Jennifer M. Langer-Osuna’s research while affiliated with Stanford University and other places

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Publications (24)


Table 3 Definitions
Data sources and classroom context by grade level
Top two most frequently deployed sources of authority per classroom
Kindergarten Vignette Transcript: "I'm telling!" "You are telling on me?"
First-Grade Vignette Transcript: "Gonna Find Out Who's Naughty or Nice"
“I’m Telling!”: Exploring Sources of Peer Authority During a K-2 Collaborative Mathematics Activity
  • Article
  • Full-text available

August 2021

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136 Reads

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4 Citations

Studia paedagogica

Jennifer M. Langer-Osuna

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Faith Kwon

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[...]

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Jesse Ramirez
Download

Figure 2. Sample timeline clip used to develop a Markov chain
Excerpt of small group peer interactions
Example of stacked coded social and intellectual authority units prior to (a) and then after (b) combining social and intellectual authority distributions into the final coded units
Example of Markov chain of social and intellectual authority episodes from a collaborative work session video. Minutes of the video are denoted on the x-axis. Distributions of authority are indicated with color: concentrated (dark gray), contested (light gray), shared (white), and disbanded (black). Gaps in the timeline (e.g., around minute 52) indicate places where the teacher was present
“So what are we working on?”: how student authority relations shift during collaborative mathematics activity

July 2020

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588 Reads

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31 Citations

Educational Studies in Mathematics

This paper explores peer interactions in an elementary mathematics classroom (ages 9–10) where the teacher intentionally shared authority with her students and supported them in learning to share authority with one another. Authors examine how students shifted between shared, concentrated, and contested social and intellectual authority relations in partner and small group work during a three-week unit on place value. Findings show that (a) students were able to share both social and intellectual authority, and did so often; (b) the distribution of social authority was more dynamic than that of intellectual authority; and (c) when groups shifted into shared intellectual authority, shifts were usually preceded by a student making some aspect of the collaborative task public. We connect these findings to research on authority in mathematics classrooms that serve racially and linguistically minoritized students and offer directions for future work.



Exploring the Role of Off-Task Activity on Students’ Collaborative Dynamics

April 2020

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1,096 Reads

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34 Citations

Off-task activity is ubiquitous in classrooms, yet little understood. Building on recent work that illustrates the utility of off-task activity to disrupt relations of power among students, this paper explores the potential functions of off-task participation during collaborative mathematics problem-solving. We examined 56 instances of off-task participation across 12 collaborative problem-solving sessions in a fourth grade classroom during a collaborative inquiry unit on place value. Results show that the majority of instances functioned to support the collaborative problem-solving process. Further, off-task participation often succeeded in shifting collaborative dynamics after on-task bids to shift dynamics failed. Off-task activity seemed to introduce new storylines that served as discursive tools to navigate local social hierarchies. We close by situating an understanding of the resources that students bring into collaborative learning through off-task activity within conversations on inclusive pedagogies.


Can off-task be on-track?

May 2019

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52 Reads

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1 Citation

Phi Delta Kappan

Collaborative learning requires a lot of talk. Although not all student talk may be related to the task at hand, some off-task talk is actually productive, as it enables students to negotiate how they will work together, gain attention of fellow group members, and draw others into joining the work. Emma C. Gargroetzi, Rosa D. Chavez, Jen Munson, Jennifer M. Langer-Osuna, and Kimiko E. Lange observed 4th-grade students working in groups on math exercises and saw multiple seemingly off-task conversations that, in fact, ended up bringing the group together. For example, students who were excluded used off-task talk to get others in the group to pay attention to them. Groups also used off-task talk to ensure that everyone in the group had a role in the solution. The authors offer guidelines for determining when to intervene when students engage in off-task talk.


Exploring the central role of student authority relations in collaborative mathematics

July 2018

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56 Reads

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27 Citations

ZDM: the international journal on mathematics education

How students build mathematics knowledge together in classrooms is of central concern in research focused on the role of language in learning and doing mathematics. This paper explores how students compose mathematics knowledge together in relation to the social construction of influence. Drawing on the influence framework (Engle et al. in J Learn Sci 23(2):245–268, 2014), core interactional components are made salient: gaining access to the conversational floor and interactional space, being perceived as intellectually meritorious, and being positioned with social and intellectual authority. Of these, being positioned with social and intellectual authority is argued to be most important. This paper highlights both the centrality of authority and its discursive nature and connects these ideas to collaborative mathematics activity. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical generativity of focusing on the functions of language in mathematics classrooms, in addition to its forms, to better articulate discursive mechanisms at play during collaborative mathematics learning activities.


