Mathematics qualifications in the UK and many other countries represent valued cultural capital. In the UK, the typical qualification sought for employment in teaching, nursing, policing and many other professions is a GCSE award (minimum grade C) in mathematics. Although GCSE is typically taken at age 16, there is no logical or statutory reason why the award cannot be gained earlier or later. The UK government has recently determined that any student aged 16 to 19 who has not achieved at least grade C in GCSE mathematics should be enrolled on an approved mathematics course as part of their programme. Many students repeatedly fail to pass the examination; often such students re-sit the examination several times. We hypothesised that students, faced with a re-sit in mathematics, who complete a course to develop their mathematical resilience at the beginning, would be more likely to achieve the desired result. The construct 'mathematical resilience' has been developed by Johnston-Wilder and Lee [1] to describe a positive stance towards learning mathematics. Mathematical resilience can be engineered within both formal and informal learning environments by a strategic and explicit focus on the culture of learning mathematics. Previous papers (for example, [2]) have described engineering the growth of mathematical resilience through training adult coaches for mathematical resilience to work alongside learners outside the school environment. This paper discusses a course in mathematical resilience; the course was versioned for school students in year 12, students who had repeatedly failed to achieve the required grade in GCSE mathematics, and who were now preparing to retake the examination yet again. This short course, which ran from September to November 2014, was focused on helping students to overcome affective barriers and develop more resilient strategies for working with mathematical ideas, rather than on memorising mathematics content. The 17 students had been given very strong direction by the school to attend this course; they were told that if they attended and subsequently failed GCSE mathematics again, they would have shown they were making the effort and future opportunities would be approved for them to re-sit, however if they did not attend and failed again, they would be asked to leave the school. The course aimed to develop students' mathematical resilience, so that they could more effectively support one another when facing difficulties in mathematics. This work developed a culture of 'can do' mathematics to counter the prevalent culture of mathematics helplessness, failure and mathematics anxiety. Participants learned to consider and manage their own reactions to mathematical ideas, to explore choices and to reflect on how to support themselves and each other to overcome their barriers to learning mathematics. The data confirm that, once an individual has begun to develop their own mathematical resilience and has worked through their own anxieties and negative stance towards mathematics in a safe and collaborative environment, they can then successfully coach themselves and others to develop mathematical resilience. Outcomes for these learners will be discussed.
