Increasing Gender-based Equity in Mathematics Through Improved Advising

Mathematics courses are core requirements within a variety majors at the undergraduate level. This is particularly true for students majoring in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Students' mathematical skills may impact their academic trajectory and potentially their life trajectory.

Academic advising sessions on mathematics courses play a key role in shaping productive STEM pathways for students. During such advising sessions, advisors and students co-construct stories about mathematical competence and readiness when deciding on a first undergraduate mathematics course. Previously collected data of a mathematics advising program at a large public university suggests that gendered interactional dynamics strongly influence narratives of mathematical competence and readiness, and consequentially, course recommendations.

The pilot data suggest that men tend to be encouraged to enroll in more advanced or ambitious first mathematics course than their women counterparts with similar placement scores and background. Having direct access and insight to undergraduate advising sessions allow for a clear site of potential intervention and radical transformation in STEM pathways for women.

This project will focus on the gendered dynamics of mathematics advising. These dynamics deserve scrutiny and rigorous study. Such dynamics should be recognized as flexible to be shaped to serve women interested in STEM and women in other mathematics-intensive majors, or women uncertain of their majors who wish to keep their possibilities open by taking ambitious mathematics courses.

This project will design and test an intervention to promote gender-equity in mathematics advising sessions. This has potential to lead to an understanding of how mathematics advising in a post-secondary context influences mathematics course placement. The intervention will be made publicly available to the undergraduate mathematics research and teaching community.

This project explores the mathematics advising of a large public university across four programs, including the general student body in the liberal arts college and the honors program in the liberal arts college, the engineering school, and the business school. In particular, the study focuses on the of small-scale event of advising, that occurs in minutes between people, as a uniquely critical site of women’s attrition (or misalignment) to STEM-based pathways, as well as other technical majors.

To reduce the mediating effects of gender on mathematics course recommendations, the project aims to understand how the interactional dynamics (i.e., talk, gesture, and body comportment) between advisors and students of various gender identities influence narratives of mathematical competence and readiness, and, thus, course placement. Using positioning theory, along with international analysis, the research team will analyze approximately 300 video records and surveys of academic advising sessions to highlight specific advising practices that promote gender equity in first-year mathematics course placement.

Building off the analysis of video records and using design-based methods, a key outcome of the project will be an intervention (e.g., online mini-courses) that provides much needed resources to guide students and advisors in navigating mathematics contexts, like mathematics advising sessions, where the gender-based presentation of mathematics identities is under scrutiny. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.

Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.