Loving and Loathing: Portrayals of School Mathematics in Young Adult Fiction

Abstract

Images of mathematics and mathematicians are often negative and stereotyped. These portrayals may work to construct our impressions of mathematics and influence students' identity with and future participation in the subject. This study examined young adult fiction as a context in which school mathematics is portrayed and constructed. I used positioning theory and the notion of story lines to analyze a sample of 59 books. Portrayals of school mathematics within this sample involved multiple story lines, including school mathematics as being obligatory but not useful and mathematics classes as tense, terrible, difficult, and different but perhaps as places in which to find love. Portrayals of mathematics teachers were extremely stereotyped, and some girls were just as likely as boys to be positioned as able mathematics learners.

Mathematical Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors: Young Adult Texts as Sites for Identifying With Mathematics

“…In one of the only thorough studies of its kind, Darragh () focused her analysis on 59 YA novels referencing the mathematics classroom. She found that school mathematics is positioned negatively in more than half ( n = 31) of them, followed by neutral ( n = 17), positive ( n = 7), and mixed ( n = 4).…”

“…This is entirely possible. It could very well take me eighty‐eight years to understand algebra” (from The True Meaning of Cleavage ; Fredericks, as cited in Darragh, , p. 185). Unsurprisingly, the depiction of mathematics class as to be avoided, confusing or difficult, and tense are prevalent in Darragh’s findings, adhering to an especially stubborn stigma and gatekeeping practices concerning in‐school mathematics‐learning contexts (Nasir & Hand, ).…”

“…Darragh () explained that although teachers in general can be easily targeted in YA fiction as in the previous excerpt, mathematics teachers are often portrayed in this manner. If there are teachers who give guidance to protagonists, it is other school subject teachers, such as teachers of music, art, drama, English, and religion, who play the role, not mathematics teachers.…”

“…Meanwhile, the analysis of student characters adds narratives about issues of gender, race, and class to the stereotypical image of mathematics. First, in terms of gender, unlike in other popular culture spaces such as video game creators and filmmakers, where most people creating those spaces are men, girls are fairly evenly represented in YA fiction (Darragh, ). The overall count for boys and girls as good and bad at mathematics learning is almost the same.…”

“…Finally, according to Darragh, mathematics is othered among characters by being seen as a subject that is not much related to the overall intelligence of the female protagonist, as seen in this quote: “I got my grades and they’re all pretty much as I expected. My math grade was dragged down by those stupid tests (or by those tests where I was stupid)” (from Life as We Knew It ; Pfeffer, as cited in Darragh, , p. 192).…”