Developing confidence to act at a societal level

This concept relates to a group of eleven participants who associated their increased confidence after learning mathematics to becoming motivated to act differently in their social face-to face groups that are influenced by and connected to wider society. For example, feeling more confident to act as trade union negotiators, gaining teaching qualifications in mathematics, becoming more confident in dealing with financial matters. Two women spoke about gaining confidence to act in trade union negotiations and as one woman (53) explained learning mathematics “…has given me more confidence in the fact that I am willing to challenge management. It gives you that extra assertiveness”. The other woman (40) said something very similar:

“It does strengthen your arguments during negotiations because what tends to happen is the company will quote percentages to you, and you try to figure them out. So if you know maths you can easily challenge them, and if they are trying to manipulate the figures you can easily pick it up. It adds that boost of confidence when you are having any negotiations with the company”.

Research by the TUC (2010) also suggests education and training they offer “improved relationships with management” (p. 6) by developing the confidence to take part in consultations and “to speak with authority because of gaining the knowledge and qualifications” (TUC, 2014, p. 37).

Four people related their successful mathematics learning to them being more confident to teach mathematics. One 50 year-old-woman explained how developing her mathematics skills and knowledge had:

“… been massive, it enabled me to teach in the prison, and very successfully for a number of years. It’s given me opportunities to help people unlock the barriers, because I was able to do it they can.be motivated to do so …It gave me the confidence to go for the level 5 teaching qualification, never thought I would achieve that”.

Four women also talked about feeling more confident in relation to their personal finances. As one woman explained:

“I can manage my money, I feel braver. I feel like I am more in control, especially with the house. I now feel I have an understanding of what I am letting myself in for, the amount of money, how it interlinks. I understand the ways of the world”.

(Female, 35)

I see this as describing a form of empowerment using their mathematics in a critical way to help families to become more financially secure within the complex financial context of the UK, (which I also discussed in the literature review in chapter two). Identifying financial confidence as empowerment may be controversial. Freire (1985) would argue it is not empowerment because it is not about challenging social norms and existing power structures; rather it is about enabling individuals to survive and become economically secure within the current economic system. But I think that enabling people to engage more confidently about financial matters within a wider society allows them more control of their lives and is very important. To enable those in less secure jobs, or in low-paid or zero- hours contract employment, if applying mathematics skills to finances provides them with the abilities and strategies to avoid loan sharks and understand the longer-term

implications of pensions and mortgages must be seen as advantageous to those in that vulnerable group of workers and for the better good of society as a whole. This, for me, links mathematics to social and economic empowerment.

Finally, one 55 year-old man linked his increased confidence to his ability to critically assess the accuracy of information in different social contexts, such as the media. He explains after learning more mathematics and statistics:

“… You look at things in a different way. When you read the paper, when the government tell you stuff and give you figures, I then want to know where did those figures come from. Show me the research ... reading newspapers you read ‘50% of such and such do this’ and you think, well, how did they get that? It’s made me question things more, and do I trust things any less? Yes probably …”

This data points to mathematics education as developing critical minds (Freire, 1985; Frankenstein, 2010; Skovsmose, 2011), which relates to the purpose of trade union education discussed in chapter three.

Concluding remarks on emotions, confidence and motivation to learn mathematics. Through the analysis of this data, informed by my literature research, I have built concepts that have enabled me to better understand the role of emotions in motivation in relation to this group of learners.

I realised the participants expressed a range of emotions during the interviews and as existing research into mathematics education focuses on the negative I decided to build concepts that indicated positive as well as negative responses. Through this process I began to understand they also reported changes in their emotions towards mathematics as they lived through positive learning experiences. As their feelings became more positive they reported feeling more confident in themselves and their mathematical abilities, which in turn motivated them to continue learning. This indicated to me a strong link between emotions and motivation.

By analysing the feeling of confidence at three levels I understood it to influence adults’ motivation through their belief in themselves but also being driven to learn by having confidence and trust in fellow trade unionists and learners though their support. Having a better understanding of mathematics also gave them a “boost of confidence” and motivated them to act in different ways; for example to negotiate with company management on pay and health and safety issues or become teachers of mathematics themselves. So I

understood the way adults spoke about increased confidence was to express a change in their feelings (or emotions) that affected their beliefs in themselves (cognitive), which encouraged their motivation to act differently, linking emotions, motivation and cognition.