“SHOULD WELLBEING BE THE SAME AS PERFECTION?” A CASE STUDY ON STUDENT WELLBEING IN HIGHER MATHEMATICS EDUCATION

Previous research has given the impression that reticent is our hunt for optimal teaching practices, educational goals, and nature of mathematical workings. In this regard, we have (seemingly) ended up with the following inquiries: What could the math classroom be for? and What has the math classroom been for? These two questions touch on the scary horns of two other charged philosophical dandruffs. Namely:“What are the aims of teaching mathematics?” and “What should be our objectives in learning it?” The term ‘positive education’ refers to an educational system engendering both the skills of positive wellbeing and traditional, academic achievement (Seligman et al., 2009). Many case studies—primarily in Australian schools—have been conducted. However, philosophical advancements in the wellbeing sciences indicate that wellbeing, as a construct, is context-dependent (Alexandrova, 2017). Conceptions of wellbeing may thus differ between social groups, geographies, and local cultures (Green et al., 2021; Jarden et al., 2021). In this thesis, I present a framework for understanding a novel construct in the mathematics education literature called mathematical wellbeing. This construct may be studied through a variety of lenses (public policy, sociology, mathematics, positive psychology, mathematics education, economics). I build on a few of these by investigating factors relevant to student mathematical wellbeing. I also offer ways to study this construct in a first-year, collegiate mathematics course