RUME 26
2024
Omaha, Nebraska
Dimensions of Mathematics Graduate Students’ Professional Identities as Prospective Faculty
Page: 1076
Graduate education in mathematics is instrumental to the socialization of prospective mathematics faculty, however, our understanding of how graduate students develop their professional identities is still limited. This preliminary study examines and compares how two doctoral students at different stages of their graduate programs reflect on and understand their professional identities. I highlight qualitative similarities and differences in how each participant identified as a teacher, as a researcher, and as a mathematician. The structure of the program and progression through degree milestones reflected how strongly participants were anchored onto dimensions of their professional identities. Both students strongly identified as teachers and both described how their gender identity as women negatively impacted dimensions of their professional identities, especially their mathematics identities.