Mathematics Socialization of Black Ethiopian Adults and Their Use of Community, Critical, and Cultural Mathematics

• In Event: Engagement of Black Youth and Families in Emergent Social and Educational Spaces

Abstract

Purpose
As a participant observer, I used an ethnographic research design to interview three Black Ethiopian women about their socialization into mathematics to address these two research questions: (i) What are Black Ethiopian immigrants’ narratives of being socialized into mathematics? And (ii) how do the mathematics experiences of Black Ethiopian immigrants connect to the categories of classical (school) mathematics, community, and critical mathematics?

Theoretical Framework

This study draws on perspectives that are inspired by Martin’s (2000) theory of a race-based framework of socialization into mathematics and Gutstein’s (2007) three categories of mathematics: classical (school), community, and critical mathematics. These three mathematics categories are used to capture narratives that emerge out of racially Black and ethnically Ethiopian mathematics experiences. To supplement these two lenses, Critical Race Theory is also used, as the experiences of Black Ethiopian adults in mathematics are in constant interaction with permeating structural racism in both education and the social world (Larnell et al., 2016; Ladson-Billings, 1998).


Methodology
The three participants I worked with are members of an Eder group, a traditional collective that congregates to address adverse problems that come up for its members. Over a four month period, I interviewed three adult members of an Ethio-Eder whose activity is housed at the Ethiopian Community Center. This community center is located in a major Pacific Northwest metropolitan city. Using an ethnographic study, I focus on the meaning making participants engage in as Ethio-Eder members of the Ethiopian diaspora community.


Data Sources
This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews and an Ethio-Eder by-law artifact to closely look at the mathematics socialization of three Black Ethiopian immigrants. I used constant comparative analysis in the interview data, and then generated general descriptions of how participants made sense of mathematics for their own personal and community use.

Findings
Preliminary findings suggest that Black Ethiopian immigrant adults in the collective engaged in cultural, community and critical mathematics. One participant used cultural mathematics in identifying symmetrical patterns found in traditional Ethiopian weaved baskets. I also found that classical (school-based mathematics) understanding such as fractions, percentage, estimation, and arithmetic are used for everyday activities like driving and buying coffee. Second, community mathematics is used for communal activities, like planning for the cost of funeral related services in the collective during a time of loss. The findings illustrate the profound importance of financial and collective emotional support. Finally, critical mathematics is used to make sense of high leverage social issues that impact this community like responding to the rise in the cost of living in the city.


Scholarly Significance
In particular, this study suggests the value of investigating the connections between school mathematics to community, critical and cultural mathematics experiences among Black Ethiopian adults. Future researchers can explore different ways to leverage these mathematics connections to facilitate rich and lifelong learnings that are culturally relevant to Black Ethiopian youth and their communities.

Author

• Dawit Endale Alemayehu, University of Washington - Seattle