Divorce, evil, and the regime of terror: personal characterisations of mathematics in the lives of mature students

Increasing numbers of students attending higher education institutions in Ireland take obligatory mathematics modules – service mathematics – as part of their programmes of study. A dislike of mathematics is frequently expressed among students, particularly mature students, some of whom experience mathematics anxiety. However, despite their experiences with mathematics, mature students demonstrate motivation and resilience in respect of their engagement with mathematics. As part of a mixed methods study, the author endeavoured to explore the mathematics experiences of mature students throughout their lives, and to identify those incidents that have impacted significantly on the students' engagement with mathematics. Twenty mature students were asked to characterise their relationship with mathematics. This paper¹ presents these findings, depicting an interesting variety of responses.