Performing Math: A History of Communication and Anxiety in the American Mathematics Classroom

by Andrew Fiss

Performing Math  tells the history of expectations for math communication—and the conversations about math hatred and math anxiety that occurred in response. Focusing on nineteenth-century American colleges, this book analyzes foundational tools and techniques of math the textbooks that supported reading aloud, the burnings that mimicked pedagogical speech, the blackboards that accompanied oral presentations, the plays that proclaimed performers’ identities as math students, and the written tests that redefined “student performance.” Math communication and math anxiety went hand in hand as new rules for oral communication at the blackboard inspired student revolt and as frameworks for testing student performance inspired performance anxiety. With unusual primary sources from over a dozen educational archives,  Performing Math  argues for a new, performance-oriented history of American math education, one that can explain contemporary math attitudes and provide a way forward to reframing the problem of math anxiety.

216 pages, Paperback

Published November 13, 2020

Reviews

[Karla Kitalong]

This book started slowly for me; I read it because Andy is my colleague and I try to read my colleagues' work. But also, it is a rhetorical study of the teaching of a discipline, which is inherently interesting to me. The final 2-1/2 chapters--that's where it got interesting, and has inspired me to begin journaling about my own relationship with math. Precision, detail vs. big picture, the rhetorical situations that require exactitude, the connections between gender and math--all of these issues are part of my upbringing and shape who I am today. I should also add the relationship between math and infographics. I remember distinctly taking economic as an undergrad and realizing that parabolas and projections were created with math. I know, that seems like a no-brainer, but it wasn't to me. So, thanks, Andy.

[Bill Thorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book offers a fascinating look at math rituals and ceremonies at East Coast schools.