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It's not that identity defines math from a correctness point-of-view, it's that math can become a part of and enrich your identity. Countered with the perspecti

It's not that identity defines math from a correctness point-of-view, it's that math can become a part of and enrich your identity. Countered with the perspective that math is a chore or 'useless', this instead posits that you can make education a part of your identity. And what is academic passion if not a combination of identity, desire, and education? I think it's a nice framing, one that engage students more than 'you will learn math because we say you must learn math.' One that ensures teachers are aware of their role in shaping the identity of students. If you trace back the history of math, it's not uncommon to make math a passion, a part of your identity (think of the Pythagoreans, for a historical example). When you become a mathematician, is math not then a part of your identity? That's what I interpret from: >As teachers introduce mathematics to students, they are helping them shape their identity as people. So the idea is to have teachers be aware of the impact of math and education on people's identity. It is a consciousness thing.

jimbokun 5y ago
Why is making math a part of your "identity" preferable to seeing math as a tool you can apply to accomplish your goals, or something you can do for fun? The vast majority of high school math students will not become mathematicians.
- whymauri 5y ago
  >So the idea is to have teachers be aware of the impact of math and education on people's identity. It is a consciousness thing. It's not a question of preferability (one view is not mutually exclusive of the other), and I didn't claim high schoolers should all become mathematicians (where did that come from?). In either case, I fail to see how training instructors to be aware of their teachings' effect on identity can be harmful. I'm not particularly scared nor threatened by the idea of it, and the idea that there's no connection between education and identity doesn't make sense to me. That's all I have to say.
TeeMassive 5y ago
Everything we do is part of our "identity". That doesn't really bring anything new to the conversation. Math deal with concepts, forms and quantities and their relationships and their abstractions, not personal identity. There are more proper academic fields for this (such as language and art), although it doesn't remove the fact that DIE is a discredited field and should be done away with anyway.

jimbokun 5y ago

Why is making math a part of your "identity" preferable to seeing math as a tool you can apply to accomplish your goals, or something you can do for fun? The vast majority of high school math students will not become mathematicians.

whymauri 5y ago
>So the idea is to have teachers be aware of the impact of math and education on people's identity. It is a consciousness thing. It's not a question of preferability (one view is not mutually exclusive of the other), and I didn't claim high schoolers should all become mathematicians (where did that come from?). In either case, I fail to see how training instructors to be aware of their teachings' effect on identity can be harmful. I'm not particularly scared nor threatened by the idea of it, and the idea that there's no connection between education and identity doesn't make sense to me. That's all I have to say.

TeeMassive 5y ago

Everything we do is part of our "identity". That doesn't really bring anything new to the conversation. Math deal with concepts, forms and quantities and their relationships and their abstractions, not personal identity. There are more proper academic fields for this (such as language and art), although it doesn't remove the fact that DIE is a discredited field and should be done away with anyway.