Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Identity research in mathematics education

  • Published:
Educational Studies in Mathematics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper examines the literature on identity within mathematics education published in journals over the past two decades. It analyses the theoretical underpinnings, research methods and definitions of identity, providing a critique rather than a summary of the literature. A total of 188 articles from 85 different journals are reviewed in the sample. This review finds support for common complaints of this research area as lacking in definitions of the concept of identity and suggests that the writing in this topic is at times theoretically incompatible. Furthermore, the work in this field may be coming from two distinct paradigms. Identity may be seen as an action and fit within a sociological frame or it may be seen as an acquisition, fitting within a psychological framing. Defining identity as something we do, as an action, and in particular as performative is promoted in this paper. Finally, suggestions are made for future directions in identity research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See http://mescommunity.info/

References

  • Anderson, R. (2007). Being a mathematics learner: Four faces of identity. Mathematics Educator, 17(1), 7–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andersson, A. (2011). A ‘Curling teacher’ in mathematics education: Teacher identities and pedagogy development. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 23(4), 437–454. doi:10.1007/s13394-011-0025-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartholomew, H., Darragh, L., Ell, F., & Saunders, J. (2011). ‘I’m a natural and I do it for love!’: Exploring students’ accounts of studying mathematics. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 42(7), 915–924. doi:10.1080/0020739x.2011.608863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, J. (2012). “She’s always been the smart one. I’ve always been the dumb one”: Identities in the mathematics classroom. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 43(1), 34–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, L., Mendick, H., & Solomon, Y. (Eds.). (2009). Mathematical relationships in education: Identities and participation. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, L., Williams, J., Hernandez-Martinez, P., Davis, P., Pampaka, M., & Wake, G. (2010). Developing a ‘leading identity’: The relationship between students’ mathematical identities and their career and higher education aspirations. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 73(1), 55–72. doi:10.1007/s10649-009-9217-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boaler, J. (1999). Participation, knowledge and beliefs: A community perspective on mathematics learning. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 40(3), 259–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boaler, J. (2002). The development of disciplinary relationships: Knowledge, practice and identity in mathematics classrooms. For the Learning of Mathematics, 22(1), 42–47. doi:10.2307/40248383

    Google Scholar 

  • Boaler, J., & Greeno, J. G. (2000). Identity, agency and knowing in mathematics worlds. In J. Boaler (Ed.), Multiple perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning. Westport: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boaler, J., & Staples, M. (2008). Creating mathematical futures through an equitable teaching approach: The case of railside school. Teachers College Record, 110(3), 608–645. doi:10.5951/mathteacmiddscho.19.8.0478

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, T., & McNamara, O. (2011). Becoming a mathematics teacher: Identity and identifications. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 1–21. doi:10.1086/448619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1988). Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519–531. doi:10.2307/3207893

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1997). The psychic life of power. Polo Alto: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chazan, D., Brantlinger, A., Clark, L. M., & Edwards, A. R. (2013). What mathematics education might learn from the work of well-respected African American mathematics teachers in urban schools. Teachers College Record, 115(2), 1–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chronaki, A. (2005). Learning about “learning identities” in the school arithmetic practice: The experience of two young minority Gypsy girls in the Greek context of education. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 20(1), 61–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chronaki, A. (2011). “Troubling” essentialist identities: Performative mathematics and the politics of possibility. In M. Kontopodis, D. Wulf, & B. Fichtner (Eds.), Children, development and education (Vol. 3, pp. 207–226). Dordrecth: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0243-1_13

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Chronaki, A. (2013). Identity work as a political space for change: The case of mathematics teaching through technology use. Cape Town: Paper presented at the Seventh International Mathematics Education and Society Conference.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chronaki, A., & Matos, A. (2014). Technology use and mathematics teaching: Teacher change as discursive identity work. Learning, Media & Technology, 39(1), 107–125. doi:10.1080/17439884.2013.776076