Situative learning framework.
Extant work emphasizes one aspect of the learning process.
Links to identity.
Productive Disruptions: Rethinking the Role of Off-Task Interactions in Collaborative Mathematics Learning

June 2018

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135 Reads

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17 Citations

This paper confronts the myth that all off-task interactions in mathematics classrooms is detrimental to learning. To do so, this paper first explores links between participation, learning, and identity in mathematics education research that points to the importance of positional resources. Positional resources are related to identity processes and carry central functions that regulate learning and doing mathematics together. The paper then frames off-task behavior as an important positional resource in collaborative mathematics learning environments. With these ideas in mind, the paper then closes with new questions for research.


Authority, Identity, and Collaborative Mathematics

May 2017

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137 Reads

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60 Citations

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education

The field of mathematics education research has seen a resurgence of interest in understanding collaborative learning because students in K-12 classrooms are increasingly expected to make sense of mathematics problems together. This research commentary argues for the importance of understanding student authority relations in collaborative mathematics classrooms. How intellectual authority becomes constructed, organized, and distributed among students has implications for both mathematics learning and the development of mathematics-linked identities. This research commentary suggests directions for future work to gain clarity on the mechanisms that undergird the distribution of authority in order to support powerful mathematics classrooms.


The Social Construction of Authority Among Peers and Its Implications for Collaborative Mathematics Problem Solving

April 2016

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241 Reads

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106 Citations

Mathematical Thinking and Learning

This article describes a study of how students construct relations of authority during dyadic mathematical work and how teachers’ interactions with students during small group conferences affect subsequent student dynamics. Drawing on the influence framework (Engle, Langer-Osuna, & McKinney de Royston, 2014), I examined interactions when students appropriated their peers’ ideas during collaborative mathematical problem solving and noted that each moment tended to follow particular interactions around authority. Notably, social and intellectual forms of authority became linked in ways that were directly related to how students’ ideas and behaviors were evaluated by the teacher. I close by discussing how the study of authority and influence offers fertile analytic ground to generate new understandings about collaborative student work in mathematics classrooms.


Rehumanizing the “Other”: Race, Culture, and Identity in Education Research

March 2016

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236 Reads

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61 Citations

Review of Research in Education

In this chapter, the authors examine the trajectory of the literature on race, culture, and identity in education research through the past century. The literature is first situated within its historical and conceptual foundations, specifically the dehumanizing legacy of scientific racism, the early efforts by African American scholars to rehumanize marginalized members of society, and the emergence of identity as a construct in the social sciences. The authors then explore the body of education research—from the mid 20th century to today—focused on the relationship between cultural and racial identities and students’ experiences with schooling. They close with a vision for the next era of research on this critical topic.


Citations (21)


... Among the factors that made them feel better receiving high results, engaging in enjoyable and exciting activities, watching math-related films, and receiving praise from their teacher were most often mentioned (Burgos et al., 2020;Demir & Birgili, 2023;Kersey et al., 2018;Naidoo & Hajaree, 2021;Pitchford et al., 2019;Zhao et al., 2022). The results also emphasize the cultural subjectivity at play, whereby identical classroom activities might manifest distinct underlying values across cultures, and wherever a specific value can be adopted in diverse manners in various locations (Holenko Dlab et al., 2020;Langer-Osuna et al., 2021;Layne et al., 2021;Nurhidayah et al., 2021;Palmér & Björklund, 2023). Students exhibiting elevated levels of mathematics anxiety had a greater propensity for encountering difficulties in peer interactions, classroom conduct, and academic achievement. ...

Reference:

How Can We Better Comprehend the Disposition of Elementary School Students towards Advanced Mathematical Thinking?
“I’m Telling!”: Exploring Sources of Peer Authority During a K-2 Collaborative Mathematics Activity

Studia paedagogica

... In educational settings, social authority is omnipresent, occurring whenever individuals interact, and intellectual authority arises during intellectual activities, typically recognized in educational contexts as participation in academic tasks. Despite its critical importance, this dimension of educational research remains underexplored (Langer-Osuna et al., 2020). ...

“So what are we working on?”: how student authority relations shift during collaborative mathematics activity

Educational Studies in Mathematics

... Further, the social relationship component of collaboration is also crucial to understand, as learners also struggle with status hierarchies, marginality and microexclusions, and sense of belonging (Adams-Wiggins, 2020; Bianchini, 1997;Bae et al., 2024;Cohen et al., 1994Cohen et al., , 1999Engle et al., 2014;Lloyd & Cohen, 1999). Other research highlights the way youths' group activity can be opaque to adult observers in the moment, as in the case of apparent off-task activity that pushes students' learning forward when a more in-depth investigation is conducted (Langer-Osuna et al., 2020). A recent study by Penuel et al. (2023) also drew on learners' own perceptions. ...

