Proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education · Volume 1
Rachel Elizabeth Helme
University of Bristol
⬇ Download PDFDominant, deficit discourses can be prevalent in the culture that surrounds students labelled as low attaining in mathematics. Drawing on a model of deficit discourses in mathematics education, this report reflects on how the echoes of dominant discourses pervade the students’ own stories about their lived experiences of the teaching and learning of mathematics. Using the poetic inquiry method of the Listening Guide to lean in and listen carefully, I examined how students talked about themselves in relation to mathematics and found that there was a clear influence of these cultural discourses on the stories told by most students, However, defying these discourses allowed one student to re-narrate themselves from a more positive viewpoint.
VoicesLow attainmentDominant Discourses