Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Queering Mathematics: Disrupting Binary Oppositions in Mathematics Pre-service Teacher Education

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Borders in Mathematics Pre-Service Teacher Education

Abstract

Borders – territorial, political, economic, and ideological – are processes of social division. They monitor and exclude and are typically regulated, patrolled, maintained, and defended by an array of power regimes, but borderlands are also sites of movement, agency, and resistance. We draw on Thomas Nail’s and Gloria Anzaldúa’s theories about borders to elaborate on processes of social division around gender and sexuality in mathematics education. The goal in this chapter is to recognize and challenge salient borders around gender, sexuality, and other identity categories in mathematics education and to work toward opportunities for hybridity created by these borders and in the blurring or queering of them. We provide a review of literature documenting the extent to which sexist and heterosexist ideologies patrol, reinforce, and perpetuate borders in mathematics that often marginalize women and queer people. We conclude the chapter with recommendations around how to blur borders around gender and sexuality in mathematics pre-service teacher education.

We deliberately listed authors in reverse alphabetical order, in a nod to our subject of queering, but this chapter represents the shared work of both authors.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    It is impossible to separate gender and sexuality from race. We are concerned by how this analysis and discussion of gender and sexuality in an analysis seem to ignore race and how such an absence could be interpreted as a claim that race is somehow separate. We chose to focus this chapter on gender and sexuality, most of the time leaving matters of race unstated, but remind readers that gender and sexuality always intersect with race (see Joseph, Hailu, & Boston, 2017; Leyva, 2017).

  2. 2.

    David Halperin (2003) credits Teresa de Lauretis with coining “queer theory” during a California conference because of its shock value. Lauretis intentionally builds on its origin as defamatory, intentionally, and “scandalously offensive” (Halperin, 2003, p. 340) to define “queer” as something that means to unsettle, disrupt, and transcend what has been socially and politically accepted as normative identity categories.

  3. 3.

    We remind readers that systems of oppression around gender and sexuality intersect with and reinforce systems of oppression around race and class. Our choice in this chapter was to “telescope in” (Collins, 1990) on gender and sexuality, despite how these systems of oppression always intersect with race and class.

References

  • Anzaldúa, G. (1999). Borderlands/La Frontera: The Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. (2017). Standards for preparing teachers of mathematics. Available online at amte.net/standards

  • Barnes, M. (2000). Effects of dominant and subordinate masculinities on interactions in a collaborative learning classroom. In J. Boaler (Ed.), Multiple perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 145–170). Westport, CT: Ablex Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Battey, D., & Leyva, L. (2016). A framework for understanding Whiteness in mathematics education. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 9(2), 49–80. Accessed at http://ed-osprey.gsu.edu/ojs/index.php/JUME/article/view/294/200

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, J. R. (1981). Differential treatment of females and males in mathematics classes. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 12(1), 40–53. https://doi.org/10.2307/748657

