Identifying emergent themes of students’ transition to university mathematics: a qualitative inquiry with a focus on affective factors

Abstract We present the findings from our inquiry conducted between spring 2019 and spring 2020. It focused on women and students from underrepresented or marginalized populations as they navigated moments in their transition from school to university mathematics, or the secondary-tertiary transition (STT) in mathematics. We draw on Di Martino & Zan’s (2010) three-dimensional model of attitude (TMA), in which they reify the role of various affective factors of the STT. We used this model to capture the three affective dimensions of the STT: students’ vision of mathematics, their perceived competence in mathematics and their emotional disposition toward mathematics. Our qualitative data included participant interviews, surveys, seminar reflection diaries, seminar recordings and other student artifacts gathered from seminar sessions. In our research, we found differences and commonalities with regard to these three dimensions of the TMA between students who pursued a pure mathematics (PM) degree and those who pursued a combined degree in PM and secondary mathematics teaching (SMT) in the USA. We discuss future directions that can aid women and other historically marginalized students in navigating during STT.