Students’ experiences of seeking injustice-induced help in a Mathematics classroom

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the phenomenon of a need for help that comes about as a result of problematic classroom practices, as experienced by high school mathematics students. Through students’ experiences, we demonstrate how unequal power relations in the classroom can suppress students’ voices, rendering their attempts at seeking justice futile. The students’ experiences were characterized by wishful thinking, blame, and resignation. The data are taken from a phenomenological study that is seeking to understand the meaning of help in mathematics from the students’ perspective. Students shared their lived experiences through oral and written stories told to the researcher.