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benbow, C. P., & Stanley, J. C. (1982). Consequences in high school and college of sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability: A longitudinal perspective. American Educational Research Journal, 19(4), 598–622. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312019004598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, R. G., Ellis, M. W., & Hughes, S. (2013). Examining the history of reforms and recent stories of success: Mathematics education and Black learners of mathematics in the United States. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 17(4), 540–568.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, A. J. (1990). Western mathematics: the secret weapon of cultural imperialism. Race & Class, 32(2), 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/030639689003200204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borba, M., & Skovsmose, O. (1997). The ideology of certainty in mathematics education. For the Learning of Mathematics, 17(3), 17–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bright, A. (2016). Education for whom?: Word problems as carriers of cultural values. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 15(1), 6–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. (1995). Contingent foundations: Feminism and the question of ‘Postmodernism’, In Benhabib et al. Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, London: Routledge, pp. 35–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, P. (1995). Redefining the girl problem in mathematics. In W. Secada & L. B. Adajian (Eds.), New directions for equity in mathematics education (pp. 225–241). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, K. M. (2013). Ability profiling and school failure: One child’s struggle to be seen as competent. New York: Taylor & Francis.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • D’Ambrosio, U. (1997). Ethnomathematics and its place in the history and pedagogy of mathematics. New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damarin, S., & Erchick, D. B. (2010). Toward clarifying the meanings of gender in mathematics education research. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 41(4), 310–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, M. (2008). Leaving no child behind yet allowing none too far ahead: Ensuring (in) equity in mathematics education through the science of measurement and instruction. Teachers College Record, 110(6), 1330–1356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esmonde, I. (2011). Snips and snails and puppy dogs’ tails: Genderism and mathematics education. For the Learning of Mathematics, 31(2), 27–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esmonde, I., Brodie, K., Dookie, L., & Takeuchi, M. (2009, April). Race, identity and collaboration: Student perspectives. Paper presented at the Research Presession of the 87th Annual Meeting and Exposition of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esmonde, I., & Langer-Osuna, J. M. (2013). Power in numbers: Student participation in mathematical discussions in heterogeneous spaces. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 288–315. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.44.1.0288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fasheh, M. (1982). Mathematics, culture and authority. For the Learning of Mathematics, 3(2), 2–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fennema, E., Carpenter, T. P., Jacobs, V. R., Franke, M. L., & Levi, L. W. (1998). A longitudinal study of gender differences in young children’s mathematical thinking. Educational Researcher, 27(5), 6–11. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X027005006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality: An introduction. London: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, T., Holland, J., & Lahelma, E. (2000). Making spaces: Citizenship and difference in schools. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, M. (1996). Gender and mathematics: Mythology and misogyny. In G. Hanna (Ed.), Towards gender equity in mathematics education (pp. 27–38). Norwell, MA: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greer, B., & Mukhopadhyay, S. (2012). The hegemony of mathematics. In O. Skovsmose & B. Greer (Eds.), Opening the cage: Critique and politics of mathematics education (pp. 229–248). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Greer, B., Mukhopadhyay, S., & Roth, W. (2012). Celebrating diversity, realizing alternatives. In S. Mukhopadhyay & W. Roth (Eds.), Alternative forms of knowing (in) mathematics: Celebrations of mathematical practices (pp. 1–8). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, R. (2007). Context matters: Equity, success, and the future of mathematics education. In T. Lamberg & L. R. West (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 1–18). Lake Tahoe, NV: University of Nevada, Reno.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, R. (2017a). Living mathematx: Towards a vision for the future. Philosophy of Mathematics Education, 32, 2–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, R. (2017b). Political conocimiento for teaching mathematics: Why teachers need it and how to develop it. In S. Kastberg, A. M. Tyminski, A. Lischka, & W. Sanchez (Eds.), Building support for scholarly practices in mathematics methods (pp. 11–38). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halperin, D. M. (2003). The normalization of queer theory. Journal of Homosexuality, 45(2–4), 339–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart, L. E. (1989). Classroom processes, sex of student, and confidence in learning mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 20, 242–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hird, M. J. (2000). Gender’s nature: Intesexuality, transsexualism, and the “sex”/“gender” binary. Feminist Theory, 1(3), 347–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyde, J., Fennema, E., Ryan, M., Frost, L., & Hopp, C. (1990). Gender comparisons of mathematics attitudes and affect: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14(3), 299–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in mathematics performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107(2), 139–155. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J. E., & Eccles, J. S. (1985). Gender differences in math ability: The impact of media reports on parents. Educational Researcher, 14(3), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X014003020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, L., & Smart, T. (1995). Confidence in mathematics: A gender issue? Gender and Education, 7, 157–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, N. M., Hailu, M., & Boston, D. (2017). Black women’s and girls’ persistence in the P–20 mathematics pipeline: Two decades of children, youth, and adult education research. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 203–227. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16689045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimmel, M. S., & Mahler, M. (2003). Adolescent masculinity, homophobia, and violence: Random school shootings, 1982–2001. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(10), 1439–1458. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764203046010010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kosciw, J., Greytak, E., Palmer, N., & Boeseen, M. (2014). The 2013 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth in our nation’s schools. New York: GLSEN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lake, V. E., & Kelly, L. (2014). Female preservice teachers and mathematics anxiety, beliefs, and stereotypes. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 35(3), 262–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2014.936071