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cobb, P., Gresalfi, M., & Hodge, L. (2009). An interpretive scheme for analyzing the identities that students develop in mathematics classrooms. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 40(1), 40–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2–14. doi:10.3102/0013189x019005002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Da Silver, F. C. (Ed.). (2011). G. H. Mead: A reader. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Freitas, E. (2008). Troubling teacher identity: Preparing mathematics teachers to teach for diversity. Teaching Education, 19(1), 43–55. doi:10.1080/10476210701860024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • English, L., Jones, G., Bartolini Bussi, M., Lesh, R., Tirosh, D., & Sriraman, B. (2008). Moving forward in international mathematics education research. In L. English (Ed.), Handbook of international research in mathematics education (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, D., Mendick, H., & Moreau, M. (2010). Imagining the mathematician: Young people talking about popular representations of maths. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 31(1), 45–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, E. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esmonde, I. (2009). Ideas and identities: Supporting equity in cooperative mathematics learning. Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 1008–1043.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedrichsen, P., Lannin, J., Abell, S., Arbaugh, F., & Volkmann, M. (2008). Examining incoming identities in an alternative certification program in mathematics and science. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 4(2), 175–188. doi:10.1080/01626620.1991.10462767

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, J. P. (2000). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25, 99–125. doi:10.2307/1167322

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, J. P. (2011). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleason, P. (1983). Identifying identity: A semantic history. The Journal of American History, 69(4), 910–931. doi:10.2307/1901196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. London: The Penguin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goos, M. (2013). Sociocultural perspectives in research on and with teachers: A zone theory approach. ZDM, 45, 521–533. doi:10.1007/s11858-012-0477-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goos, M. E., & Bennison, A. (2008). Developing a communal identity as beginning teachers of mathematics: Emergence of an online community of practice. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 11(1), 41–60. doi:10.1007/s10857-007-9061-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, M., & Selmer, S. (2010). A rhizomatic analysis of preservice teacher learning in literacy and mathematics. International Journal of Learning, 17(11), 459–472.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graven, M. (2003). Teacher learning as changing meaning, practice, community, identity and confidence: The story of Ivan. For the Learning of Mathematics, 23(2), 28–36. doi:10.2307/40248418

    Google Scholar 

  • Graven, M. (2004). Investigating mathematics teacher learning within an in-service community of practice: The centrality of confidence. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 57(2), 177–211. doi:10.1023/b:educ.0000049277.40453.4b

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grootenboer, P. (2013). The praxis of mathematics teaching: Developing mathematical identities. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 21(2), 321–342. doi:10.1080/14681366.2012.759131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gubrium, J., & Holstein, J. (Eds.). (2001). Institutional selves: Troubled identities in a postmodern world. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutierrez, R. (2009). Embracing the inherent tensions in teaching mathematics from an equity stance. Democracy and Education, 18(3), 9–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, R. (2013). The sociopolitical turn in mathematics education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 37. doi:10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0037

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harre, R., & van Langenhove, L. (1999). The dynamics of social episodes. In R. Harre & L. van Langenhove (Eds.), Positioning theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hegedus, S. J., & Penuel, W. R. (2008). Studying new forms of participation and identity in mathematics classrooms with integrated communication and representational infrastructures. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 68(2), 171–183. doi:10.2307/40284517

