Raising the curtain on mathematics identity: The drama of transition to secondary school

Many people reach adulthood having been denied access to positive mathematics learning experiences. At some point during their schooling they seem to have developed a mathematics identity of failure, helplessness or fear. This study aimed to better understand how this happens by focusing on learners’ identity construction at a particular time in their schooling: the transition to secondary school. Defining identity as a performance enabled an understanding of identity as situated firmly in the social context. This drew attention to the ways that context shapes identities. The study followed 22 students through the transition to secondary school. Interviews were conducted and observations made in mathematics classes at four key points during the 18 months in which students transitioned from Year 8 to Year 10. Interviews were also held with teachers and parents of the students. The data were combined in different ways to present the learners’ mathematics identities within the metaphor of identity-as-performance. Vignettes play scripts, monologues and more traditional summaries of data were used to illustrate: key elements of the learners’ identities; the context (or stage) in which they learn; and the role that others play in recognising (and therefore shaping) mathematics identities. Mathematics identity performances were found to be constrained by the context in which they were enacted. They were shaped by both teachers and peers, and affected by past performances. Learners in the study were often ‘co-performing’ other identities (such as ‘friend’), and these coperformances at times did not work well with their mathematics identity performance. These coperformances frequently linked to the wider socio-political context of mathematics learning, raising issues of access and equity. Common teaching practices such as streaming by ability and procedural explanations impacted on learners’ mathematics identities. In particular a misalignment between what the teachers saw as desirable and what was possible in their classrooms became evident. Furthermore, the ways in which students were recognised by their teachers fed into a recognition cycle which affected pedagogy, students’ self-recognition, and their subsequent identity performances.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Darragh, Lisa

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Ell, F
• Barton, B

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/23296

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/23296