An investigation into disaffection with school mathematics

This is an investigative and exploratory study focussing on better understanding the landscape of disaffection with school mathematics. A case is made that disaffection is a disabling condition that harms the capability of young people to learn mathematics and has economic, social and individual consequences. At the same time, and despite its importance, a claim is made that disaffection with school mathematics is under-researched and poorly understood. Those studies that have either focussed on disaffection, or have encountered it, have done so often from the point of view of the quantitative study of attitude. The case is made that this, whilst valuable, does not give a comprehensive and insightful enough picture of the phenomenon. Thus in this study disaffection is characterised as a primarily motivational and emotional phenomenon, and a mixed methods approach, emphasising the value of qualitative interviews, has been adopted. The study is undertaken from a constructivist and interpretative perspective, and Reversal Theory has been adopted as the main theoretical framework, used to inform the design of the study, and the interpretation of the data. Innovative methods and instruments have been devised to arrive at a ‘thick’ description of the subjective experience of disaffection. The data has been presented as a series of case studies, together with analysis and discussion across cases. Inferences and generalisations have been drawn to add further to knowledge in the field.