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyd-Metzuyanim, E. (2013). The co-construction of learning difficulties in mathematics-teacher-student interactions and their role in the development of a disabled mathematical identity. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 83(3), 341–368. doi:10.1007/s10649-012-9457-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyd-Metzuyanim, E., & Sfard, A. (2012). Identity struggles in the mathematics classroom: On learning mathematics as an interplay of mathematizing and identifying. International Journal of Educational Research, 51–52, 128–145. doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2011.12.015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland, D., & Lachicotte, W., Jr. (2007). Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 101–135). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Holland, D., Skinner, D., Lachicotte, W., & Cain, C. (1998). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horn, I., Nolen, S., Ward, C., & Campbell, S. (2008). Developing practices in multiple worlds: The role of identity in learning to teach. Teacher Education Quarterly, 35(3), 61–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossain, S., Mendick, H., & Adler, J. (2013). Troubling ‘understanding mathematics in-depth’: Its role in the identity work of student-teachers in England. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 84(1), 35–48. doi:10.1007/s10649-013-9474-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaworski, B. (2012). Mathematics teaching development as a human practice: Identifying and drawing the threads. ZDM, 44(5), 613–625. doi:10.1007/s11858-012-0437-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jita, L., & Vandeyar, S. (2006). The relationship between the mathematics identities of primary school teachers and new curriculum reforms in South Africa. Perspectives in Education, 24(1), 39–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaasila, R. (2007a). Mathematical biography and key rhetoric. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 66(3), 373–384. doi:10.1007/s10649-007-9085-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaasila, R. (2007b). Using narrative inquiry for investigating the becoming of a mathematics teacher. ZDM, 39(3), 205–213. doi:10.1007/s11858-007-0023-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaasila, R., Hannula, M., & Laine, A. (2012). “My personal relationship towards mathematics has necessarily not changed but…” Analyzing preservice teachers’ mathematical identity talk. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 10(4), 975–995. doi:10.1007/s10763-011-9308-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, M. (2012). How inconvenient assumptions affect preservice teachers’ uptake of new interactional patterns in mathematics: Analysis and aspiration through a bifocal lens. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 80(1/2), 25–40. doi:10.1007/s10649-012-9390-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lerman, S. (2000). The social turn in mathematics education research. In J. Boaler (Ed.), Multiple perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 19–44). Westport: Ablex Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerman, S. (2001). Cultural, discursive psychology: A sociocultural approach to studying the teaching and learning of mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 46(1/3), 87–113. doi:10.2307/3483241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerman, S. (2006). Theories of mathematics education: Is plurality a problem? ZDM, 38(1), 8–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerman, S. (2012). Agency and identity: Mathematics teachers’ stories of overcoming disadvantage. In T.-Y. Tso (Ed.), Proceedings of the 36 th conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 99–106). Taipei: PME.

    Google Scholar 

  • Llewellyn, A. (2009). ‘Gender games’: A post-structural exploartion of the prospective teacher, mathematics and identity. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 12, 411–426. doi:10.1007/s10857-009-9109-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lutovac, S., & Kaasila, R. (2014). Pre-service teachers’ future-oriented mathematical identity work. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 85(1), 129–142. doi:10.1007/s10649-013-9500-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacLure, M. (1993). Arguing for your self: Identity as an organising principle in teachers’ jobs and lives. British Educational Research Journal, 19(4), 311–322. doi:10.1080/0141192930190401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. (2000). Mathematics success and failure among African-American youth. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. (2012). Learning mathematics while Black. Educational Foundations, 26, 47–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, A., Marshall, P., DeCuir-Gunby, J., & Caldwell, T. (2013). Math autobiographies: A window into teachers’ identities as mathematics learners. School Science & Mathematics, 113(8), 380–389. doi:10.1111/ssm.12041

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mead, G. H. (1913/2011). The social self. In F. C. da Silver (Ed.), G. H. Mead: A reader (pp. 58–62). Oxford, UK: Routledge (Reprinted from Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, 10 (1913), 374–80.

