Moving towards a feminist epistemology of mathematics

Burton, Leone

doi:10.1007/bf01274177

Cited by 73 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…As a starting point, changes in instructional practices in mathematics need to occur in order to provide more meaningful experiences for females in mathematics. Feminist researchers (for example, Boaler, 1997;Burton, 1995;Whitten & Burciaga, 2001) advocate for creating supportive, inquiry-focused mathematics classroom environments wherein females' voices are heard and many approaches to solving problems are valued. For instance, rather than the traditional focus in mathematics on memorization and rulefollowing, researchers (for example, Becker, 1995;Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986;Morrow & Morrow, 1995) suggest that focusing more on conceptual understanding and connecting mathematics to students' lives may help both males and females to better relate to and understand the subject.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Issues in Mathematics: An Ontario Perspective

Hall

2012

Journal of Teaching and Learning

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In many developed countries, including Canada, it is often perceived that gender issues in mathematics have been "solved" and are no longer a relevant and timely issue. In this article, I challenge this perception by providing an overview of gender issues in mathematics in three domains-achievement, attitude, and participation-from the elementary school level to the university level. My analysis of several sources of data from Ontario is compared to a meta-analysis of research involving data from culturally similar countries to Canada, for example, Australia, United Kingdom. The data primarily arise from large-scale mathematics assessments, for example, PISA and EQAO, and national statistics databases, for example, Statistics Canada and National Center for Education Statistics. Counter to the aforementioned perception, this analysis indicates that gender issues still exist in mathematics in developed countries, including Canada. The gender gap is particularly wide in terms of students' attitudes and participation: Males have substantially more positive attitudes toward mathematics and higher levels of participation in non-mandatory levels of mathematics than do females. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and suggestions of possible steps that may be taken to help ameliorate the current situation.Gender issues have long been a heated topic of debate in mathematics education. Early research (e.g., Fruchter, 1954;Stafford, 1972) tended to focus on biological explanations for perceived differences between males and females in spatial perception and mathematical reasoning ability. However, other researchers questioned the biological focus and examined other issues that might affect students' experiences with mathematics. In the late 1970s, a seminal study of U.S. high school students by Fennema and Sherman (1977) marked a turning point in the focus of mathematics education research about gender issues. Fennema and Sherman found that when two factors, the number of prior mathematics courses taken and experience with spatial activities, were controlled, no statistically significant gender differences in spatial abilities existed. The researchers also investigated students' attitudes toward mathematics, and found that males generally had more positive attitudes than females toward the subject area. Based on their findings, Fennema and Sherman posited that students' attitudes were socially constructed as opposed to biologically determined. Since this study, research regarding gender issues in mathematics education has generally moved away from biologically deterministic arguments.Gender Issues in Mathematics: An Ontario Perspective 60In the 1990s, in particular, there was a great deal of research that focused on gender issues in mathematics, investigating how social factors, including parents' views and the manner in which mathematics is taught, may impact female and male students' attitudes, achievements, and participation in mathematics in different ways (e.g., Boaler, 1...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Issues in Mathematics: An Ontario Perspective

Hall

2012

Journal of Teaching and Learning

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“…These policies include support for learning by rote, emphasis on arithmetic and numeracy, and the following of set methods and rules (Ball, 1994). These back-to-basics policies stand as a direct threat to the emergence of a new form of mathematics education that many believed was going to change school mathematics into a subject that students would find more enjoyable, understandable, and relevant (Burton, 1986(Burton, , 1995.…”

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confidence: 99%

Open and Closed Mathematics: Student Experiences and Understandings

Boaler¹

1998

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education

318

148

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This paper reports on 3-year case studies of 2 schools with alternative mathematical teaching approaches. One school used a traditional, textbook approach; the other used open-ended activities at all times. Using various forms of case study data, including observations, questionnaires, interviews, and quantitative assessments, I will show the ways in which the 2 approaches encouraged different forms of knowledge. Students who followed a traditional approach developed a procedural knowledge that was of limited use to them in unfamiliar situations. Students who learned mathematics in an open, project-based environment developed a conceptual understanding that provided them with advantages in a range of assessments and situations. The project students had been "apprenticed" into a system of thinking and using mathematics that helped them in both school and nonschool settings.

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“…Burton (1995) suggests that knowing-that has an impersonal connotation, but that when knowing-that is extended to knowing-why, that is, to having personal stories to account for, to make connections with, and to reconstruct from, then mathematics becomes personal and more idiosyncratic. Biggs (1994) rehearses Ryle's distinctions and then directs attention to what he considers to be a different way of considering knowledge, in five hierarchical levels following Bruner's spiral curriculum (Bruner, 1966) and resonant of van Hiele's levels (1986):…”

Section: Historical-cultural Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Forms of Mathematical Knowledge

Tirosh¹

1999

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Moving towards a feminist epistemology of mathematics

Cited by 73 publications

References 8 publications

Gender Issues in Mathematics: An Ontario Perspective

Gender Issues in Mathematics: An Ontario Perspective

Open and Closed Mathematics: Student Experiences and Understandings

Forms of Mathematical Knowledge

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