Intervening in Student Identity in Mathematics Education: An Attempt to Increase Motivation to Learn Mathematics

Kayla Heffernan,Steven Peterson,Avi Kaplan,Kristie J. Newton

doi:10.29333/iejme/8326

Abstract

Students’ relationships with mathematics continuously remain problematic, and researchers have begun to look at this issue through the lens of identity. In this article, the researchers discuss identity in education research, specifically in mathematics classrooms, and break down the various perspective on identity. A review of recent literature that explicitly invokes identity as a construct in intervention studies is presented, with a devoted attention to research on identity interventions in mathematics classrooms categorized based on the various perspectives of identity. Across perspectives, the review demonstrates that mathematics identities motivate action and that mathematics educators can influence students’ mathematical identities. The purpose of this paper is to help readers, researchers, and educators understand the various perspectives on identity, understand that identity can be influenced, and learn how researchers and educators have thus far, and continue to study identity interventions in mathematics classrooms.

Highlights

Too often, students believe that learning mathematics requires a natural ability they do not possess (Blackwell et al, 2007)
Each perspective lends way to designing and analyzing interventions that focus on identity development and exploration in different ways
Identity is a concept that is complex, is defined in several different ways, and - as this review displays - can be viewed from many different perspectives, often times making it overwhelming to study

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Students believe that learning mathematics requires a natural ability they do not possess (Blackwell et al, 2007). Researchers have pointed to the intersections and complementarity between the sociocultural and psychosocial perspectives on identity, highlighting their joint contribution to understanding the role of identity in students’ engagement, learning, and development (e.g., Kaplan et al, 2014; Ryu & Lombardi, 2015). Kaplan and Garner (2017) presented the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) as a framework that conceptualizes identity as a hierarchical complex dynamic system of role identities, with each role identity comprising four interdependent and ever-emerging components—ontological and epistemological beliefs, purposes and goals, self-perceptions and definitions, and perceived action possibilities This dynamic system continuously emerges in nonlinear ways within sociocultural situations, through relational processes, with cultural norms as well as unconscious personal dispositions serving as control parameters for its emergence

Summary of Theoretical Perspectives

CONCLUSION

Notes on contributors