Exploring the Role of Off-Task Activity on Students’ Collaborative Dynamics

... In those first foundational weeks, Lauren's team frequently focused on social interactions at the expense of mathematical discussion. These social interactions may have been important early practice for later mathematical discussion; the team learned to function as a social group first to accomplish team-based mathematical goals later [10,17]. That said, based on her regular redirection of the group, Ms. Mayen was clearly displeased that the team was frequently off-task. ...

Can off-task be on-track?
  • Citing Article
  • May 2019

Phi Delta Kappan

... (ISSN 1541-5015) Winter 2024 | Volume 18 | Issue 1 2014), and affirms multilingualism by uplifting the translanguaging and multi-modal repertoires to communicate ideas (Chval et al., 2022;Maldonado Rodriguez et al., 2020). The power and participation strand focuses on broadening intellectual authority that maximizes student agency and authorship of mathematical ideas rather than the knowledge residing with the teacher, textbook or a few students (Dunleavy, 2015;Langer-Osuna, 2018); disrupting status and power by minimizing status issues that impact collaboration and dismantling racialized and gendered stereotypes about who can do mathematics inherent in classrooms (Featherstone et al., 2012;Zavala & Hand, 2019); and providing opportunities to critically analyze complex real-life situations and take action (Gutstein, 2006;Zavala & Simic-Muller, 2022). The analogy of strands (versus pillars) is intentional as it reflects a flexible interconnectedness across each strand's dimensions that can contribute to a positive, productive, and culturally sustaining mathematics learning environment. ...

Exploring the central role of student authority relations in collaborative mathematics
  • Citing Article
  • July 2018

ZDM: the international journal on mathematics education

... • Navigating Ethical and Privacy Concerns: Incorporating AI in education necessitates addressing ethical factors and data privacy to ensure responsible technology use. Educators must ensure AI tools are employed in ways that safeguard student privacy, promote equity, and uphold ethical standards (Damşa, 2014;Langer-Osuna, 2018;Polak et al., 2022;Xu & Ouyang, 2022). ...

Productive Disruptions: Rethinking the Role of Off-Task Interactions in Collaborative Mathematics Learning

... Karena ketika siswa terlibat dalam interaksi sosial antar siswa, mereka bisa memposisikan diri dengan menampilkan kualitas (pengetahuan) yang diinginkan atau mempunyai peran tertentu (Edelen et al., 2022). Siswa dapat memposisikan diri mereka ketika berinteraksi dengan siswa lain (Edelen, dkk, 2022;Engle, dkk, 2014;Langer-Osuna, 2017). ...

Authority, Identity, and Collaborative Mathematics
  • Citing Article
  • May 2017

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education

... Society has always had a way of defining and giving certification within the disciplines. For example, society says who qualifies as a scientist, president, politician, professional, speaker, Introduction 5 author, and writer (see Langer-Osuna & Nasir, 2016;Nasir et al., 2017). In hindsight, I realize that I was consciously and subconsciously countering the master narrative (Bamberg, 2004) of who counts as a writer. ...

Rehumanizing the “Other”: Race, Culture, and Identity in Education Research
  • Citing Article
  • March 2016

Review of Research in Education

... G. Campbell & Yeo, 2021). Preparatory teaching moves occur before classroom discussions and include the designing of tasks, anticipating student responses, and creating rules for group work and reflective whole-class discussions (Langer-Osuna, 2016;Stein et al., 2008;Wilhelm, 2014). In-the-moment teaching moves include instantaneous decision making to support students' mathematical experiences, communication, and efficacy (Campbell, 2023;Chapin et al., 2009;Kang & Kim, 2016). ...

The Social Construction of Authority Among Peers and Its Implications for Collaborative Mathematics Problem Solving
  • Citing Article
  • April 2016

Mathematical Thinking and Learning

... Las diferencias lingüísticas han sido frecuentemente abordadas en la literatura y en las políticas públicas como un problema, centrando la discusión en cómo hacer para que estos estudiantes adquieran el idioma de la escuela (Domínguez et al., 2023). Sin embargo, en los últimos años han surgido enfoques que se oponen a estas visiones deficitarias, proponiendo una visión más inclusiva que considera las diferencias lingüísticas como un recurso en lugar de un impedimento (Battey & Franke, 2015;Langer-Osuna et al., 2016). En este marco, el concepto de bilingüismo potencial (Domínguez et al., 2023) ha emergido como una forma de caracterizar a los estudiantes que se encuentran en proceso de adquirir fluidez en una segunda lengua, valorando y visibilizando el conocimiento de su lengua materna. ...

Student Agency and Counter-Narratives in Diverse Multilingual Mathematics Classrooms: Challenging Deficit Perspectives