Mathematical Exclusion – Process of Escaping from Mathematics and Its Consequences for Young People Career Paths

In the Polish educational discourse there is a lot of concern about the problem of “overproduction” of graduates of humanistic faculties and deficiency in the area of technical education. Recently even social campaigns were organized by the government, aimed at encouraging secondary-school graduates to choose technical specializations at universities. However, this revealed another problem: insufficient level of mathematical knowledge of candidates. Many studies show that the problem has to be handled at earlier stages of education.

Mathematics as no other school subject evokes conflicting emotions and contradictory attitudes. Process of studying mathematics requires systematic practice and patience, as mathematical knowledge is of cumulative nature.

In case of mathematical education we can observe a process of abandoning mathematics by a part of students who start to consider themselves as “humanists”. It causes serious decisions about profile of education – e.g. class profile. This decision has numerous consequences, it may narrow down possible paths of future education and career, finally resulting in employment and income inequalities. This phenomenon can be named “mathematical exclusion”.

In the paper I intend to propose a description of the process of escaping from mathematics in terminology of behavioral economy – time-related preferences, time-discounting and the lack of self-control. I intend to show sources of abandonment of mathematics in negative attitudes towards mathematics and specific perception of usability of mathematical knowledge. I will refer to selected results of two studies on Polish students – qualitative (2010) and quantitative (2011, N=3169).