Why Race and Culture Matter in Math Education: Toward a Comprehensive Perspective

• In Event: High School Students’ Identity, Positioning, and Learning in Mathematics

Abstract

Vygotsky (1978) argued that learning is fundamentally a social, cultural, and historical process. In schools, this means that students come to understand particular ways of being, knowing, and doing that are valued by certain stakeholders in society (Herrenkohl & Mertl, 2010). Broader institutional, political, and historical contexts and discourses shape district, school, and classroom policies and practices; thus, from this broad view, schools are complex and contested places. This study aimed to take up an historical contextual frame to problematize the current learning and achievement of Black students as it explored the question, “What are the factors that influence successful mathematics achievement for Black students raised in the U.S.?”

I challenge the conceptualization of the achievement gap because it sends an unintended message that Black students are not worthy of study in their own right. I adopt Ladson-Billings’ (2006) perspective of the achievement gap as an educational debt. Since debt is cumulative, I extend Ladson-Billings work by offering a socio-historical analysis of the mathematics education of Black people socialized in the U.S. from the American pre-Civil War era to the mid-20th century. I use this analysis as a critique of the achievement gap suggesting that the playing field to almost no degree has been level; therefore, alternative notions or ideas of describing math achievement should be considered.

Using a mixed-methodological approach, this study aimed to respond to the call of math educator Gutierrez (2008) who urges education researchers to “move away from gap gazing and toward more contextualized and intervention studies” (p. 362). Although the study included historical analysis, 69 surveys (quantitative), and 12 in depth student interviews (qualitative), this presentation will focus only on a slice of analysis from the interviews.

The results from the analysis of the interviews indicate that there are several factors that influence positive math learning and achievement for Black students socialized in the U.S. Those factors included assertive student personalities, authentic teacher relationships, high motivation, positive identities (mathematical and personal), social capital, and agency. The results also suggest that when Black students are successful in mathematics classrooms, they are participating in what Martin (2009b) calls “liberatory resistance.” To help unpack what liberatory resistance looked like in this study, a mathematical model is put forth as a different way to think about math learning and achievement for Black students. The model helps us to understand that Black students’ mathematics achievement can be viewed as a summation of a group of factors that are a part of what I call a micro and macro socio-historical background. Consequently, Black students’ micro and macro socio-historical contexts cannot be divorced from who they are as mathematics participants, learners, and achievers.

This research has scholarly significance because there is a new movement in the math education research community that seeks to better understand Black students’ math schooling experiences and achievement by examining these experiences through socio-cultural and historical perspectives (Leonard, 2009; Malloy, 2009; Martin, 2009b; Nasir, Atukpawu, O’Connor et. al (2009); Spencer, 2009; Stinson, 2008; Strutchens & Westbrook, 2009).

Author

• Nicole Michelle Russell, University of Denver