Area of Interest: Inquiry Project

My guiding question is: "Why is low effort or 'not being a math person' attractive to students? 

Do students avoid succeeding in math? Why?"

(Not entirely sure how I intend to word it yet).

Some concepts that I will try to explore within my search topic:

Concept A	Concept B	Concept C
Math Identity Dissonance (I shouldn’t be a math person because I am ____) Misaligned identity with ability	Social and cultural representation of math success (and failure) [women in math] [relationship between race and perceived math ability]	Effortlessness (The “I barely even studied” mentality) [“if you can’t do math without trying, then it’s not for you”] “Some people just get it”

My interest in this topic is directly tied to lived experience. Almost any time someone finds out that I study math or that I want to be a math teacher I'm met with the same reaction: "You must be smart/that makes you smart/etc" or "I sucked at math/I was never a math person/I just could never get math/etc."

I see a lot of issues with these statements. Because I don't believe in being a "math person," or at least not in the way that is often implied. Any measure of intelligence requires practice and dedication. Performing dramatic works requires extensive practice. Athletic achievement requires a lot of dedication. There are instances where people happen to have natural talent, but those are exceptions. So why is it the case in math that only the exceptions are accepted as people that should try to succeed in math? Why should math be effortless? You would never praise someone for skipping practice and workouts for their sports team, so why would you admire someone who "didn't study at all" when they succeed in math? 

One of the more interesting cases is when people who have experienced success in math choose not to disclose their success. This is the case where someone is good at math but still denies being a "math person."

In our practice, these questions are extremely important. Positive representation of math is super important for students to be successful. And that means adjusting the mindset of people who have lived their life believing math was impossible. 

Some possible existing literature to draw from and build upon:

Goldin G.A. (2002) Affect, Meta-Affect, and Mathematical Belief Structures. In: Leder G.C., Pehkonen E., Törner G. (eds) Beliefs: A Hidden Variable in Mathematics Education?. Mathematics Education Library, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht

Kimball, M., & Smith, N. (2013). The myth of ‘I’m bad at math’. The Atlantic.
Rattan, A., Good, C., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). “It's ok—Not everyone can be good at math”: Instructors with an entity theory comfort (and demotivate) students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3), 731-737.

Heller, N. S. (2015). To be or not to be a math person: Math identity dissonance in ninth grade students.

Anna Palmer (2009) ‘I’m not a “maths‐person”!’ Reconstituting mathematical subjectivities in aesthetic teaching practices, Gender and Education, 21:4, 387-404, DOI: 10.1080/09540250802467950

Chestnut, E., Lei, R., Leslie, S. J., & Cimpian, A. (2018). The myth that only brilliant people are good at math and its implications for diversity. Education Sciences, 8(2), 65.

Attard, C. (2011). “My favourite subject is maths. For some reason no-one really agrees with me”: student perspectives of mathematics teaching and learning in the upper primary classroom. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 23(3), 363.

Jackson, C., & Nyström, A. S. (2015). ‘Smart students get perfect scores in tests without studying much’: why is an effortless achiever identity attractive, and for whom is it possible?. Research Papers in Education, 30(4), 393-410.

Hurst, M., & Cordes, S. (2017). When being good at math is not enough: How students’ beliefs about the nature of mathematics impact decisions to pursue optional math education. In Understanding Emotions in Mathematical Thinking and Learning (pp. 221-241). Academic Press.

Hoffman-Patalona, Beth Kimberly, "“I'm Just Not a Math Person:” The Effect of Preconceived Notions of Failure or Success and Mindset on Math Performance" (2014). Senior Projects Spring 2014. 376.