Girls Becoming Mathematicians

Identity and Agency in the Figured World of the English-Medium Primary School

Bibliographic Data

ID12762425
AuthorsSally Jones (0000-0002-4760-5969, Nanyang Technological University, corresponding author), Mark F Seilhamer (0000-0003-0336-3045, Nanyang Technological University)
Year2020
Volume21
Issue5
Pages330-346
Publication date2020-08-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Language Identity & Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1532-7701 • E-ISSN: 1534-8458
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15348458.2020.1795862
OpenAlexW3080866981
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited40

This paper focusses on the process of learning mathematics in primary school from the perspectives of 62 girls aged seven to eleven. For many of these Singaporean girls, English is not the dominant home language, but they all learn mathematics in English. Despite the fact that achievement in mathematics is high nationally, girls appear to be less confident than boys. Adopting notions of identity and agency at the intersection of language and gender, the paper explores how the girls oriented themselves and others to the figured world of school mathematics as successful or not through their interaction in focus group interviews. While some were confident in their mastery of the subject, for some others, the discipline, its language, and other artefacts, such as model drawing and assessment, restricted and frustrated them. Girls experienced a sense of security in their own fellowship and appreciated considerate pedagogies, such as space for individual agency and for improvisation and expression of language, through which they could achieve understanding and progress

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Art · Identity (music · Linguistics · Pedagogy · Social science · Sociology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Philosophy

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