Storylines in public news media about mathematics education and minoritized students

• Published in: Educational Studies in Mathematics
• Main Authors: Andersson, Annica, Ryan, Ulrika, Herbel-Eisenmann, Beth, Huru, Hilja Lisa, Wagner, David
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Immigrant · Indigenous · Mathematics education · Minority/minoritized groups · Norway · Norwegian media · Positioning · Sami · Storyline; Educational Sciences; Utbildningsvetenskap; Norway; sami
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-58629; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-022-10161-5

Public media both refects and shapes societal perceptions and attitudes. Teachers and others around students in mathematics classrooms have expectations for the students, projected with what appears in these media. We are most concerned about the expectationsplaced on students who are identifed with minoritized groups—particularly students whoare Indigenous or migrated to Norway. We investigate how minoritized group contexts andmathematics education appear together in Norwegian news media texts. Our analysis usesthe notion of storylines to describe the expectations about minoritized groups that newsmedia project. We found seven entangled storylines: “the majority language and cultureare keys to learning and knowing mathematics,” “mathematics is language- and cultureneutral,” “minoritized groups’ mathematics achievements are linked to culture and gender,”“extraordinary measures are needed to teach students from minoritized groups mathematics,” “students from minoritized groups underachieve,” “students from minoritized groupsput in extraordinary efort and time to learn mathematics,” and “minoritized mathematicsstudents are motivated by gratitude.” LIT Research