Presenter(s): Michelle Lo
Faculty Mentor(s): Jennifer Ruef
Oral Session 4 C
As institutions strive to develop equitable classrooms, educators must consider what features equitable classrooms include. One such feature is the equitable distribution of authority and agency among students. Authority is the level of provided opportunities for making decisions during a mathematical task, the type of method to use in solving a problem, or the pace of learning, whereas agency is the power to carry out self-made decisions on a mathematical task. Equitable distribution of authority and agency can be enhanced in mathematics classrooms where students participate in discourse as an active member of the classroom. Students in these mathematics classes are asked to publicly make sense of mathematics. In other words, they are asked to participate in public sensemaking, where students understand and acknowledge one another’s ideas as well as mistakes, present and revise arguments, and take risks by sharing ideas.
This study strives to answer the following questions: “How are students positioned during mathematical group work in public sensemaking classrooms?” and “How does this positioning impact the distribution of agency and authority?” Students are commonly positioned as an expert, novice, or facilitator in the group. Data comes from existing video footage of sixth-grade students in a mathematics class, as well as interviews from these students. Qualitative data from videos and interviews were transcribed and coded. Results in one group show that one student is positioned as a clear expert-facilitator, but there is no obvious novice. However, the student, similar to the teacher of the classroom, distributes authority and agency to other members of the group. This research intends to inform teachers of the positioning patterns that may occur during group work, and the effectiveness of public sensemaking classrooms on distributing authority and agency equitably during group work.