Abstract
The purpose of this phenomenological, qualitative study was to explore how female math teachers build female high school students’ math confidence in all-female high schools in the United States. The study aimed to share female math teachers’ experiences around how they build female students’ math confidence in the classroom. A review of the literature around influences on math ability, math teachers and classroom and teaching strategies all demonstrated several factors influence a student’s math experience. Participants included ten female math teachers who teach at all-female high schools in the United States and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings are revealed in four themes; identification of a student’s need for support, building relationships with individual students, confidence building strategies and teacher support to build students math confidence. As a result of the findings, professional development for math teachers to learn about building students’ math confidence is needed. The strategies to be covered in the professional development session should focus on reflective writing before tests, creating a math-friendly learning environment, teacher behaviors, smaller class sizes and creating real-world lessons.
Keywords: female math confidence, qualitative, math teaching strategies, professional development