The Burden of Mathematics: Coping with Societal Prejudice Plays Defining and Socializing Roles in a Mathematics Department

Document Type

Presentation Abstract

Presentation Date

3-14-2001

Abstract

A number of authors have addressed the idea that mathematics or the way we understand and think about mathematical ideas is a cultural artifact. This work represents partial results from a case study of the enculturation experiences of a new mathematician. That ethnography documents and describes the effects of mathematics and involvement in doing mathematics on socio-cultural behavior within the newcomer's department. Three behaviors--sassing students, despairing the new professional evaluation system, and regaling others with tales of public innumeracy--are discussed in terms of their importance to group self-definition and self-esteem. These behaviors make up “the burden of mathematics” and represent the primary coping system generated in response to a public prejudice in favor of innumeracy. Implications for future research in mathematics education both in terms of the emerging role of larger units of analysis (the school instead of the classroom) and in terms of the blame- and solution-free focus of the approach will be discussed.

Additional Details

Wednesday, 14 March 2001
4:10 p.m. in Math 109
Coffee/treats at 3:30 p.m. Math 104 (Lounge)

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