L 4.2
Session: L
Parallel Session: 4.2
Research Domain: Learning and Teaching in Post-Compulsory and Higher Education
Paul Hernandez-Martinez, Pauline Davis, Laura Black, Julian Williams, Maria Pampaka, Geoff Wake
University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Comparison of first generation to HE students with those from families with a history of HE education: The impact of social class on learners’ mathematical identity
This paper reports on research which aims to understand how cultures of learning and teaching can help widen participation in mathematically demanding courses in Further and Higher Education (F&HE). The literature shows that students who come from lower social class backgrounds are especially vulnerable to marginalisation by the education system (e.g. Ball et al, 2002) and in relation to mathematics particularly (Cooper & Dunne, 2000). Traditional mathematics courses constitute a barrier for some students. As a response, AS Use of Maths was designed to facilitate pedagogic practices which include and engage students normally considered ‘at risk’ of being excluded. This is in line with a vast body of research which has identified pedagogic practices as a site for inclusion/exclusion, with particular focus on the ways in which pedagogical codes (classification, framing, regulation) constrain or afford negotiability, discussion and inquiry (after Bernstein, 1990; Morais, 2002)
This paper analyses discourses of students’ mathematical identity by social class, in order to address the following questions: How are students’ mathematical identity and intentions towards entering HE (especially mathematically demanding subjects) influenced by social class? How do different pedagogical practices shape this relation?
We focus our attention on how learners make use of different cultural models when building their identities as mathematics users/learners. The notion of ‘cultural model’ was developed by Holland & Quinn (1987) to describe the culturally derived rules and schema used by students to tell stories of themselves and their everyday activity. We hypothesize that some cultural models are boundary objects between teaching and learning practices and the identity of learners.
Data comes from 50 ‘biographical’ interviews with students taking AS maths and AS Use of Maths courses in 5 colleges around England. These students were selected to include a good proportion from first generation to HE families and a spread of GCSE maths grades. The data were analysed using ATLAS Ti for evidence of cultural models in students’ discourses that relate to social class and identity: (i) in relation to practice (i.e. educational practices, cultures, pedagogies) and (ii) in relation to the identity-work of constructing the self as a maths user/learner.
The paper focuses on the comparison of those students from first generation to HE families with those who have a family history of education in HE. In particular, we explore the diverse ways mathematics programmes (AS versus Use of Maths) mediate the identities of students from various social backgrounds. The findings of this paper are expected to inform policy on widening participation in mathematics education.
References
Ball, S., Davies, J., David, M and Raey, D. (2002). ‘Classification’ and ‘Judgement’: social
class and the ‘cognitive structures’ of choice of Higher Education. British Journal of
Sociology of Education 23(1): 51-72.
Bernstein, B. (1990) Class, Codes and Control Volume IV: The Structuring of
Pedagogic Discourse London: Routledge.
Cooper, B. and Dunne, M. (2000). Assessing Children’s Mathematical Knowledge: Social
Class, Sex and Problem Solving. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Holland, D. & Quinn, N. (1987) Cultural models in language and thought.Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press