The M2S2 mentoring program took place on a Hispanic/Asian-Pacific serving campus on the West Coast of the United State. Eighty percent of the students who attend are non-white. Early in the program a mixed methods embedded case study was used to explore the specific challenges that M2S2 mathematics majors and a comparison group of their peers faced during their first few years as math majors for the purpose of informing programmatic changes and better supporting students. Findings indicated that these math majors’ patterns in beliefs about, and confidence in learning and doing mathematics, influenced their identities as mathematicians and the actions that they took to persist. Moreover, their individual social and mathematical identities interacted in subtle ways along lines of oppression and privilege to enhance and constrain their persistence in the major.
Evaluation results to date:
1. Participation in the first year of the program ensured that scholars got a strong course foundation to prepare them for future mathematical work and by the end of their first year the scholar group had taken more post-calculus courses than the comparison group who entered the program better prepared.
2. In the initial stages of the program, in some cases the challenges that underrepresented math majors faced, threatened their mathematical identities which prevented them from fully participating in the support activities offered. A focus on project activities to build more robust mathematical identities was fostered.
3. In general, while M2S2 did not protect participants from experiencing the challenges faced by peers (such as getting lower grades on tests, finding the transition to proof-based mathematics difficult, feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work expected in the major) it did help sustain their enjoyment in mathematics to persist through these challenges by fostering a growth mindset and robust mathematics identities.
Outcomes: Participation in M2S2 increased student retention in the major and the department four-year and five-year graduation rates. M2S2 scholars were compared to their non participating peers using data from a longitudinal survey. Results showed that M2S2 scholars had a higher sense of belonging to mathematics than their peers and that sense of belonging was a predictor for graduation in mathematics.
Deliverables to date:
- 5 yearly reports have been prepared and submitted to project leaders and the funding agency.
- A conference paper: Why I still choose math: Underrepresented Mathematics Majors’ Perspectives on Identity and Embracing Struggle in the Context of a Mentoring Program, using re-purposed evaluation findings was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. April, 2021. Virtual.
- A journal article: Persisting in Mathematics: The Mediating Effect of M2S2 Mentoring in Sustaining Student Interest and Sense of Belonging in the Major is being prepared for submission to The Journal of Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning.