The Role of Race, Culture, and Gender: Exploring Immigrant Black Girls' Math Identities

• In Event: Ideology, Race, and Blackness in Mathematics Education

Abstract

This study explored the K-12 mathematics learning experiences and beliefs of 10 Black immigrant girls from Caribbean and African countries based on interviews. Much of what the field knows is from the perspectives of Black girls who have ties to the US associated with a history of slavery. In pursuit of “truth” about how Black girls experience the mathematics classroom, it is important to disrupt essentialism and understand that there is no monologic Black girl experience. We analyzed the girls’ narratives using intersectionality and math identity theories to nuance the importance of their cultural and family practices that supported and motivated their positive feelings and beliefs about math including its utility.

Authors

• Martha Kakooza, Morgan State University
  Presenting Author

• Ashli-Ann Douglas, WestEd
  Presenting Author

• Morgan G. Spellman, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Nicole Michelle Joseph, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author