Vicious Cycles of Identifying and Mathematizing: A Case Study of the Development of Mathematical Failure

This study uses a new communicational lens that conceptualizes the activity of learning mathematics as interplay between mathematizing and identifying in order to study how the emotional, social, and cognitive aspects of learning mathematics interact with one another. The proposed framework is used to analyze the case of Idit, a girl who started out as a high achiever in 7th-grade math and ended up failing that same subject in 9th grade, complaining of severe “mathematics anxiety.” This article traces the narratives endorsed by Idit’s parents and teacher, which form the background for the development of her ritual participation in mathematical discourse. Next it attempts to link Idit’s ritual participation in a course I taught with her eventual failure in mathematics. The mechanism behind this failure is conceptualized as a vicious cycle that thrives on the basis of a ritualistic discourse motivated mainly by grades and other instrumental motives for learning mathematics. The analysis of this case gives rise to a model of how mathematical identities of failure may develop hand in hand with the failure to learn new mathematical skills.