Identity and class in mathematics education research

The concept of identity has had a long influence in research in the social sciences. As such, it has also permeated a subset of research in mathematics education. Within mathematics education, we can find distinct conceptions of ‘identity’, depending on the disciplinary and methodological traditions researchers draw from or situate themselves. I use the notions of identity and class in my study of nonformal education in a rural settlement in Brazil. Anna Sfard and her collaborator Anna Prusak also work with identity as an analytic construct. In this talk I will review some of the concept’s denotations, including that proposed by our 2018 Flemming Lectures invited speaker and her collaborator. Two other areas in which Anna Sfard is known to theorize are: metaphors and the role of language in mathematics education. If time permits I plan to also talk about these theoretical formulations and the issues they raise. Although most of the constructs I will talk about are not unique to mathematics education and can be applied to any area of research in education, some of these claim to be unique to mathematics teaching and learning, like the concept of mathematical identities. When talking about identity, class, metaphors, and language I will always try to make parallels about constructs in the field of mathematics education and the broader context. However, mathematics is not the focus of my talk.