Becoming a math student in an American high school : an ethnography of math, identity and imagined futures

The dissertation study examined how one predominantly Latinx-serving high school, the math department therein, and one focal math classroom communicated and structured what it meant to be a successful math student. Findings present the cross-context production of mathematics identities of competence and student positional uptake of these locally figured identities. School-based ethnography and social interaction analysis approaches were applied to analyze tensions and possibilities for identities of "mathematical competence with dignity" for minoritized students, with a focus on race, ethnicity, and dis/ability. Data sources include (a) 113 hours of fieldnotes, 35 hours of classroom and small group video, and daily artifacts from the focal math classroom, (b) over 100 hours of fieldnotes documenting non-focal classrooms and out of classroom interactions, and (c) audio recorded interviews with 12 students and 12 teachers. Analyses revealed connections and tensions between the identities made available at the school and classroom levels and the varied positional uptake by students of locally figured mathematical identities of competence. At the institutional level, exceptional school-wide commitments of relational energy and programmatic resources made available de-flattened social and mathematical identities. Tensions existed where a commitment to providing students high-status advanced math courses coincided with the underrepresentation of Latinx students in those courses. Math course placement further functioned as a powerful positional resource for academic identity at large. The focal classroom provided a case of the construction of an expanded notion of mathematical competence. Analysis of the participation structures, instructional tasks, assessment routines, and explicit teacher messaging across five illuminating classroom activities revealed three tenets of "mathematical competence with dignity": (1) learning is always unfinished, (2) participation is vital to the community and (3) a multiplicity of forms of mathematical competence are presumed as inherent to each individual and to the classroom community. These three tenets made available related figured identities of learner, community member, and mathematical thinker. Positional identities of learner, community member, and mathematical thinker were inhabited through chosen and nominated visibility during whole class instruction as well as through small group mathematical and non-mathematical interaction. Findings shed light on the function of the positional identities of community member and learner as pathways to the positional identity of mathematical thinker, especially for students with histories of failure or remediation. The case of one student, Gisela, illuminated the potential fragility of an identity as mathematical thinker and the salience of deficit discourses around race, gender, and dis/ability The institutional and classroom-level production and negotiation of social and mathematical identities have been studied separately in extant research. Findings from this dissertation illuminate the layering of school and classroom contexts and offer insight into opportunities for mathematical identities of competence for minoritized youth

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Langer-Osuna Jennifer 
Boaler Jo
Goldman Shelley V. 
Rosa Jonathan