“Authoring mathematical selves”

This study asks how middle school students—including those with and without labels of learning disabilities—develop identifications with mathematics in the figured worlds of their mathematics classrooms. This ethnographic and interview study followed nine focus Latino/a students though their sixth and seven grade inclusive mathematics classrooms in a high-poverty urban school. The students participated in two kinds of mathematical pedagogy that differently constructed ability and disability in mathematics. Individual students constructed unique self-understandings as math learners over time, using the cultural resources of multiple figured worlds (mathematical, friendship, special education) that circulated in classrooms. Students narrated the critical importance of relationships and emotions in their experiences in mathematics classes. These self-understandings mattered for how children engaged in mathematical learning and what choices they made about mathematics classes in eighth grade. This presentation will discuss conceptual framework, findings, and further questions.