Dismantling the ‘All-Boys Club’ A Narrative of Contradictions Women Experience in PhD Mathematics Programs: A Freirean Approach

Weverton Ataide Pinheiro

doi:10.29333/iejme/11090

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Weverton Ataide Pinheiro ¹ ^*

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¹ Indiana University Bloomington, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Gender issues in mathematics education received fairly attention several decades ago, mainly because women and men performed differently, with men usually outperforming women. The research on such phenomena originated a series of studies on the so-called ‘achievement-gap.’ After many years of research on the achievement gap, such a gap has shown to have disappeared. However, recent studies have shown that there are fewer women who choose STEM-related fields than male peers. Suppose women are not choosing mathematics, but concomitantly research has pointed out that women and men have similar mathematics capabilities; why are women disproportionately part of the field? Since current statistics show that 90-95% of doctoral mathematics students are men, this study examines why school mathematics is still a male-dominant field. The data presented in this paper was collected using life-story interviews. Freirean methodology was used to analyze the contradictions in women’s PhD student experiences. The findings point to contradictions in women’s experiences in mathematics regarding success and challenges women have faced in mathematics and are discussed in depth in the findings and discussion sections of this paper.

Keywords

women in mathematics
gender and mathematics
mathematics education
contradictions

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 16, Issue 3, October 2021, Article No: em0652

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11090

Publication date: 18 Jul 2021

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Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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APA

Ataide Pinheiro, W. (2021). Dismantling the ‘All-Boys Club’ A Narrative of Contradictions Women Experience in PhD Mathematics Programs: A Freirean Approach. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 16(3), em0652. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11090

Vancouver

Ataide Pinheiro W. Dismantling the ‘All-Boys Club’ A Narrative of Contradictions Women Experience in PhD Mathematics Programs: A Freirean Approach. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2021;16(3):em0652. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11090

AMA

Ataide Pinheiro W. Dismantling the ‘All-Boys Club’ A Narrative of Contradictions Women Experience in PhD Mathematics Programs: A Freirean Approach. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2021;16(3), em0652. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11090

Chicago

Ataide Pinheiro, Weverton. "Dismantling the ‘All-Boys Club’ A Narrative of Contradictions Women Experience in PhD Mathematics Programs: A Freirean Approach". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2021 16 no. 3 (2021): em0652. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11090

Harvard

Ataide Pinheiro, W. (2021). Dismantling the ‘All-Boys Club’ A Narrative of Contradictions Women Experience in PhD Mathematics Programs: A Freirean Approach. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 16(3), em0652. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11090

MLA

Ataide Pinheiro, Weverton "Dismantling the ‘All-Boys Club’ A Narrative of Contradictions Women Experience in PhD Mathematics Programs: A Freirean Approach". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 16, no. 3, 2021, em0652. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11090