Session Information
24 SES 04, Adults' Education & Research in Mathematics Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The grand narrative of lifelong learning (LLL) relies on an all-inclusive interpretation of educability. Everyone has the capability to learn; it all depends on “the will to learn”. As Fejes (2006) posits “Subjects are not divided into categories of people able to study and not able to study by birth (heritage)”. However, the school system continues to uphold the institutionalized ethos of educability that ranks students into the categories “bright”, “mediocre”, and “poor” (Räty & Snellman, 1998) on the basis of their abilities, including gender-related differences (e.g. male and female abilities and related school subjects) as well as differences based on social class (e.g. theoretical and practical skills). Intelligence is defined primarily as a cognitive capacity attached to such attributes as problem-solving skills. Logico-mathematical intelligence is the prominent prototype of intelligence that is especially attached to men (e.g. Räty, 2001; Räty et al., 2006; Walkerdine, 1998). This presentation is based on my PhD study (Siivonen, 2010) in which I examined the dilemmatic nature of the constructions of educability in the narrative life histories of twenty adult students who had graduated from general upper secondary school for adults (GUSSA) about four months prior to the narrative life history interviews. In my presentation I will focus on narratives on studying and learning mathematics that are constructed across the data of this study. These narratives express the adult students’ worry about their ability and competence to study and learn mathematics. Learning mathematics relates to individual conceptions of ability in an intrusive way that has consequences far beyond the ability to learn mathematics. It concerns such issues as whether one’s ability and competence as a student and learner suffices to complete studies at GUSSA and pass the matriculation examination. This study confirms that mathematics continues to be constructed as the masculine prototype of intelligence; being “good” at mathematics implies having intelligence and innate natural talent (cf. Räty & Snellman, 1998).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Alheit, P., & Dausien, B. (2002). Lifelong learning and ‘biographicity’: Two theoretical views on current educational changes. In A. Bron & M. Schemmann (Eds.), Social science theories in adult education research (pp. 211–241). Münster: LIT Verlag. Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1997). Oral versions of personal experience: Three decades of narrative analysis. The Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7, 3–38. Retrieved May 14, 2004, from http//www.clarku.edu/~mbamberg/LabovWaletzky.htm Linde, C. (1993). Life stories: The creation of coherence. New York: Oxford University Press. Fejes, A. (2006). The planetspeak discourse of lifelong learning in Sweden: What is an educable adult? Journal of Educational Policy, 21(6), 697–716. Räty, H. (2001). Lusikasta haarukaksi: Koulun ja koulutuksen sosiopsykologinen näkökulma [From a spoon to a fork: Social psychological perspectives on school and education]. Psykologia, 36, 342–347. Räty, H., Kasanen, K., & Kärkkäinen, R. (2006). School subjects as social categorisations. Social Psychology of Education, 9, 5–25. Räty, H., & Snellman, L. (1998). Social representations of educability. Social Psychology of Education, 1, 359–373. Siivonen, P. (2010). From a ”student” to a lifelong ”consumer” of education? Constructions of educability in adult students’ narrative life histories. Research in Educational Sciences 47. Jyväskylä: Finnish Educational Research Association. Walkerdine, V. (1998). Counting girls out: Girls and mathematics. London: Falmer Press.
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