Danny Bernard Martin

Mathematics Learning and Participation as Racialized Forms of Experience: African American Parents Speak on the Struggle for Mathematics Literacy.

This article draws on 3 ethnographic and participant observation studies of African American parents and adults from 3 northern California communities. Although studies have shown that African American parents hold the same folk theories about mathematics as other parents, stressing it as an important school subject, few studies have sought to directly examine their beliefs about constraints and opportunities associated with mathematics learning for both themselves and their children. I argue that, as they situate the struggle for mathematical literacy within the larger contexts of African American, political, socioeconomic, and educational struggle, these parents help reveal that mathematics learning and participation can be conceptualized as racialized forms of experience. As they attempt to become doers of mathematics and advocates for their childrens mathematics learning, discriminatory experiences have continued to subjugate some of these parents, whereas others—as demonstrated in their oppositional voices and behaviors—resisted their continued subjugation based on a belief that mathematics knowledge, beyond its role in schools, can be used to change the conditions of their lives. The characterization of mathematics learning as racialized experience put forth in this article contrasts with culture-free and situated perspectives of mathematics learning often found in the literature. As a result of their experiences with oppression in this society, the concept of race has historically played a major role in the lives of African Americans. Although race has dubious value as a scientific classification system, it has had real consequences for the life experiences and life opportunities of African Americans in the United States. Race is a socially constructed concept which is [a] defining characteristic for African American group membership. (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998, p. 18)

“You Would Not Believe What I Have to Go Through to Prove My Intellectual Value!” Stereotype Management Among Academically Successful Black Mathematics and Engineering Students

Stereotype management is introduced to explain high achievement and resilience among 23 Black mathematics and engineering college students. Characterized as a tactical response to ubiquitous forms of racism and racialized experiences across school and non-school contexts, stereotype management emerged along overlapping paths of racial, gender, and mathematics identity development. Interviews revealed that although stereotype management facilitated success in these domains, the students maintained an intense and perpetual state of awareness that their racial identities and Blackness are undervalued and constantly under assault within mathematics and engineering contexts. With age development and maturity, the students progressed from being preoccupied with attempts to prove stereotypes wrong to adopting more self-defined reasons to achieve. The results suggest that stereotype threat is not deterministic.

Content Learning and Identity Construction: A Framework to Strengthen African American Students' Mathematics and Science Learning in Urban Elementary Schools.

We present a theoretical framework that views learning as a process involving content learning (CL) and identity construction (IC). We view identities as lenses through which people make sense of, and position themselves, through stories and actions, and as lenses for understanding how they are positioned by others. As people become more (or less) central members of a disciplinary community (e.g., a science or mathematics classroom) and engage (or not) in various cultural practices, changes in identity and knowledge accompany changes in position and status. IC and CL share an important characteristic: they both involve meaning making. For IC, it is the development of reasoned, coordinated, coherent, and meaningful ways of seeing one’s self in relation to communities, and for CL, it centers on the development of disciplinary concepts, processes, tools, language, discourse, and norms within practices. Focusing on Black students in mathematics and science classrooms, we claim that three intersecting identities are particularly important: disciplinary identity (as doers of the discipline, i.e., mathematics and science), racial identity (emerging understandings of what it means to be Black), and academic identity (as participants in academic tasks and classroom practices). In this paper, we elaborate on the CLIC framework as a useful tool for understanding how Black students negotiate participation in, and come to see themselves as doers of science and mathematics in their school classrooms. We synthesize empirical findings from our research with younger and older students, as well as with parents and community members, to illustrate dimensions of this framework.

What Does Quality Mean in the Context of White Institutional Space

In recent years, quality has been increasingly infused into discussions of U.S. mathematics education reform not only for the sake of improving outcomes such as test scores but also to preserve the interests of the larger white population, including economic and educational advantage. To support my claims, I first provide an abbreviated version of what I have been calling a race-critical analysis of mainstream mathematics education, drawing on sociological understandings of race and racism. In doing so, I highlight my characterization of mathematics education research and policy as instantiations of white institutional space and discuss the interest convergence principle as one of the mechanisms used to preserve white interests in such spaces. Implicit in my arguments is the suggestion that the preservation and protection of white interests in mathematics education cannot be disconnected from larger frameworks of racism and processes of racialization that exist in U.S. society.

