An Intersectional Analysis of Identity Through Helping Behaviors Among Men of Color in Undergraduate Mathematics

• In Event: 66.078 - Exploring Equity in Undergraduate Mathematics Education Through Different Dimensions of Historically Marginalized Students' Experiences

Abstract

Conformity to traditional scripts of masculinity (e.g., dominance, self-reliance) is associated with avoidance of academic help-seeking and self-presentation concerns (Mahalik, Good, & Englar-Carlson, 2003; Wimer & Levant, 2011). Social identities besides gender shape variation in perceptions of dominant masculinity across intersectional groups (e.g, middle-class Black men; Harris, 2008) and how group members construct masculinities through help-related behaviors (Addis & Mahalik, 2003; Cabrera, Rahwan-Soto, & Valencia, 2016).

In mathematics, providing and seeking help can be perceived as performances of dominant ability and academic vulnerability, respectively (cf. Ryan & Pintrich, 1997). With the social construction of a hierarchy of mathematics ability through gendered, racialized, and other exclusionary discourses (Ernest, 1991; Martin, 2009), historically marginalized students must manage helping behaviors to protect their positioning along this hierarchy (e.g., McGee & Martin, 2011; Solomon, Lawson, & Croft, 2011). Men of color are in unique intersectional positions of managing help-related behaviors to navigate racialized perceptions of ability while also protecting their sense of masculinity.

To further explore this intersectional experience, this paper qualitatively details variation in identity constructions among two undergraduate men of color, Gerardo (a Peruvian man) and Samuel (an Ethiopian man), through helping behaviors. Gerardo and Samuel were first-year students at a large, predominantly White university in the U.S. Northeast, pursuing mathematics-intensive STEM majors in computer science and astrophysics, respectively. Both men of color immigrated to the U.S. and participated in a university program to advance racially minoritized students’ STEM retention.

Counter-storytelling methodology from CRT was adopted to construct analytical narratives of Gerardo’s and Samuel’s undergraduate mathematics experiences (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). The counter-stories were based on data from mathematics autobiographies, a survey, semi-structured individual interviews, and a focus group. Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) guided the cross-case analysis to highlight trends and variation in Gerardo’s and Samuel’s identity constructions. The study builds on prior work on masculinity and academic help-seeking among undergraduate men of color through its focus on STEM education (e.g., Cabrera et al., 2016; Sáenz, Mayo, Miller, & Rodriguez, 2015).

Two analytical themes capture variation in Gerardo’s and Samuel’s identity negotiations through helping behaviors. First, the men of color differed in the extent to which they approached university mathematics instructors for academic support. While Gerardo made a “personal decision” not to receive support from his pre-calculus instructor and later acknowledged that he “should have gotten to know” him, Samuel faults fellow Black classmates for not “try[ing] to reach out” to mathematics instructors who, in his words, “treated me as if I’m not African American.” The second theme reflects how Gerardo and Samuel, respectively, downplayed and foregrounded the significance of their racial-ethnic identities in receiving university support as mathematics-intensive majors. For example, Gerardo, in “want[ing] to be your average Joe,” rejected the “special help” and “brainwashing effects” of the STEM program that he felt unfairly provided racially minoritized students with extra academic support. A theoretical cross-case analysis illuminates how intersecting ideologies of gender and whiteness shaped Gerardo’s and Samuel’s constructions of racialized masculinity through academic helping behaviors (Author, 2014; Cabrera et al., 2016).

Authors

• Luis Antonio Leyva, Vanderbilt University

• Alexandria Cervantes, California State University - Monterey Bay

• Zander Alley, Vanderbilt University