A Critical Examination of the Relationship Between Social and Personal Constructions of Gender and Race and their Impact on Mathematical Identity

ABSTRACT

Matters of identity are personally and socially constructed and do not always align with teacher perceptions. When this occurs, it can cause internal tensions in ways students navigate their sense of being in schooling and in society as a whole. These tensions can also impact students’ mathematical identity and their motivations within mathematics education. In this multiple case study, the authors explored how two high school students negotiated the tensions between their racial, gendered, and mathematical identities. Their mathematical identity and their intrinsic motivation. We considered how student intersectional cultural identities, funds of knowledge, and stereotype threat informed these factors. Results indicate that mathematical identity was impacted by students’ sense of belonging in their learning environment, the level of stereotype threat they experienced, and the extent to which teachers consider and value diverse ways of learning and knowing. We also noted that, due to a variety of factors, the participants in this study foregrounded their racial identities over their gendered identities. The findings have important implications for teachers and teacher educators working toward creating and fostering equitable classroom environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Mathematical identity
• personal identity
• social identity
• stereotype threat

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge our participants, as well as the vulnerability with which they shared their experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was needed for this study.