Session Information
24 SES 01, Mathematics in Transition.
Paper Session
Contribution
Leaning on the work of Sfard & Prusak (2005), this paper continues to examine the identity development of “new comers”, that is immigrant mathematics students with non-UK backgrounds including those from ethnic minority backgrounds (who grew up in the UK) and international students. Ogbu (1992) distinguishes between different types of minority status, and we use his definition of “immigrant or voluntary minorities” students to investigate how these students are successful in crossing cultural boundaries and do relatively well at college and in transition to university mathematics. How do they interpret and position their cultural differences? How do they interpret the learning of mathematics? What kinds of strategies do they adopt to succeed? What kinds of identities are available to them? In answering these questions, the relationship between the minority cultures and mainstream culture is addressed: it appears that the nature of the relationship between these two, and to a lesser extent the content of the mathematics, may account for difficulties and success that students experience. Indeed, there is evidence that in some cases the cultural background, and perhaps the strategies learnt of how to cross boundaries, may help minority students to cross the boundaries between college and university mathematics more successfully than ‘home students’.
As author of this paper I recognize the contribution made by the TransMaths team in collection of data, design of instruments and project, and discussions involving analyses and interpretations of the results: I would also like to acknowledge the support of the ESRC-TLRP award RES-139-25-0241, and continuing support from ESRC-TransMaths award(s) RES-139-25-0241 and RES-000-22-2890research.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Black, L., Williams, J., Hernandez-Martinez, P., Davis, P., Pampaka, M. & Wake, G. (2010) Developing a ‘leading identity’: the relationship between students’ mathematical identities and their career and higher education aspirations, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 73 (1): 55-72. Ogbu, J.U. (1992) Understanding cultural diversity and learning, Educational Researcher, 21 (8): 5-14. Sfard, A. & Prusak, A. (2005) Telling identities; In search of an analytical tool for investigating learning as a culturally shaped activity. Educational Researcher, 34 (4): 14-22.
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