  • Mendick, H. (2005). A beautiful myth? The gendering of being/doing ‘good at maths’. Gender and Education, 17(2), 203–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naidoo, D., & Parker, D. (2005). The implications of mathematics teachers’ identities and official mathematics discourses for democratic access to mathematics. Perspectives in Education, 23(1), 53–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nasir, N. (2002). Identity, goals, and learning: Mathematics in cultural practice. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4(2&3), 213–247. doi:10.1207/S15327833MTL04023_6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nasir, N., & de Royston, M. (2013). Power, identity, and mathematical practices outside and inside school. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 264. doi:10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nasir, N., & Hand, V. (2008). From the court to the classroom: Opportunities for engagement, learning, and identity in basketball and classroom mathematics. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17(2), 143. doi:10.1080/10508400801986108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neumayer-Depiper, J. (2013). Teacher identity work in mathematics teacher education. For the Learning of Mathematics, 33(1), 9–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owens, K. (2007). Identity as a mathematical thinker. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 9, 36–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pais, A., & Valero, P. (2012). Researching research: Mathematics education in the Political. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 80(1), 9–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ricoeur, P. (1992). Oneself as another. (K. Blamey, Trans). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sfard, A., & Prusak, A. (2005). Telling identities: In search of an analytic tool for investigating learning as a culturally shaped activity. Educational Researcher, 34(4), 14–22. doi:10.1207/s15327884mca0704_03

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, Y. (2007a). Experiencing mathematics classes: Ability grouping, gender and the selective development of participative identities. International Journal of Educational Research, 46, 8–19. doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2007.07.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, Y. (2007b). Not belonging? What makes a functional learner identity in undergraduate mathematics? Studies in Higher Education, 32(1), 79–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, Y. (2012). Finding a voice? Narrating the female self in mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 80, 171–183. doi:10.1007/s10649-012-9384-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon, Y., Lawson, D., & Croft, T. (2011). Dealing with ‘fragile identities’: Resistance and refiguring in women mathematics students. Gender and Education, iFirst Article, 1–19. doi:10.1080/09540253.2010.512270

  • Stinson, D. (2008). Negotiating sociocultural discourses: The counter-storytelling of academically (and mathematically) successful African American male students. American Educational Research Journal, 45(4), 975–1010. doi:10.3102/0002831208319723

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stinson, D. (2013). Negotiating the “white male math myth”: African American male students and success in school mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 69. doi:10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0069

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stinson, D., & Bullock, E. (2012). Critical postmodern theory in mathematics education research: A praxis of uncertainty. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 80, 41–55. doi:10.1007/s10649-012-9386-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, E., Gutiérrez, R. J., & Sutton, T. (2011). Student participation in collective problem solving in an after-school mathematics club: Connections to learning and identity. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 11(3), 226. doi:10.1080/14926156.2011.595884

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walkerdine, V. (1989). Femininity as performance. Oxford Review of Education, 15(3), 267–279. doi:10.1080/0305498890150307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walkerdine, V. (1998). Counting girls out: Girls and mathematics (new ed.). London: Falmer Press.

  • Walshaw, M. (2005). Getting political and unraveling layers of gendered mathematical identifications. Cambridge Journal of Education, 35(1), 19–34. doi:10.1080/0305764042000332470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walshaw, M. (2010). Mathematics pedagogical change: Rethinking identity and reflective practice. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 13(6), 487–497. doi:10.1007/s10857-010-9163-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walshaw, M. (2013). Post-structuralism and ethical practical action: Issues of identity and power. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 100–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. (2011). Teachers telling tales: The narrative mediation of professional identity. Research in Mathematics Education, 13(2), 131–142. doi:10.1080/14794802.2011.585825

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, M. (2013). Mathematical micro-identities: Moment-to-moment positioning and learning in a fourth-grade classroom. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(5), 775. doi:10.5951/jresematheduc.44.5.0775

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge the Centre for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE, Santiago, Chile), for enabling the writing of this article due to funding from CIAE Project FB0003 from the Associative Research Program of La Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigacion Avanzada en Educacion, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Lisa Darragh

  2. Centre for Mathematical Modelling, Universidad de Chile, Beauchef 851, Santiago, Chile

    Lisa Darragh

Authors
  1. Lisa Darragh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa Darragh.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Darragh, L. Identity research in mathematics education. Educ Stud Math 93, 19–33 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-016-9696-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-016-9696-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation