Developing a 'leading identity': the relationshipbetween students' mathematical identities and their career and higher education aspirations

摘要

The construct of identity has been used widely in mathematics education in orderto understand how students (and teachers) relate to and engage with the subject (Kaasila,2007; Sfard & Prusak, 2005; Boaler, 2002). Drawing on cultural historical activity theory(CHAT), this paper adopts Leont'ev's notion of leading activity in order to explore the key`significant' activities that are implicated in the development of students' reflexiveunderstanding of self and how this may offer differing relations with mathematics.According to Leont'ev (1981), leading activities are those which are significant to thedevelopment of the individual's psyche through the emergence of new motives forengagement. We suggest that alongside new motives for engagement comes a newunderstanding of self—a leading identitywhich reflects a hierarchy of our motives.Narrative analysis of interviews with two students (aged 16-17 years old) in post-compulsory education, Mary and Lee, are presented. Mary holds a stable 'vocational'leading identity throughout her narrative and, thus, her motive for studying mathematics isdefined by its 'use value' in terms of pursuing this vocation. In contrast, Lee develops aleading identity which is focused on the activity of studying and becoming a universitystudent. As such, his motive for study is framed in terms of the exchange value of thequalifications he hopes to obtain. We argue that this empirical grounding of leading activityand leading identity offers new insights into students' identity development.