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Title: Mathematical Futures or Domestic Happiness: Constructions of mathematicians working and domestic liv


1
Mathematical Futures or Domestic Happiness
Constructions of mathematicians working and
domestic lives in popular culture and
schoolsMarie-Pierre Moreau, Heather Mendick and
Debbie Epstein
2
How do constructions of mathematicians in
popular culture deploy in learners discourses?
Marie-Pierre Moreau, Heather Mendick and Debbie
Epstein
3
My 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

4
Rationale 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)

5
The 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?

6
Data 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)

7
Research 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)

8
Some figures of mathematicians in popular culture
9
Representations 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)

10
Numb3rs
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
12
How 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

13
Mathematicians 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

14
Mathematicians 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

15
Mathematicians 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

16
Embodiment
  • 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

17
Nerdiness 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

18
Maths 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

19
Maths 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

20
Resisting 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

21
Resisting 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

22
Resisting 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

24
Implications 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
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