RUME 28
2026
Alexandria, Virginia
Enacting Role Identities: Insights Into Mathematics Graduate Students’ Professional Identity Development
Page: 179
This study examined the professional identity development of six mathematics graduate students by exploring how they enacted and constructed meanings around five role identities: teacher, researcher, mathematician, mentor, and peer. Drawing on role identity theory, I highlighted the socially mediated nature of identity formation and the ways it was shaped by program structures, departmental cultures, and disciplinary expectations. Findings indicated that while graduate students identified the roles of teacher and researcher as most central to becoming mathematics faculty, the program offered more formalized opportunities for teaching than for research, suggesting an imbalance in preparation. This work contributes to understanding the liminal space between graduate student and professor, where multiple roles are navigated. The study points to the need for graduate programs to intentionally design structures that expand opportunities for development as researchers, mentoring, and community building.