How Does a Mathematician Fit in? A Mixed-Methods Analysis of University Students’ Sense of Belonging in Mathematics

Abstract

University mathematics has been described as a setting that has challenges in inviting everyone to be part of the mathematics community. Thus, university mathematics offers an important context for research on belonging. For this study, we utilised a mixed-methods approach to investigate the various ways mathematics students belong or do not belong to the mathematics community. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, three student profiles were identified: Members of the Scientific Community, Members of the Social Community, and Non-Members. The first profile highlights students’ belonging to the scientific community, the second profile emphasises belonging to the social community of students, and in the third profile students’ responses reflected various ways of not belonging to the mathematics community. In addition, we elaborate on how university mathematics learning environments both promote and hinder students’ sense of belonging. Overall, the study broadens the understanding of the ways of belonging in the mathematics context and provides suggestions for teaching to address the issues of exclusion that are currently present in the culture of university mathematics.

A socio-political approach on autistic students’ sense of belonging in higher education

“…Social relationships that facilitated a sense of belonging tended to be emotionally dense (Antonsich 2010): these included relationships with family and usually a small number of close friends, but also included weaker social ties such as mentors, academic staff and other friends. Where our findings diverge from other studies on belonging in higher education (Hurtado and Carter 1997;Lahdenperä and Nieminen 2020) is in suggesting that students actively chose to belong or not in various social contexts, both inside and outside the university setting. This indicates a level of agency and self-sufficiency that might be distinct from other non-autistic students.…”

“…Earlier studies have reported that students in higher education might feel stigmatisation amongst their peers (Kendall 2016). However, May (2011) argues that a 'feeling of not belonging' need not always be experienced negatively, and that the tension between wanting to belong and wanting to be different from others can also be productive (Lahdenperä and Nieminen 2020). This resonates strongly with Ahn and Davis's (2020) final category of personal space, which they take to mean independence and the courage to be oneself.…”

“…Pesonen, Kontu, and Pirttimaa 2015) due to the students' encounters with a network of social expectations, activities, responses and attitudes, many of which can act to prevent students from experiencing a sense of belonging (e.g. Lahdenperä and Nieminen 2020). Research further highlights that autistic individuals are surrounded by neurotypical norms and expectations, which can prevent them from experiencing belonging and may result in poor wellbeing (Milton and Sims 2016).…”

Politicising inclusive learning environments: how to foster belonging and challenge ableism?

“…Our analytical focus is on stabilised and strong exclusionary discourses of ableism that overshadow disabled students' situated belonging (Nieminen, 2021;Dolmage, 2017;Slee, 2019). An important aspect of this endeavour is understanding the productive aspects of non-belonging: Not all university students want to belong to the university setting, nor take part in the social learning environments (Lahdenperä & Nieminen, 2020). Healy (2020) separated between non-belonging (loss of belonging) and un-belonging (removal of belonging), reminding us about the productive affordances of non-belonging to one's well-being.…”

“…Yet while the barriers to learning for disabled students have been studied extensively in HE, until recently, the aspect of belonging has been understudied (Pesonen et al, 2020). Recent studies have advocated for learning environment design to support the belonging of all students; this idea has supplemented large campus-wide development programmes for belonging by promoting the importance of pedagogical design (Lahdenperä & Nieminen, 2020). For instance, Motta and Bennett (2018) discussed pedagogies of care, seeing teaching as an affective and embodied practice that holds the power to promote students' belonging.…”