Session Information
09 SES 07 C, Assessing the Relations of Student and Teacher Variables in Mathematics Classrooms
Paper Session
Contribution
Both Swedish and international research claims that despite generally small grade differences in Math between boys and girls (Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2006:287,Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2010:51, Usher, 2009) the interest and desire to continue to study Math develops differently for boys and girls (Walkerdine, 1998, Grönmo 2004, Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2004:97, Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2010:51). In Ma-classes in Stockholm girls were twice as likely to choose a science program in high school compared to girls in the regular classes and (Kjellman, 2006).These differences can, to a large degree, be understood in relation to the quality of the schools' teaching practices, the teachers' knowledge, and an understanding and sensitivity for how gender power structures function in relation to Math (Walkderdine, 1998). Through these factors the teachers' influence both negative and positive self-images and "Math identities" in the classroom. To understand these processes a contextual consideration of current teaching practices and school environment is required. Several studies have shown that mathematics is generally regarded as a masculine subject (Mendick 2006, Walkerdine 1998, Gallagher & Kaufman 2006). A recent international study (PNAS 2009 106:10593-10597) show that societal attitudes affect girls’ view of their own mathematical ability and that differences in boys and girls performance in science and math can largely be explained by prejudices in society. Today's teachers carry with them male-gender codes which are often established inside the classroom as "natural" or "self-evident". These attitudes about Math can cause the subject to exist in a somewhat hegemonic discourse in the schools. They are also transferred to students via preexisting assumptions their parents and teachers may have (Ohrlander & Larsson, 2005).
Theoretically this project works partly within a post-structural research paradigm (Butler, 1999), using both deconstructionist and feminist theories. Within this paradigm "subject positions" is a term in which subject is considered both created by and creating of discourses in a situational context. Constituting your subjectivity as, for instance, a “maths-person”, is a highly gendered and contextual process. How you understand yourself and how you are understood by people around you very much depends on the local situations you are involved in (Davies 2000). The constitution of subjectivity can be understood as an effect of discursive practices (Butler, 1999, p. 24). In this perspective, discourses are not to be understood as something that is explicitly said but rather as specific practices that enables or defines what can be said and understood and that produce meaning in a specific context (Barad 2008, p. 137).
Purpose:
- To conduct a qualitative and comparative study of Math/Science schools and to examine in what way the gender of the teacher effect the Math teaching practices that effects young people’s constructions of identity and gender.
Question:
- What attitudes and notions do female and male teachers respectively encompass and transmit in their teaching-practices?
- Are there differences in female respective male teachers in expectations and attitudes about Math and gender related their teaching practices?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Litterature Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. (2:nd ed.). London: Routledge. Davies, B. (2000) A body of writing 1990-1999 (Walnut Creek, Ca. Oxford, Alta MiraPress). (in)scribing body/landscape relations (NY/Oxford, AltaMiraPress). Barad, K. (2008). Posthumanist performativity: Towards an understanding of how matter comes to matter. In Alaimo, S. & Hekman, S. (2008). Material feminisms. p. 120-156. Indiana University Press: USA. Gallagher & Kaufman (2006). Gender differences in mathematics. Cambridge University Press. Grönmo, Liv Sissel 2004. Are Girls and Boys to Be Taught Differently? (in) International Perspecives on Learning and Teaching Mathematics. Clark B & Clark, D-M & Emanuelsson, G & Lambdini, D-V & Lester, F-K & Wallby, A& Wallby K (Ed). Göteborgs Universitet. Johansson, R.Burke & Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. 2004. Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come. Educational Researcher, Vol.33, No 7,pp.14-26, October 2004. American Educational Research Association Kjellman, Ann-Christin (2006). Stockholms satsning på profilklasser i MA/NO. Slutrapport 2006. Individ, omvärld och lärande/Forskning nr 35. Institutionen för individ, omvärld och lärande, Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm (2006) Ohrlander, Kajsa & Larsson, Håkan (2005) Att spåra och skapa genus i gymnasieskolans program och kursplaner. Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2005 Mendick, H. (2006). Masculinities in mathematics. Open University Press: England. SOU2004:97. Swedish Ministry of Education and Research (2004). Könsskillnader i utbildningsresultat. Fakta, mönster och perspektiv. Utbildningsdepartementets skriftserie rapport 7. 2004 SOU2006:287. Swedish Ministry of Education and Research 2006. Könsskillnader i måluppfyllelse och utbildningsval. Skolverket, Stockholm. SOU 2010:51. Swedish Ministry of Education and Research. Könskillnader i skolprestationer – idéer om orsaker. Inga Wernersson, Statens Offentliga Utredningar. Stockholm 2010 Usher,Ellen L (2009) Sourses of Middle School Student´s Self-Efficacy in Mathematics: A Qualitative Investigation. American Educational research Journal, Volume 46, Number 1 March 2009 Walkerdine, Valerie 1998. Counting girls out. Girls and mathematics. London: Falmer
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