Whose Truth Counts in Culturally Responsive Pedagogy? Broadening Notions of Black Education Through Immigrant Inclusion

• In Event: Black People Are Not a Monolith: Designing and Nuancing Culturally Responsive Mathematics

Abstract

While Black population growth in the U.S. is at a standstill, evidence shows that the growth of Black immigrants is increasingly diversifying the Black US population. The Black immigrant population will account for roughly a third of the U.S. Black population’s growth by 2060 (Tamir & Anderson, 2022). However, research on Black education rarely examines the identities and experiences of Black immigrants. The phenomenon of intersectional invisibility among Black people forces us to reflect upon essentialized and monolithic notions of blackness that further reifies hegemonic structures and blurs the lines of racial truth (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008). We highlight these tensions through two case studies.
During our interview with Black parents and students for the CRMN project, we noticed that Black immigrant participants regularly drew upon their cultural and ethnic backgrounds to frame their values, experiences, and perspectives on STEM education. As a result of these initial findings, we went further to deepen our analysis of data from a subset of the participant pool so that we could further understand how ethnicity and culture shaped Black immigrants’ perspective of culturally responsive STEM. As a result we engaged in four rounds of coding for two participants, who identified as 1.5 and second-generation Afro-Caribbean immigrants, each representing a qualitative case. Data were coded using both a priori and thematic coding (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2011). Codes were also checked across the research team for trustworthiness (Guba & Lincoln, 1985).
Drawing on research on transnationalism (Author, 2021), critical race theory (Authors, 2020; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), and cultural capital (Yosso, 2005), we posit that US researchers and educators must broaden notions of blackness and what constitutes Black culture as a means of cultural responsiveness. Research must contemplate the ways Black immigrants’ transnational experiences might strengthen their learner identities and support their educational development. This paper shows substantial evidence that cultural capital drives the ways in which Black immigrant students maneuvered their STEM education, whether explicitly known or conceptualized by authors.
Findings suggest ethnic identity, at times, influenced the successes, aspirations, and attitudes of Afro-Caribbean high schoolers toward STEM education. In terms of engaging in STEM subjects, students, independent of teacher direction, made real-world connections to their STEM coursework, driving the importance of incorporating culturally responsive and experiential mathematics. Additionally, drawing connections to career aspirations, and incorporating components of identity were attributed to their expressed motivation to focus more on mathematics, as well as regrets for not receiving appropriate support in their past training. Students provided details for future implications to support additional student learning, detailing real-world scenarios, the importance of pacing, and emphasis on content-knowledge gains for best learning, as opposed to textbook and standardized test training.
Future research must focus on the intersectional identities of Black students to showcase how their ethnic identities shape educational experiences. This work also broadens the definition of culturally responsive pedagogy in STEM education and supports the placement of Black immigrant experiences in education.

Authors

• Chonika Coleman-King, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Takeshia Pierre, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Koree Badio, University of Florida
  Presenting Author

• Mercedes Machado, University of Florida
  Presenting Author