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This paper aims to introduce a new paradigm for mathematics literacy. By integrating computational thinking and coding into curricular units from The Algebra Project, we engaged middle school students in creativity, imagination, and self-expression in the mathematics classroom. We refined instruments to measure the development of student voice, agency, and belongingness. In the context of the mathematics classroom, there is potential for an earned insurgency to arise when these attributes of mathematical identity are amplified, leading students to engage in a learning community that rejects the repressive logic of the current racialized, classed, and otherwise oppressive mathematics education
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Interest vs. Identity: Navigating Methodological Challenges to Coding Learners’ Funds of Identity
This study examines the methodological challenges of coding student identity within classroom activities using the Funds of Identity (FoI) framework. Analyzing eighth-grade students’ engagement in a network visualization activity, we explored distinctions between expressions of interest and identity. Results highlight complexities in interpreting student participants’ identity within brief classroom interactions, offering nuances in categorizing student contributions and prompting refinements in coding practices.
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- PAR ID:
- 10673582
- Publisher / Repository:
- International Society of the Learning Sciences
- Date Published:
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 2620 to 2622
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Centering students’ Funds of Identity (FOI) in the classroom is important for moving towards asset-based frameworks for learning. However, it can be challenging to identify the FOI of an entire class and use those FOI to design instruction. Motivated by this challenge, we explore how network visualizations in which students create a network that displays connections between themselves and classroom content can simultaneously elicit and connect students’ FOI to instruction. We conducted this work with five middle school World History classes taught by a single teacher, who built a collective network visualization about Greek Mythology. Using an iterative process of analytic memoing, coding, and content analysis, we identified three ways in which the network visualization activity connected to students’ identities: 1) they could share about themselves (particularly personality descriptions and practical FOI); 2) they could connect to content from their history class; and 3) they could connect to their peers.more » « less
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As concerns about the preparation of engineers grow, so has interest in the dimensions of engineering identity. By having a thorough understanding of engineering identity, departments will be better able to produce engineers who understand their role as a member of the profession. Generally, engineering identity literature has not focused on specific disciplinary identities, instead looking at engineering as a whole. Previous literature has utilized role identity theory (e.g., Gee, 2001) and identified key dimensions of engineering identity, including one’s performance/competence and interest in engineering courses and recognition as a current/future engineer (Godwin, 2016; Godwin et al., 2013; Godwin et al., 2016). This paper deepens our understanding of electrical and computer engineering identities. As part of research activities associated with National Science Foundation grant looking at professional formation of socio-technically minded students, we analyzed texts and documents from an electrical and computer engineering department to examine the department’s professed priorities. Using document analysis, we answered this research question: How is a department’s commitment to undergraduate engineering identity development expressed in departmental documents? Document analysis focuses on texts to describe some aspect of the social world (Bowen, 2009). This analysis was performed with two types of departmental documents: front-facing documents (e.g., websites, newsletters) and internal documents (e.g., ABET self-studies, program evaluations) from an electrical and computing engineering department at a public research university. Analysis employed a priori and emergent coding schemas to formulate themes related to identity, performance/capability, interest, and recognition present in departmental documents (Bowen, 2009; Godwin, 2016). Specifically, we skimmed documents to ascertain inclusion status; read and coded documents in depth; and identified broader themes across documents (Bowen, 2009). One broad theme was a lack of attention to identity; another showed emphasis on technical skills/competencies. By interrogating absences, we found that there is little attention being paid to identity development or its components in these documents. In other words, these texts do not indicate that the department is invested in supporting students’ senses of interest, performance, and recognition as electrical and computer engineers. Rather, we found that these texts emphasize the acquisition of specific concepts, skills, and competencies. Overall, analysis indicated that the department does not cultivate holistic engineering student identities. The resultant implications are by no means irrelevant—a focus on identity over specific skills could increase retention, increase student satisfaction, and produce better future engineers.more » « less
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During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Asian American students in higher education were faced not only with the move to online learning but the nuances that came with anti-Asian rhetoric and violence in the news. We wanted to understand how the sociopolitical effects of the past two years have affected Asian American engineering students through their experiences in the online setting, as well as highlight the gaps of Asian American engineering students in engineering education research. Using qualitative methods through semi-structured interviews with Asian and Asian American engineering students, we explore Asian and Asian American identity, and sociopolitical matters in the engineering classroom. To understand the views of Asian and Asian American students, we lay out the ways that racial and ethnic identity have been examined in engineering, along with Asian and Asian American identity formation. In this paper, we explore the background of race and equality in engineering and engineering education. Then we look at the results of our interviews, focusing on two main areas. First we look at how students formed social networks and build their identities in these online spaces. Then we look at the role of politicization in the classroom and in engineering and how it relates to Asian identity formation. We close this paper by speculating how Asian and Asian American identity can be better addressed and attended to within engineering education.more » « less
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Background/Context: Schools are increasingly using scripted curricula that limit teacher autonomy. These limitations are exacerbated when scripted curricula are enacted in fully standardized, asynchronous online course environments with no mechanisms for student–teacher communication. Purpose: This study extends understanding of how teacher discretion, identity, and the relationship between those two components shape students’ educational experiences online. Research Design: Within a sequential mixed method design, we identified spaces for teacher discretion using critical discourse analysis. By coding lesson transcripts, we developed a typology of common strategies: friendly, directive, personalized, and procedural. We used the resulting typology to run statistical models examining associations among teacher identity, discretionary acts, and student achievement. Lastly, we turned back to the qualitative data to confirm findings, test hypotheses, and provide nuance. Findings: Teachers presenting as Black were significantly more likely to use a procedural approach and significantly less likely to use friendly strategies. Students scored higher on their end-of-lesson quiz when their teacher used personalized strategies, such as sharing relevant personal experiences, and scored lower when teachers used friendly or directive strategies. Conclusions: Findings have implications for understanding and enacting equitable educational practices in asynchronous, scripted online environments. The isolation of discretionary acts feasible within the virtual learning environment studied contributes nuance to knowledge of the mechanisms through which teacher discretion might result in more favorable learning outcomes for students belonging to minoritized groups.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.22318/icls2025.927909
