10.5281/zenodo.5416581
https://zenodo.org/records/5416581
oai:zenodo.org:5416581
Smith, Cathy
Cathy
Smith
The Open University
Taking a visibility perspective on gendering in secondary school mathematics
Tredition
2021
2021-09-03
eng
10.5281/zenodo.5336638
10.5281/zenodo.5416580
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
The theoretical perspective of visibility has been used in organisation studies to understand how participation can be constructed differently for minority and majority groups. This paper combines liberal and poststructural approaches to understanding who is made visible, and how, in mathematics practices where choice aligns with gender. I re-analyse existing data from case studies of English schools with high mathematics participation for girls aged 16-18. Within these accounts of girls’ experiences, prevailing discourses are those that render boys’ struggles and successes highly visible. Quiet effort serves as an invisible background that is ascribed to girls and to maturity. In contrast, the hypervisible girl achiever is understood through a single aspect of identity – mathematical success without struggle or support.