Multiply minoritized learners face racialized, gendered, and ableist hierarchies of mathematical ability that shape the organization of schools and classrooms and can significantly challenge access to identities as mathematical learners and practitioners as well as to fundamental human dignity. Classrooms and everyday interactions can perpetuate or interrupt these conditions. Contributing to questions about the relationships among identity, power, and dignity in mathematics learning, this article presents a positional interaction analysis of Gisela, a Disabled 10th-grade Latina student, as she took up, challenged, and renegotiated identities of mathematical thinker, learner, and community member over the course of one school year.
Data collection and analysis presented in this article were initially conducted as part of the dissertation project for completion of a PhD. This work received financial support from the Gerald J. Lieberman Fellowship and the Stanford Graduate School of Education Dissertation Support Grant. Deep gratitude goes to support from Dr. Jennifer Osuna as well as to Gisela and her peers, who shared themselves with me. Thank you as well to the JRME editorial team and anonymous reviewers for their careful reading and feedback on this piece.
Emma Gargroetzi, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712; egargroetzi@austin.utexas.edu