Title: Mathematical Futures or Domestic Happiness: Constructions of mathematicians working and domestic liv
1Mathematical Futures or Domestic Happiness
Constructions of mathematicians working and
domestic lives in popular culture and
schoolsMarie-Pierre Moreau, Heather Mendick and
Debbie Epstein
2How do constructions of mathematicians in
popular culture deploy in learners discourses?
Marie-Pierre Moreau, Heather Mendick and Debbie
Epstein
3My friend, the maths geek
- Ellie Yes I was talking about my friend who was
the maths geek. He came back this summer and he
has got like the Pi symbol and its about an inch
big tattooed on like the underside of his wrist.
Everyone was telling me he had Pi and I was
thinking why has he got a pie tattooed on his
wrist and I was thinking what kind of pie would
it be and why would you think lets have a pie?.
And then everyone was like what are you on
about Pi? you know and I was like oh!. But he
thinks it is like the best thing ever so much so
that he has had it now permanently tattooed on
him. - (laughter)
- Ellie You wouldnt go and get Marx you know I
really like Marx lets have him tattooed or
something like that you know Meitner, Focus
group 25, humanities undergraduate
4Rationale why does it matter to explore this
issue?
- The policy argument less and less young people
choosing to do maths post GCSEs in England and
Wales, similar trends in other countries (Henry,
2002 Kirkman, 2002 MacLeod, 2005 TES, 2003) - More and more (male) mathematicians as prominent
figures of popular culture (e.g. A Beautiful
Mind, Good Will Hunting, Proof, Pi, Enigma,
Numb3rs, Fermats Last Theorem) - The strong association between mathematics and
identities (Mendick, 2006), and mathematics and
masculinities (in popular culture and elsewhere
mathematics as iconic of rationality Harding,
1998 Walkerdine, 1998 Wertheim, 1997)
5The research context to the paper
- Mathematical Images and Identities education,
entertainment, social justice, funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council
RES-000-23-1454 - What discourses are there about mathematics and
mathematicians within contemporary popular
cultural representations? -
- How are these discourses deployed by learners in
constructing their relationships with
mathematics? - How are these discourses and processes gendered,
classed and raced?
6Data collection and data analysis
- 2 groups of participants
- Year 10 Year 11 pupils (the focus of this
paper) at 3 schools St Joans, Shelley, Franklin - Year 2 Year 3 undergraduates
- 4 phases of data collection and analysis
- Survey (556 questionnaires completed by Year 10
students 14 to 15 y.o., and 100 second year
university undergraduates contrasted sample of
institutions) - Texts (identified from the survey) explored
in-depth in a conference paper given at GE,
Dublin, March 2007 - Focus groups (27) (contrasted sample) the focus
of this paper - Individual interviews (56) (idem)
7Research questions
- How are mathematicians constructed in (Hollywood)
popular culture? - How are such representations deployed by boys and
girls in their choice of subject and/or career? - Do boys and girls discourses echo or challenge
dominant discourses of mathematicians in popular
culture and how? - How are these processes gendered, raced and
classed? - Theoretical positioning feminist,
post-structuralist and cultural studies theories
(e.g. work by Buckingham and Bragg, 2004, on the
critical viewer)
8Some figures of mathematicians in popular culture
9Representations of mathematicians in Hollywood
popular culture (from Moreau, Mendick Epstein,
2007, GE, Dublin)
- Mathematicians as white, middle-class,
heterosexual men - Women mathematicians are disappeared and
entangled in positions of multiple subordination
(daughters, students heiress position) - Non heterosexual, non white and non middle-class
mathematicians of both sex are disappeared too - Mathematical masculinities as colluding with
dominant groups, yet constructed as other and
in contrast with hegemonic masculinities through
their association with a set of characteristics
(emotionally unstable, fragile, in need of
protection, poor main breadwinners)
10Numb3rs
Alan
Charlie
Don
11 Charlie Don Genius vs. Average Emoti
onal instability-sensitive vs Control of
emotions Being protected vs Protecting
Dependent vs Independent Unreliable vs R
eliable Involvement in domestic work vs No
involvement Lifestyle wine/water
drinker, vs Ladish lifestyle and no car
attitudes No use of physical strength
vs Use of physical strength Alternativ
e masculinity vs Dominant masculinity
12How such constructions of mathematicians deploy
in students discourses and influence the pursuit
of maths
- For the purpose of this paper, we
- Draw on an analysis of 15 focus group conducted
with Year 11 students - Use pseudonyms chosen by the students themselves
- Retain the following themes for analysis
gender, class, embodiment, personality/nerd/geek/l
ifestyle, genius/other - Draw on an ongoing analysis of focus group data,
using quotes for the purpose of illustration
13Mathematicians as men
- Implicit and explicit associations between
mathematics and masculinity - Researcher What are they wearing these
mathematicians? - Jesus Suits.
