Think you're good at math? Study shows it may be because you had
equitable math teachers

Date:
March 3, 2023
Source:
Portland State University
Summary:
A new study finds that high school students identify more with
math if they see their math teacher treating everyone in the
class equitably, especially in racially diverse schools. While
the relationship between teacher equity and math identity was
evident across races, there was an interesting exception. Black
students, in general, had strong math identities, regardless of
their teacher's actions. Learning about the factors that affect
student math identity is important because a student's attitude
towards the subject influences the courses that they take as
well as their future career selections. This study suggests that
teachers may have a larger role to play in helping students develop
a positive math identity than previously recognized.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study finds that high school students identify more with math if
they see their math teacher treating everyone in the class equitably, especially in racially diverse schools. The study by researchers at
Portland State University, Loyola University Chicago and the University
of North Texas was published in the journal Sociology of Education. Dara Shifrer, associate professor of sociology at Portland State and former
middle school math teacher, led the study.


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Who can do well in math? How you answer that question may depend on
where you live. Whereas people in East Asian countries tend to believe
that hard work can lead anyone to succeed at math, people in the United
States are more likely to believe that people need natural talent in the subject to succeed. This perception means that students in the U.S. may
be particularly susceptible to racial and gender stereotypes about who
is and is not "good at math." "Americans don't realize what strange stereotypes we have about math," says Shifrer. "It really sets kids up
for failure here." The fact that some high school students are more
likely to give up on math than others has important implications for
their individual futures and for the lack of diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers.

"U.S. STEM spaces are not a meritocracy," says Shifrer. "The cultural
biases that we have around people's identities, status characteristics
like race and gender, and our cultural stereotypes about math and science
and who belongs there play a key role in who enters these fields and
does well in them. The more that educators and students are aware of that
and take action to counteract it, the more it could really shift access
and representation." In the study, Shifrer and colleagues sought to
determine if teachers could counteract cultural biases and help students develop a positive "math identity" -- the sense of seeing themselves as 'a
math person' or as a person who can succeed in math. In particular, they hypothesized that ninth graders who perceived their math teacher as being
more equitable -- treating everyone in the class fairly and providing
clear resources for success -- would have stronger math identities.

To test this hypothesis, the team used data from surveys of nearly
30,000 ninth graders from across the United States collected in 2009
by the National Center for Education Statistics. These surveys assessed
how equitable students thought their math teachers were by having them
rate their agreement with statements like, "my math teacher treats
every student fairly" and "my math teacher thinks all students can be successful." In their analysis, the researchers grouped students by
their race and gender and by the racial composition of their school's
student body -- that is, whether they attended a racially diverse school,
a school where they were racially distinct or a school where most of their peers shared their race. They also controlled for factors that might
be alternate explanations for a seeming relationship between perceived
teacher equity and math identity, such as prior achievement in math,
type of school, social advantages and teacher's preparation to teach math.

The results showed that students who perceived their math teachers as
being more equitable had stronger math identities than those who saw
their math teachers as less equitable.

"If teachers are teaching in a way that the kids perceive as equitable
and efficacious, then it really makes a big difference in how the students
feel about math," says Shifrer.

The researchers also found that this positive effect of equitable
teaching on students' attitudes toward math was strongest in racially
diverse schools.

"It seemed like teachers mattered more in those schools maybe because
race is more evident in those schools," says Shifrer. "Kids are looking
around and noticing that there are differences in students' race and
maybe they're thinking more about whether they're the kind of student
that's good at math.

The teachers really had a space to make a difference in schools like
that." While the relationship between teacher equity and math identity
was evident across races, there was an interesting exception. Black
students, in general, had strong math identities, regardless of their
teacher's actions.

"There's some kind of resiliency where these students persist and
strive against racist stereotypes," says Shifrer. "They discount these
dominant narratives and think, 'I belong here; I'm good at this.'"
Shifrer says similar findings have been found in other studies looking
at the educational attitudes of Black students.

"[Black students] are often more positive towards school and towards
what education can do for them," she says. "But there's not been a lot
of work fleshing out the details." One limitation of this study is that
the researchers can't say definitively that the teacher's behavior came
before the student's feelings about math.

"It could be that kids who identify more with math perceive their teachers
more positively," says Shifrer. 'But it makes sense that teachers who are behaving more equitably are going to improve the way kids are feeling
in the classroom." Learning about the factors that affect student
math identity is important because a student's attitude towards the
subject influences the courses that they take as well as their future
career selections. This study suggests that teachers may have a larger
role to play in helping students develop a positive math identity than previously recognized.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Mind_&_Brain
# Numeracy # K-12_Education # Educational_Psychology #
Racial_Issues
o Computers_&_Math
# Educational_Technology # Mathematics #
Mathematical_Modeling # Math_Puzzles
* RELATED_TERMS
o Identity_theft o Intellectual_giftedness o
Early_childhood_education o Special_education o
Developmental_psychology o Self-concept o Education o
Learning_disability

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Portland_State_University. Original
written by Summer Allen. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


==========================================================================


Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230303105248.htm

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