Honors Theses

Advisor

Kenneth Butler, Ph.D.

Department

Teacher Education

Publication Date

4-23-2025

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

There are many different narratives that are thrown around regarding math with little ill intent but with little regard to the serious impacts that the phrases can have. The one that will be focused on in this project is the idea that “math is a male subject” or that men are inherently better at math than women. This project will attempt to draw a connection between the narratives and the fact that there is a significant lack of women in STEM fields or pursuing higher level math. By reaching out to both students and teachers, the goal is to learn about the ways that people have experienced the effect of these narratives in the classroom. In addition, it is to see the difference in the ways that people of different genders understand math and its purpose in the world. The other purpose of this project is to take the findings from the survey and pair that with research on creating an equal and ethical classroom environment in order to propose solutions to these issues. By giving teachers a way to get ahead of these narratives, they can help make sure that all genders are given equal chances to learn and understand and later pursue math. This way the connection between the narratives and the classroom environment can be exploited to help equal out the gender representation in higher education math classes.

Permission Statement

This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes.

Keywords

Undergraduate research

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