Identity and Belonging

Objective: Students will have the opportunity to identify and name their personal strengths, goals, and/or fears within the context of their work as mathematicians. 

Key Terms: Identity. Belonging. Representation. 

Timing: These activities could work best if given at the beginning of the semester, both to help set the tone for the course and to help students feel comfortable in the course during the entire semester. 

Lesson

Part I: Feelings activity. 

  1. Provide a framing for the students regarding the purpose of this activity, for example using the Conceptual Framework discussed above. 
  2. Consider setting up the activity so that students have the opportunity to share their feelings anonymously. 
  3. Provide the students with a structured way to share their feelings. See, for example, this structure from Mathematical Explorations and Discrete Mathematics.
  4. Share the results from the activity with the class. For example, you could create a word cloud using the responses, or some other visual depiction of the words that were chosen and the frequency that they appeared. 

Part II: Strengths and personal goals. 

  1. Provide a framing for the students regarding the purpose of this activity, for example using the Conceptual Framework discussed above. You can choose to provide some example goals if you like. See, for example, this framework from Discrete Mathematics. 
  2. Have the students create a first draft of their strengths and goals to bring to class on a specified date.  Tell them in advance that they will have the opportunity to share anything they chose to write about, but consider also telling them that they will not be required to share out to the class if they prefer not to. 
  3. Allow the students to revise their strengths and goals before submitting them. They may have benefited from hearing from the students who did choose to share (parts of) their first draft during class time, and so may wish to revise their own draft accordingly.
  4. Consider also allowing, or even providing opportunities for, students to revise their strengths and goals as the semester progresses.