Using Critical Race Theory to Unpack the Black Mathematics Teacher Pipeline

• In Event: Expanding the Use of Critical Race Theory in Mathematics Education Research for the Public Good

Abstract

Recruiting and retaining Black mathematics teachers could be an actionable step toward a just system of mathematics education. Without an in-depth, racialized analysis of the Black mathematics teacher pipeline, conversations of this nature run the risk of commodification and diversity solely for the purposes of race matching. I draw on Solórzano (1997) who queried, "What forms does racism take in teacher education and how are these forms used to maintain the subordination [Black mathematics teachers]?" (p. 8). I use tenets of critical race theory (CRT) to argue that solutions regarding the limited presence of Black mathematics teachers must focus on race and racism in order to develop solutions that center Black mathematics teachers and serve the best interests of students.

I model the Black mathematics teacher pipeline as cyclical in nature where this is a revolving door of Black mathematics teachers entering and leaving the profession (Ingersoll & May, 2011; Neil, 2015), wherein teacher attrition requires the cycle to restart at teacher preparation. Additionally, the cyclical nature describes the periodic nature of teacher diversity conversations and concerns. Despite the ebb and flow, I assert that all of these conversations can be traced to racist ideologies that are often tacit, yet rampant, in teacher education broadly, and mathematics teacher education specifically.

The seminal work of Drs. Gloria Ladson-Billings and William Tate (1995) laid the foundation for using CRT to unpack the effects of racism in education. CRT asserts that racism is endemic, pervasive, and normalized through social and institutional structures and practices in public spaces such as schools (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Milner, 2008, 2017). CRT addressed in this work include: (a) critique of liberalism (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004), (b) whiteness as property (Dixson & Anderson, 2018, Harris, 1993), (c) intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989; 1993; Ladson-Billings, 2013), (d) interest convergence (Delgado, 2002; Milner 2008, 2017), and (e) the permanence of racism (Ladson-Billings, 1998). CRT analysis shows how racism shapes mathematics teacher education, and it has implications for imagining a more just treatment of Black mathematics teachers and teacher candidates via institutional policies that support them at critical points along the teacher pipeline.
If mathematics teacher education stands a chance of diversifying in ways that address the prevalence of racism along the Black mathematics teacher pipeline, we must ask: What practices and policies must mathematics teacher educators and researchers reimagine along the Black mathematics teacher pipeline to support and sustain Black mathematics teachers?

Reconfiguring mathematics education for Black teachers to thrive, with respect to CRT, requires interrogating how mathematics education currently operates as white institutional space that marginalizes the perspectives of Black teachers. The goals must shift from maintaining Black teachers in the field to include goals that maintain Black teachers’ senses of dignity and humanity such that at each point on the pipeline becomes a space where Black mathematics teachers thrive.

Author

• Toya Jones Frank, George Mason University