- Chantz Shirt and tie.
- Ashley Gotta be a shirt hasnt it?
- St Joans, Focus group 11
14Mathematicians as genius
- Implicit and explicit associations between
mathematics, masculinity and higher forms of
intelligence - Action Man Einstein.
- Abe Yes.
- Action Man Thats my kind of image, a character
like Einstein. () Steven Hawking is an
incredibly clever, isnt he. - Franklin, Focus group 3
15Mathematicians as genius (continued)
- between higher forms of intelligence and
social class - Researcher What kind of family like theyd have?
- JD Posh.
- Researcher Posh, OK.
- Sarah Probably quite wealthy, yeah. ()
- Researcher Whys that? Is that because
- Sarah Because they might be a lot higher than
say a maths teacher or like the highest possible
sort of thing. Shelley, Focus group 8 - Candi Middle-class.
- Researcher Middle-class?
- Maya Yeah, I think theyre quite middle-class.
It depends actually, in the, not in this school. - Candi Because I reckon, you know, to kind of
gain that, very kind of level, that level of
intelligence youd have to go to university. I
imagine it coming quite easily to them being
brought up in a kind of good family. Shelley,
Focus group 10
16Embodiment
- Researcher OK, the next question is to imagine a
mathematician and I want you to tell me what
comes into your head when I say that. There was
a little bit of laughter from some people. - (all talking together) Jane Nerdy. Maya
Scrawny. - Candi Old man with wild, white, hair.
- Some Yeah.
- Maya That sounds like a scientist.
- Candi Yeah, thats science.
- Researcher Thats interesting, isnt it?
- (all talk together, someone says that
mathematicians have really short hair) - Jane Glasses.
- Researcher So you have these differences, so
mathematicians have shorter hair than scientists? - (all talk together) Yeah.
- Maria Scientists have crazy hair.
- Researcher Like the Einstein pictures.
- Maya High top hair. laughter
- Researcher And you were saying something about
quite lanky? - all giggle
- Maria Quite small with glasses.
- Maya Scrawny.
- Skinny, yeah. Shelley, Focus group 10
17Nerdiness and mental health issues
- Whats your image of a mathematician?
- Ben Real nerdy (laughter).
- John Yeah, probably a complete geek.
- Ben Thick glasses.
- Courtney Yeah. Franklin, Focus group 1
- Researcher What other examples can you think
of about maths in popular culture that you can
remember? () - Luigi In A Beautiful Mind, Russell Crowe, he was
like amazing at maths, solving numbers and stuff.
He could just like see numbers and he could
solve, like, really complex things, but then he
was like schizophrenic. () - Researcher Anybody else, either that film or
anything else that people remember? - Bob (inaudible) I am not sure if it is a
disease, its called Aspergers Syndrome most
people that do have Aspergers syndrome are
actually amazing at maths but they have like side
effects like schizophrenia and things like that
that stop them going out. Shelley, Focus group 6
18Maths as dominating individuals identity and
lifestyle
- Leslie Working endlessly at a desk trying to
work out a formula or something. I dunno. - Researcher So they kind of never do anything
else? - Bobby Probably not.
