Abstract
Given the documented challenges with introductory-level mathematics courses such as college algebra among college students, this narrative inquiry investigates five students’ lived experiences of mathematics learning. Unlike existing studies that concentrate on student deficits in terms of their learning and performance, this study is aimed to probe students’ experiences related to mathematics learning with a focus on the notion of mathematical identity development from an anti-deficit perspective. Grounded on sociocultural theory and identity as an analytical tool, the goal of this research is to understand complexities inherent in mathematics learning shaped by sociocultural learning contexts and students’ developed sense of self, as mathematics learner. Drawing from interview study and Listening Guide methodology, the study findings reveal the complexity and fluidity of every participant’s mathematical identity and suggest important commonalities among them, with regard to how their identities impacted by factors both inside of mathematics classrooms (tests scores, experience with teachers) and outside (family involvement, master narratives about mathematics in the society). The commonalities crossing racial/cultural/social backgrounds indicate the prevalence of assumptions about mathematics and mathematics learning in multiple levels of the system, including family, school and community. However, the primary purpose of this study is not aimed to exhaustively discuss and then deconstruct those prevalent (but usually not visible) assumptions in the area of mathematics education. Instead, it at best serves an attempt of offering an alternative way, narrative inquiry, and a practicable technique, Listening Guide method, to listen to individuals’ personal stories related to mathematics learning. These stories are otherwise very likely buried under the label of “students struggling with mathematics,” or twisted by some of their mathematics instructors, like me, who had considered myself as a very understanding mathematics teacher. The potential of learning mathematics resides in the fluidity of students’ mathematical identities. So, for every educator willing to use his/her knowledge and skills to help the so-called “students struggling with mathematics,” it is important to be a learner willing to listen to their students’ stories and then learn about students’ fluid mathematical identities.