Socioeconomic Influence on Mathematical Achievement: What Is Visible and What Is Neglected

The survey team worked in two main areas: Literature review of published papers in international publications, and particular approaches to the topic considering what in the literature seems to be neglected. In this paper we offer a synoptic overview of the main points that the team finds relevant to address concerning what is known and what is neglected in research in this topic.

‘What Does Race Have to Do with Math?’ Relationships between Racial-Mathematical Socialization, Mathematical Identity, and Racial Identity

In this chapter, we focus on the racial-mathematical socialization stories and messages reported by African-American youth and the significance of these stories and messages in terms of youths’ mathematical identities. We also examine the relationship between racial-mathematical beliefs and youths’ mathematical and racial identities. In examining youths’ negotiation of racial-mathematical stereotypes, we found that racial identity constructs were more closely related to racial-mathematical beliefs for 10th graders than for 9th graders. This suggests that as youths’ racial identities develop, their understandings about race increasingly affect their racial-mathematical beliefs. Additionally, about one-third of the interviewed youth reported hearing racial-mathematical messages or stories from parents or other people. The majority of these stories and messages described racial discrimination in a mathematical setting, while others touched on racial-mathematical stereotypes or the dearth of African-Americans in high-level mathematics. Racial-mathematical socialization may serve as a special support for youth rather than just an additional context for racial socialization; youth who hear racial-mathematical socialization stories or messages may develop a deeper and more complex understanding of the far-reaching effects of discrimination, the youth-relevant contexts in which discrimination can occur, and the racial imbalances that they may perceive and experience as they reach higher levels of mathematics.

On Becoming and Being A Critical Black Scholar in Mathematics Education

Fifteen years ago, William F. Tate (1994) authored a paper titled, From Inner City to Ivory Tower: Does My Voice Matter in the Academy? Building on the work of critical race scholars (Delgado, 1989, 1990; Williams, 1991), and reflecting on his own early schooling and later experiences as a professor in the academy, Tate echoed the call for voice scholarship as one way to explain the experiences of minority scholars.

Exploring racism inside and outside the mathematics classroom in two different contexts: Colombia and USA

We give attention to the racial contexts of mathematics education in Colombia and the USA. We discuss the particularities of these contexts but also explore the how in both contexts Blackness and Black people are relegated to the lower rungs of the social order. In offering this comparative analysis, we call for expanded research on race, racism, and mathematics education in global contexts.

Crisis as a Discursive Frame in Mathematics Education Research and Reform

Various groups, ranging from politicians to educational researchers to everyday citizens, have called for a reform of the U.S. educational system, particularly in the area of mathematics education. Due to the perception of a worsening system – evidenced by stagnating test scores and lags in international comparisons – many have moved to treat mathematics education research and reform in terms of crisis management. Instances of crisis management are seen in efforts to close the socalled racial achievement gaps, in efforts to educate and judge pre-service and inservice teachers, and in the standardized testing movement. This crisis management frame not only emerges in mainstream mathematics education discourse but also within critical perspectives on mathematics education, where there is an attempt to fight back hegemony, neoliberalism, and neoconservative forces working against democratic ideals and social justice. The metaphor of crisis is powerful – articulating the need for immediate action that most, if not all, of the research and policy communities must undertake. There is a particular lure in discussing crises in education because they typically involve the needs of children. In this chapter, we examine the implications of employing a frame of crisis within mathematics education research and reform. What does it mean to have the power to name a phenomenon a crisis? When crisis management is emphasized, what myths and storylines emerge? We give particular attention to the implications of a crisis management frame for marginalized student populations, giving focus attention to Black children. We begin by making sense of the crisis narrative in mathematics education and inspecting who has the power to invoke crisis discourse, referencing specific historical events. Next, we consider framing and discursive frames as means to understand crisis narrative. Further, critical mathematics education, itself, is interrogated with respect to its relationship to frames of crisis. We conclude by discussing alternative framings for the aims and goals of mathematics education.

White Supremacy, Anti-Black Racism, and Mathematics Education: Local and Global Perspectives

White Supremacy, Anti-Black Racism, and Mathematics Education : Local and Global Perspectives