- Leslie Yeah.
- Researcher Right. Cos my next question was going
to be what else do these people do, do they have
families and friends. What do they do in their
spare time? But they dont have any spare time? - Bobby No.
- Louise Yeah, their spare time is doing extra
maths questions. - Bobby Dedicated to what they do. Franklin,
Focus group 5 - Researcher But what do mathematicians do when
theyre not doing maths, and when theyre not
doing architecture, IT programming or whatever? - Duke Sudoku.
- (laughter) Shelley, Focus group 9
19Maths as dominating individuals identity and
lifestyle (continued)
- Researcher OK. The next question is about
mathematicians. So, I want you to imagine a
mathematician and to tell me what you think of. - Ariel Crazy.
- laughter
- Researcher What sort of crazy?
- Ariel Like a brain box. Like maths, maths its
all they think about. (inaudible) - Researcher So, kind of obsessed with maths?
- laughter
- Ariel Yeah.
- Eggbert Lack of social skills.
- laughter
- Nelle Perfectionist. Shelley, Focus group 7
20Resisting popular culture discourses? The
critical viewer
- John Its, its very sort of stereotypical geek
type of person, but obviously they arent all
like that. - Researcher Hmm.
- John Its just sort of an image that is built up
in your head from like say maths teachers not
being the coolest people on the planet
(laughter). Mathematicians are obviously like a
step above them on the maths scale. Franklin,
Focus group 1 - Barbara Like anything, can be like, you can
compare it. I mean, like well like many people
see it as like geeky but also you can be like, I
mean anything, any of us can be mathematicians. I
mean, like, some people can do like maths
courses, like at university and then, I dont
know, go and have a, I like, be completely into
music in their spare time or something.
Franklin, Focus group 2
21Resisting popular culture discourses? The
critical viewer (continued)
- Wilbert Oh what you mean - When you say it I
dont actually think oh its a cool man and he
has like got loads of friends and stuff. I think
what the stereotype of a mathematician is but if
you were to ask me, is there others out there?
I would say yeah because there obviously is. - Rupert When you see scientists now on telly you
see them with white coats on and big glasses. - Amajeutia And with like test tubes, thats how I
would see a scientist. - Cameron Its hard to look past it.
- Researcher Right. Because that image is so
strong? - Cameron Well yeah its always around, isnt it?
- Wilbert Well you always see it on telly as well
and its hard to get it out of, I dont know. If
you have always seen it on the telly you havent
seen anything else of what that person or what
that thing is then youre going to think that
when you think of it. St Joans, Focus group 15
22Resisting popular culture discourses? The
critical viewer (continued)
- Pisces I think that all of those characters are
really like extremes of different types of
mathematicians, I think its difficult for
students to relate to such extremes. - Nelle I think yes, basically theyre like
stereotype people you know and theyre all like
really two dimensional characters like you have
the person whos fantastic at maths and like
everyone hates him, and you have the person whos
rubbish at maths and everyone likes him, and its
like you shouldnt compare yourself to people
like that because people arent just one thing or
the other, theyre different. - Eggbert Yeah, and its like they stereotype all
the different associations with maths type of
people and how they deal with that just like with
each person, they havent like made anything
different about them, theyve tried capitalising
on them. Shelley, Focus group 7
23- Nicole I think of my teacher planning on taking
over the world. (laughter) - Researcher Thats interesting.
- Nicole But with maths. Shes got a really
insightful view on maths I think my teacher, I
think, and she is always coming up with new
different things and yesterday we had to do like
you have to use all the numbers from zero to 10
in a sum but the answer has to not have the same
numbers as what youve already put down. Really
confusing. And she knew how to do it and she was
trying to teach us how to, it was so funny. But
that is what I imagine, my teacher being a
mathematician. St Joans, Focus group 12
24Implications for subject and career choice
- Echoing Hollywood popular culture clichés on
mathematicians - The critical viewer in need of alternative
representations - Gendered, raced and classed effects
reinforcing social stasis