How "Not Working Hard" = "Naturally Gifted" for White Students but "Lazy" for Black Students and the Role Other Identities Play

• In Event: 16.056 - Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: 16.056-1 - African American Students Reminagining Their Roles and Identities

Abstract

This narrative inquiry implicates socio-historical, cultural, political narratives and their associated binaries in the (re)production of inequities in mathematics. The stories 44 high school students told about mathematics, the narratives their stories were situated in and the positions these made available to the students as learners were explored. Students negotiated their relationships to mathematics through two particular competing meta-narratives – the Intellectual Development Discourse and the Schooling Discourse. These meta-narratives allowed students to read the same behavior differentially based on perceived or actual identities. For example, “not working hard” was read as natural giftedness for White students, but as laziness for Black students. Gender, class and athlete status also played a role.

Authors

• Angela Dosalmas, Mills College

• Betsy Brenner, University of California - Santa Barbara