QUEER TIME/MATH TIME

Abstract

Objectives/purposes. This contribution uses theories of queer time to re-frame mathematics education as a “queer practice”. Scholars have proposed that mathematics education needs to address issues of queer identities (e.g. Dubbs, 2016; Esmonde, 2011; Yoder & Mattheis, 2016; Rands, 2013). Perhaps, this paper suggests, it would be more appropriate to say that mathematics education needs to turn inward and recognize its queerness. Perspectives/theoretical framework. The enactment of time in mathematical practice is viewed in this study through the framework of queer temporalities. Queer uses of time and space develop in ways parallel to and different from normative social institutions (Halberstam, 2005; Sheldon and Rands, 2017; Freeman, 2010) and thus, this paper argues, queer time fits better than chrononormativity for mathematics education. Queerness is itself an outcome of strange temporalities, imaginative life schedules, and eccentric economic practices (Halberstam, 2005) Methods, techniques, modes of inquiry. This study uses hermeneutic philosophical techniques to analyze the nature of the analogy of queer time and mathematics education time. Drafts of the ongoing research were shared with (6) high school student interns in an urban internship program designed to encourage LGBTQIA youth to pursue STEM careers. Data, evidence, objects, materials. Narratives in the literature of queer time are juxtaposed with narratives of mathematics education experience to develop a theory of non-linear maturation and development in mathematics education. Two case studies that this paper explores are Eric Demain, who achieved fame and professional status by concentrating on origami and kiragami (paper folding and cutting) and Vi Hart who created a new profession of “mathemusician”. Despite the fact that students need to mature in their abstract thinking, this paper argues there is a parallel need to encourage playfulness and open-ended experimentation. A critical question for mathematics is what it would mean to “come out” – come out as what? When? – As a student who loves mathematics? As a teacher of mathematics? … Queer individuals often ponder the same question. To come out might, this paper suggests, result in the loss of one’s vitality and mourning the death of possibilities. Results, substantiated conclusions. The presentation will demonstrate through examples how a perspective of queer time contributes to mathematics education, and thus, can help to guide the use of time in the classroom, and the perspectives of life trajectories with and through a mathematics curriculum. Scientific or scholarly significance. The development of a non-linear perspective on mathematics education chronology can dramatically transform the ways in which teachers and curriculum developers conceive of their profession, and thus revolutionize the ways in which learners experience learning and discovery in mathematics. Recognizing the characteristics of mathematics learning that are shared with the norm-shattering nature of queer identities and queer time can help to appreciate how to wield these characteristics in the development of curricula, in the design of learning experiences, and in the professional training of future teachers.