘When I Am Being Rushed It Slows Down My Brain’: Constructing Self-Understandings As A Mathematics Learner, Rachel Lambert

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding learning disabilities (LDs) as constructed through multiple cultural practices including discourse, this paper focuses on a Latino middle school student with a LD named Elijah. This study documents both the discourses and practices used to position Elijah as a mathematics learner, as well as his use of similar discourses as he constructs a complex set of self-understandings as a mathematics learner. Elijah is positioned by discourses that prioritise speed as an indicator of mathematical ability, as well as discourses that construct students with LD as having both intelligence and differences such as processing speed. An analysis of interview and …

Identities And Motives Of Naturalist Development Program Attendees And Their Relation To Professional Careers, Jennifer A. Mraz

Dissertations

In recent years, there has been much concern over the decline of biologists who actually identify themselves to be naturalists, which negatively impacts the field of conservation and the study of biology as a whole. This could result in a decrease in individuals who participate in naturalist-like activities, such as informal environmental education and environmental volunteerism. The purpose of my study was to determine what discourse identities were held by naturalist development program participants, how these discourse identities related to their volunteer motives in environmental settings, and how discourse identity related to professional careers. I defined identity through the lens …

Investigating The Impact Of Reflexive Practices On College Students In A Science Laboratory Course, Chandrani Mishra

Dissertations

Emphasis on professional practices to develop students’ professionalism is currently a major focus of higher education. Studies have shown the benefits of reflexive practices in classroom to facilitate the development of students’ professional attitude or identity in some fields. Reflexive practices involve students in self-reflection where he/she reflects on his/her own actions. Little investigation about the benefits of reflexive practices in the development of students’ scientific identity in a science class led to my investigation. Development of a scientific identity of students and their overall interest and motivation in science is deemed essential for retaining students in STEM fields.

My …

Facilitating Changes In College Teaching Practices: Instructional Reform, Identity Conflict And Professional Community In A K-20 Partnership, Stacy Olitsky

Stacy Olitsky

In this paper, I explain variation in the adoption of student-centred teaching practices among college faculty members in a program designed to promote K-20 instructional reform. I analyze data from a qualitative study of a Math and Science Partnership in order to understand why some faculty members had undergone extensive changes to their practices whereas others had not, even though both groups had demonstrated changes in their beliefs. Findings show that when collective identities focused on reform become more salient than the role identities associated with their teaching positions, faculty members are able to persist through the loss of self-efficacy …

Constructing And Resisting Disability In Mathematics Classrooms: A Case Study Exploring The Impact Of Different Pedagogies, Rachel Lambert

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study demonstrates the importance of a critical lens on disability in mathematics educational research. This ethnographic and interview study investigated how ability and disability were constructed over 1 year in a middle school mathematics classroom. Children participated in two kinds of mathematical pedagogy that positioned children differently: procedural and discussion-based. These practices shifted over time, as the teacher increasingly focused on memorization of procedures to prepare for state testing. Two Latino/a children with learning disabilities, Ana and Luis, used multiple cultural practices as resources, mixing and remixing their engagement in and identifications with mathematics. Ana, though mastering the procedural …

Chasing Polys: Interdisciplinary Affinity And Its Connection To Physics Identity, Tyler Scott

All Dissertations

This research is based on two motivations that merge by means of the frameworks of interdisciplinary affinity and physics identity. First, a goal of education is to develop interdisciplinary abilities in students' thinking and work. But an often ignored factor is students interests and beliefs about being interdisciplinary. Thus, this work develops and uses a framework called interdisciplinary affinity. It encompasses students interests in making connections across disciplines and their beliefs about their abilities to make those connections. The second motivation of this research is to better understand how to engage more students with physics. Physics identity describes how a …