Vem blir matematiker?

Sammanfattning: This thesis deals with social and gender equity within mathematics education, two sub questions have been explored.Social equity is investigated in the paper Kapitaltillgångar enligt Bourdieu och synen på matematik (Capital assets according to Bourdieu and the perception of mathematics). The main research questionis the following: Are connections on the individual level between success in mathematics studies and the economic, cultural and social background mediated by the perceptions of mathematics and knowledge of mathematics?How are the various capital resources according to Bourdieu’s theories influencing the view of mathematics as a cultural, applied or theoretical subject? The study uses quantitative methods withdata from a survey among students at upper secondary level, all studying optional mathematics courses. In order to identify perceptions of mathematics three aspects were used: the history ofmathematics, mathematical modelling and the inner structure of mathematics. Capital resources wereestimated from the answers to certain key questions of the survey. A statistical analysis showed that the method could be used as a simplified way of evaluating the different dimensions of the capitalassets. The connection between capital assets and the perception of mathematics was analysed with statistical methods.The study indicates a positive relation between capital assets and success in mathematics studies, evaluated from insights into the three aspects.Gender equity is treated in the two conference papers Is mathematics still a male domain? and Mathematics – a male domain?. These build on data, analysis and results from the Gender and Mathematics project (GeMa). The main research issues in the project concern the perception ofmathematics as a male, female or gender neutral and gender differences in the perception. Aregendered views of mathematics as male or female common among students in lower and upper secondary level? Are there connections between such perceptions and the fact that girls to some extent avoid mathematics when choosing study program at upper secondary level and tertiary level? The study is based on data from two large-scale questionnaire studies among students in year nine (lowersecondary level) and year eleven (upper secondary level) with varying socioeconomic andgeographical and educational background in Sweden.The results show that a majority of students have a gender neutral view of mathematics. On the other hand, considerable minorities view mathematics as either male (most often) or female, e.g. that mathematics is perceived as more important for boys or that girls more often find mathematics difficult and boring. There is no connection between girls’ choice of study program and perceptions ofmathematics as male or female. Contrary to this, boys choosing mathematics intensive programs more often tend to perceive mathematics as a male domain than boys making other choices.The sub question of social equity is part of a research project called SOMA. In the introductory sectionof the thesis – the “kappa” – the SOMA-project dominates the text. As the sole author and project leader, I have chosen to write in more detail about SOMA. One additional reason is that the GeMa project is previously extensively reported in journal articles and reports.