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leslie, S., Cimpian, A., Meyer, M., & Freeland, E. (2015). Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines. Science, 347(6219), 262–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leyva, L. (2017). Unpacking the male superiority myth and masculinization of mathematics at the intersections: A review of research on gender in mathematics education. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 48(4), 397–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorber, J. (1996). Beyond the binaries depolarizing the categories of sex, sexuality, and gender. Sociological Inquiry, 66(2), 143–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Louie, N. (2017). The culture of exclusion in mathematics education and its persistence in equity-oriented teaching. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 48(5), 488–519.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lubienski, S., Robinson, J., Crane, C., & Ganley, C. (2013). Girls’ and boys’ mathematics achievement, affect, and experiences: Findings from ECLS-K. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(4), 634–645.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. B. (2012). Learning mathematics while black. The Journal of Educational Foundations, 26(1&2), 47–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKellar, D. (2009). Kiss my math: Showing Pre-Algebra who’s boss. New York: Plume.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKellar, D. (2011). Hot X: Algebra exposed. New York: Plume.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKellar, D. (2012). Girls get curves: Geometry takes shape. New York: Plume.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, D. J., & Epstein, D. (2006). Appropriate behaviour? Sexualities, schooling and hetero-gender. In C. Skelton, B. Francis, & L. Smulyan (Eds.), The Sage handbook of gender and education (pp. 378–391). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mendick, H. (2003). Choosing maths/doing gender: A look at why there are more boys than girls in advanced mathematics classes in England. In L. Burton (Ed.), Which way social justice in mathematics education? (pp. 169–188). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendick, H. (2005b). Mathematical stories: Why do more boys than girls choose to study mathematics at AS-level in England. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 26(2), 235–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendick, H. (2006). Masculinities in mathematics. Columbus, OH: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mewborn, D. S., & Cross, D. I. (2007). Mathematics teachers’ beliefs about mathematics and links to students’ learning. In W. G. Martin, M. E. Strutchens, & P. C. Elliot (Eds.), The learning of mathematics (pp. 259–269). Reston, VA: NCTM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. (2011). Teachers’ work in culturally and linguistically diverse schools. Teaching Theory and Practice, 17(4), 451–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mukhopadhyay, S., & Roth, W. (2012). Alternative forms of knowing (in) mathematics: Celebrations of mathematical practices. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nail, T. (2016). Theory of the border. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. (2017). Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering: 2017. Special Report NSF 17-310. Arlington, VA. Available at www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/

  • Pais, A., & Valero, P. (2012). Researching research: Mathematics education in the political. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 80(1–2), 9–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-012-9399-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rands, K. (2009). Mathematical Inqu[ee]ry: Beyond ‘Add-Queers-and-Stir’ elementary mathematics education. Sex Education, 9(2), 181–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rands, K. (2013). Supporting transgender and gender-nonconforming youth through teaching mathematics for social justice. Journal of LGBT Youth, 10(1–2), 106–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rands, K. (2016). Mathematical inqueery. In N. M. Rodriguez, W. J. Martino, J. C. Ingrey, & E. Brockenbrough (Eds.), Critical concepts in queer studies and education. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55425-3_19

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Reardon, S. F., Fahle, E. M., Kalogrides, D., Podolsky, A., & Zárate, R. C. (2018). Gender achievement gaps in U.S. school districts (CEPA Working Paper No. 18-13). Retrieved from Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis: http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp18-13

  • Rubel, L. (2016). Speaking up and speaking out about gender. Mathematics Teacher, 109(6), 434–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, J. R. (2019). Towards a queer curriculum of infinity: what is the biggest number you can think of? In W. Letts & S Fifield (Eds.), STEM of desire: Queer theories and science education (pp 307–318). Brill Sense: Leiden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheldon, J., & Rands, K. (2013). Queering, en-gendering, and trans-forming mathematics and mathematics education. In M. Martinez & A. Castro Superfine (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Souto-Manning, M., & Lanza, A. (2019). Pedagogical third spaces: Inclusion and re-presentation of LGBTQ communities in and through teaching as a matter of justice. Theory Into Practice, 58, 39–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stinson, D. W. (2006). African American male adolescents, schooling (and mathematics): Deficiency, rejection, and achievement. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 477–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swearer, S. M., Turner, R. K., Givens, J. E., & Pollack, W. S. (2008). “You’re so gay!”: Do different forms of bullying matter for adolescent males? School Psychology Review, 37(2), 160–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walkerdine, V. (1990). Schoolgirl fictions. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walshaw, M. (2001). A Foucaldian gaze on gender research: What do you do when confronted with the tunnel at the end of the light? Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 32(5), 471–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yeh, C. (2018). Democratic accountability in the neoliberal era: The politics of teaching and teacher education in mathematics classrooms. Policy Futures in Education, 16(6), 764–780. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210318776470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yeh, C., & Otis. B. (2019). Mathematics for whom: Reframing and humanizing mathematics. Bank Street Occasional Paper Series, 2019(41). Retrieved from https://educate.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series/vol2019/iss41/8

  • Zaskis, D. (2015). Monsters, lovers, and former friends: Exploring relationships with mathematics via personification. For the Learning of Mathematics, 35(1), 33–38.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA

    Cathery Yeh

  2. University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Laurie Rubel

Authors
  1. Cathery Yeh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Laurie Rubel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cathery Yeh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teacher Education, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA

    Nenad Radakovic

  2. Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Limin Jao

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Yeh, C., Rubel, L. (2020). Queering Mathematics: Disrupting Binary Oppositions in Mathematics Pre-service Teacher Education. In: Radakovic, N., Jao, L. (eds) Borders in Mathematics Pre-Service Teacher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44292-7_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44292-7_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-44291-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-44292-7

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation