Examining contextual influences on students’ emotional relationships with mathematics in the early years

ABSTRACT

While there is much written on students’ emotions in learning mathematics, as yet, few studies have investigated students’ experiences in the early grades (age: 4–9). Our research examining young students’ mathematics autobiographies – first-hand accounts of the experience of learning mathematics – provides insight into how students’ images of mathematics and their feelings about learning mathematics at this age are shaped by contextual influences. In this article, we particularly focus on the multiple contextual influences evident in such autobiographies, including parents’ voices and the cultural norms associated with classroom practices. Our analysis reveals how students’ prior and current experiences of early years’ classroom practices and also their relationships with parents are drawn on in voicing images of, and emotional relationships with, mathematics. Through the use of mathematics autobiographies, including student drawings, this article adds to the existing body of literature on emotion and mathematics learning, by revealing young children’s complex emotional relationships with mathematics.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion
• early years mathematics learning
• autobiography
• drawings

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the students who participated in this study. We also would like to thank Dr. Jennifer Hall for her support in the process of conducting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. David's previous school was one of a cluster of schools with a mandate to take a traditional approach to learning. These schools primarily use teacher-directed whole group direct instruction that is sequential. Grouping of students by skill ability is also listed as one of the characteristics of their educational programme.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 435-2012-0121]. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed herein are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.