Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2011, Page 31

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 20 (2) 2011 31
gUðbJörg pálsdóttir og ólöf bJörg steinþórsdóttir
The paper presented here uses interview data from two studies conducted by the
authors to search for answers to the research question “what ideas and conceptions
do young adults have about mathematics and mathematics learning and teaching?”
Twenty three individuals were interviewed, fourteen girls and nine boys. All partici-
pants did well in school and had plans for continuing their education. The study con-
ducted by Guðbjörg Pálsdóttir included four girls from the Reykjavik metropolitan
area. They were individually interviewed at the end of 10th grade and again during
their last year in gymnasium. The study conducted by Ólöf Björg Steinþórsdóttir and
Sriraman included nineteen pupils, ten girls and nine boys, during their last year in
gymnasium. The participants lived in both rural and urban Iceland. The interviews
were organized in four group interviews and two individual interviews.
In general, the participants in both studies were asked to describe a “typical” math
lesson and what it meant for them to be students of mathematics. They were then
asked to discuss how they approached problem solving, what were important factors
that impact their mathematical learning, and reflect on societal views on mathematics,
mathematics learning and teaching. The present study is a reanalysis of the interview
data in the two studies mentioned above. The principle of thematic analysis (Braun
& Clarke, 2006) was applied to the interview transcripts to uncover the repeated pat-
terns and themes that described the behavior being studied. Each interview was care-
fully reanalyzed in order to extract common components from both data sets. These
common components were then analyzed and two main themes emerged from the
reanalyzed data: (1) traditional mathematics teaching and learning (2) gendered dis-
courses. Each theme was then further analyzed using the same method to identify
subcategories within each theme.
Four categories emerged from the theme traditional mathematics teaching and
learning. These four categories were (1) “the teacher demonstrates on the board“, (2)
“mathematics teachers should be helpful“, (3) “mathematics learning – only calcu-
lating“, and (4) “when I understand I feel good“. The results gave insight into the
gendered discourses that takes place among young adults in Iceland. It is interesting
how their perceptions of stereotypes are intertwined in their discourses. Three catego-
ries emerged, (1) “girls are conscientious – boys are lazy“, (2) “encouragement from
parents matters“, and (3) “more role models are observable“. It is important to note
that this theme is not related to a gender difference in the interviews but rather the
gendered discourses that emerge during the conversation.
The results indicate that the mathematical experiences the interviewees had as stu-
dents of mathematics comprised traditional classroom practice with an emphasis on
efficiency in algorithms. The results also point out the importance of understanding
the mathematics being learned and enjoying it. Finally, the study provides insight into
the gendered discourse among young adults about girls’ and boys’ learning behaviors
and educational expectations. Similarly, the data shows how educational and career
choices are gendered.
Keywords: Beliefs, mathematics learning, mathematics teaching