Nurturing the Student Voice and Its Creative Power in Mathematics Teaching and Learning: Research With Students on Emotion, Imagination, and Understanding.

Author

Luis Adolfo Zambrano, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Urban Education

Advisor

Konstantinos Alexakos

Committee Members

Beth Ferholt

Gene Fellner

Subject Categories

Contemplative Education | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Science and Mathematics Education

Keywords

authentic inquiry, mathematics education, hermeneutic phenomenology, emotions, heuristics, arts-based research

Abstract

This research in mathematics education explores the teaching and learning of mathematics at the high school and community college levels, integrating diverse research methods to examine how educators can cultivate a dynamic, collaborative, and responsive classroom climate. Framed by K. Tobin and K. Alexakos’s authentic inquiry education research framework (2020), the methodology actively engages students as co-researchers, valuing their insights and experiences as integral to the learning process. This approach fosters a meaningful dialogue on managing emotional and cognitive challenges faced by students of mathematics while identifying strategies to support and enhance students’ innate imaginative and creative capacities.

Grounded in the practice of hermeneutic phenomenology, the research aims to better understand the reality experienced by students in the classroom and to empower both students and instructors to actively shape a space and climate most conducive to learning. The manuscript-style dissertation is organized into related but independent chapters. Among the methods and associated heuristics employed in different chapters are arts-based self-reflection methods, both textual and visual; narrative inquiry methods; and both group and class dialogues and discussions addressing the practical challenges and philosophical questions that arise. The research reaffirms the importance of the social construction of knowledge in mathematics, enabling students to construct an endogenous understanding of content that emanates from their instincts, lived experiences, and intrinsic motivations.

The findings underscore the significance of addressing emotional and psychological barriers that can impede student creativity and the importance of instructor receptivity and awareness to the prodigious and perennially active student imagination. Students instinctively seek to co-create an environment that is conducive to their learning needs and which promotes the creation of knowledge and understanding organically and authentically from within themselves, and with each other. This work contributes to the growing body of scholarship advocating for holistic, participatory, and innovative approaches to math education.

Recommended Citation

Zambrano, Luis Adolfo, "Nurturing the Student Voice and Its Creative Power in Mathematics Teaching and Learning: Research With Students on Emotion, Imagination, and Understanding." (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6222