DeCYPHERing Mathematics: A Study of Black Hip-Hop Artists' Perceptions of, and Experience With, Mathematics

• In Event: The Cypher: Resistance and Liberation in Pedagogical Praxis

Abstract

The objective of this research was to theorize about the way Black youth, particularly those who may have an affinity for Hip Hop, engage with mathematics teaching and learning. We contend that they do mathematics in ways that are not always honored by traditional paradigms, and that our pedagogy can be informed by their experiential knowledge, counterstories about proficiency, and group-constructed definitions of mathematics. It is also our view that if we can get Black students to recognize that they do mathematics even outside of the classroom, in ways that have been celebrated in Hip Hop for decades, then this may help them to take on positive mathematics identities within traditional mathematics spaces much sooner.

Authors

• Nickolaus A. Ortiz, Georgia State University

• Jessica Showell, Georgia State University