Abstract
University mathematics has been described as a setting that has challenges in inviting everyone to be part of the mathematics community. Thus, university mathematics offers an important context for research on belonging. For this study, we utilised a mixed-methods approach to investigate the various ways mathematics students belong or do not belong to the mathematics community. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, three student profiles were identified: Members of the Scientific Community, Members of the Social Community, and Non-Members. The first profile highlights students’ belonging to the scientific community, the second profile emphasises belonging to the social community of students, and in the third profile students’ responses reflected various ways of not belonging to the mathematics community. In addition, we elaborate on how university mathematics learning environments both promote and hinder students’ sense of belonging. Overall, the study broadens the understanding of the ways of belonging in the mathematics context and provides suggestions for teaching to address the issues of exclusion that are currently present in the culture of university mathematics.
Highlights
Many mathematics departments in universities around the world have historically struggled to invite everyone to be part of the mathematics community
The main result of the present study is the formation of three student profiles: Members of the Scientific Community (MSC; n = 41), Members of the Social Community
The first profile highlighted students’ belonging to the scientific community, the second profile emphasised belonging to the social community, and in the third profile students’ responses reflected a range of ways of not belonging to the mathematics community
Summary
Many mathematics departments in universities around the world have historically struggled to invite everyone to be part of the mathematics community. To give one International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (2020) 6:475–494 illustrative example from our university, in the history of the almost 400-year-old institution, it was only recently that the first female academic was appointed as a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. This anecdotal example represents the personal interest for the authors to conduct socio-cultural research, but it represents larger issues of equity in university mathematics, which has been described as a context that has not been able to consider under-represented groups (Adiredja and Andrews-Larson 2017; Croft and Grove 2015). The motivation of the present study is to offer solutions for the issues of exclusion that are currently present in the culture of university mathematics, through a deeper understanding of the various ways of belonging
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