Abstract
This article describes and explains shifts in participation among eight mathematically successful Latin@ undergraduate students who were enrolled in a culturally diverse calculus I workshop that was part of a university-based Emerging Scholars program. Two questions are explored: (a) How do students explain success-oriented shifts in participation that occurred over time in the workshop setting? and (b) How were these success-oriented shifts related to students’ evolving mathematical and racial identities? Drawing on Wenger’s (1998) social ecology of identity framework, the analysis shows that participants constructed strengthened identities of participation over time through three modes of belonging (engagement, imagination, and alignment) within two dimensions (identification and negotiability). Given the predominantly White university context, Latin@ Critical Theory was used to help uncover how strengthened participation was related to what it meant for participants to be Latin@. Findings also support intentional collaborative learning environments as one way to foster mathematics success and positive identity development among Latin@ students.
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Notes
We use Latin@ to represent both Latino and Latina identities (Gutiérrez 2013). This broad categorical variable encompasses identities associated with particular countries of origin. Our use of Latin@ also acknowledges that the meanings (externally ascribed and personal) for this term are under constant negotiation.
Initial group refers to the peer group participants self-selected into on the first day of class. Sometimes participants changed peer groups from one workshop meeting to the next and interacted with more than one peer group during a single workshop meeting.
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Oppland-Cordell, S., Martin, D.B. Identity, power, and shifting participation in a mathematics workshop: Latin@ students’ negotiation of self and success. Math Ed Res J 27, 21–49 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-014-0127-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-014-0127-6