Speaker: Kelly MacArthur (University of Arizona)

Location and Time: AC1 115, 11:20–11:50am

Title: Disrupting the "pull up your britches and be a man about it" environment in mathematics toward Rehumanization for historically marginalized students

Abstract: Calculus classes are often experienced as gatekeeper courses for STEM majors, particularly for students from groups that have been historically marginalized in math including Latin*, Indigenous, LGBTQ+ and women students. This talk reports on research that explored attitudes of Calculus 2 students from the above groups regarding what teaching moves feel humanizing to them. Quantitative analysis of survey questions (n=153) showed that students generally find scenarios that align with the eight rehumanizing dimensions (Gutiérrez, 2018) to be humanizing. From qualitative analysis of interviews with 20 focal students from historically marginalized groups, a student-driven definition of humanizing emerged that centers relationality and a caring/failure-tolerant classroom environment. Further analysis shed light on differences between dominant (white, heterosexual, cis-men) and focal group perceptions, especially regarding one rehumanizing dimension scenario. Takeaways and cautions regarding teaching moves that have the potential to feel humanizing to historically ill-served STEM majors will be discussed, with the overriding goal to promote humanizing undergraduate teaching pedagogies.