"They're Just Students. There's No Clear Distinction": Detailing Color Blindness in Instructor Perceptions of Calculus Instruction

• In Event: Racism in Math Education: Where Responsibility Is Due

Abstract

Underrepresented students report calculus instruction as a racialized and gendered experience (Ellis et al., 2016; Oppland-Cordell, 2014). However, instructor perceptions of instruction are underexplored. This paper presents findings from a study of seven instructors’ perceptions of calculus instruction at a large, public research university. Using individual interviews, instructors reflected on racial and gender relevance of instructional events that underrepresented students reported as racialized and gendered. Instructor participants included 3 women of color, 3 white men, and 1 Asian man.

Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2013) guided our coding of discourses that upheld or challenged colorblind, gender-neutral ideologies across instructors’ event interpretations, including how they are operationalized to reproduce or disrupt inequities through instruction. Our analysis revealed two dominant discourses: (i) Race and gender are insignificant social markers; and (ii) Classroom events can be objectively categorized as race- and gender-neutral. For brevity, we present findings for the first discourse specific to race.

For an event in which a student corrected an instructor who justifies their mistake and did not thank the student like they did for others, Stan (white man) asserted that race was not relevant, “I think one thing we have here at [the university] is... an extraordinarily diverse student population... They're just students. There's no clear distinction.” In situating the event in the broader context of the racially diverse university, Stan rendered students' racial identities to be insignificant in their experience of this instructional behavior. This discourse of racial insignificance was operationalized through meritocratic instructional practices. For an event with an instructor declining a student request to review a problem, Bhavik (Asian man) explained that students who were “falling behind” due to lack of effort in practicing algebra may “frequently ask questions to go over similar problems a second time, third time.” He justified the instructor's dismissal of the student to prioritize classmates perceived as making more of a conscious effort, thus leaving racialized trends in student struggle as a function of pervasive inequities in mathematics education unconsidered.

Counter to this dominant discourse was a less frequently engaged discourse that positioned race as having significant implications on students’ instructional experience. For an event with an instructor accusing a student of not owning a calculator provided by a program for students from low-income backgrounds, Joshua (white man) perceived it as potentially racialized. He claimed that “it's more likely that the student was… Latino or Black” by the nature of the program, which may cause the student to interpret the instructor saying, “You don't deserve to be here, you're Black, you're Latino.” Thus, Joshua engaged in a discourse of racial significance that signals consciousness of how instructional behaviors can relay marginalizing messages of who belongs in undergraduate mathematics to underrepresented students.

This analysis extends prior work on equity in undergraduate mathematics by capturing how racialized inequities are reinforced through instruction with limited racial consciousness. Our findings highlight the urgency of professional development that supports calculus instructors with developing racially conscious practices that disrupt the influence of ideological discourses rooted in colorblindness.

Authors

• Taylor McNeill, Vanderbilt University

• Luis Antonio Leyva, Vanderbilt University

• Brittany Leslie Marshall, Rutgers University