Students are experts in their mathematical thinking: Positioning principles for task-based interviews

Abstract

Task-based interviews are an established method in mathematics education research, to investigate students’ mathematical thinking. While interviews are a social practice, principles for design and enactment of task-based interviews have offered limited insight into navigating power dynamics inherent in interviews. Drawing on the theorizing of positioning, we examine the role of communication acts before and during task-based interviews to position students as experts in their mathematical thinking. We offer three “positioning principles” for conducting task-based interviews: set the stage to surface interviewees’ brilliance; be alert to the influence of power on interviewees’ responses; and, redistribute power to interviewees. To support our claims, we provide excerpts from a videoconference interview with a college algebra student interacting with a graphing task. This work illustrates how researchers can draw on different theories to advance research methods developed in conjunction with another theoretical perspective.