Advisor: Dr. Jess Hagman

Committee:  Dr. Hortensia Soto , Dr. Liz Arnold, Dr. David Most

Title: Exploring women of color’s expressions of mathematical identity:
The role of institutional resources and mathematical values

Abstract: There is a persistent and growing global call to examine,
challenge, and transform exclusionary structures and systems within
mathematics education (Laursen & Austin, 2020; Thomas & Drake, 2016;
Wagner et al., 2020). An important component of this call examines
students’ mathematical identity. This dissertation study explores
undergraduate women of color’s expressions of mathematical identity and
the institutional structures and ideologies that influence these
expressions. Following a three-paper model, this dissertation utilizes
critical theories and an intersectional lens to recognize the gendered
and racialized context of higher education mathematical spaces and the
ways these discourses influence women of color’s mathematical
identity. The first paper employs large-scale quantitative and
qualitative data from a national survey on students’ undergraduate
calculus experiences to explore women of color’s expressions of
mathematical identity. Informed by Data Feminism, I use a cluster
analysis to group women of color survey respondents based on four
subdomains of mathematical identity and contextualize each group using
qualitative survey responses. The second paper draws from Nasir’s (2011)
material and relational identity resources to examine the institutional
resources available and accessible to undergraduate women of color to
support their mathematical identity. The third paper uses a
sociopolitical lens to discuss the sociohistorical background of white,
patriarchal mathematical values and the ways these values create
inequities in undergraduate mathematical spaces. The results of this
paper suggest a clear misalignment between these sociohistorical
mathematical values and women of color’s mathematical and mathematics
education values. Together, these three papers emphasize within-group
differences among women of color’s mathematical identity and the
different ways material, relational, and ideological resources can
support or hinder women of color’s mathematical identities.