Black Girls’ Intersectional Narratives in Mathematics Teaching and Learning Contexts

• In Event: Pathways to Educational Justice for Students of Color in STEM and Beyond

Abstract

This paper presents a meta-synthesis of 10 years of empirical research examining issues related to Black girls, their intersectional identities, and their pursuit of mathematics. Such a study is needed because no longitudinal examination of important K-12 contexts, such as curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy, exist. Mathematics education researchers seldom focus on Black girls, and when they do, it is to make comparisons to white girls. Many of the prior studies come from a deficit perspective. NAEP scores show that Black girls, along with Black boys, remain at the bottom of the mathematics achievement hierarchy (NAEP, 2015). Another problem with prior studies is the single-axis approach, meaning they look at gender or race, but not their intersections, will be addressed. Additionally, these studies present interpretations and findings that are not critical of systems at play where Black girls learn and engage (Evans-Winters & Esposito, 2010). This paper politicizes Black girls’ mathematics access, learning, development, participation, and achievement by using intersectional theoretical frameworks, such as Black girlhood and Black Feminism. Using such theories allows for illumination of a more complex narrative that includes how Black girls’ dehumanization in society and schools makes it way to the mathematics classroom (Author; Butler-Barnes et al., 2021). This is one way to directly address racial and gender injustice in the US educational system.
A key research question explored is “What can Black girls’ narratives offer about how they grapple with their Black (race) girlhood (gender) as K-12 students in mathematics?” The analysis specifically focuses on a broad context beginning with a historical perspective of Black girls’ invisibility given that mathematics as a field has been socially constructed as a white male space. Other areas of analyses include unpacking mathematics learning environments through Black girls’ eyes, identifying and describing ways that mathematics curricula suppress Black girlhood, advancing a pedagogical model for revealing Black girls’ genius, brilliance, and excellence in mathematics learning, and problematizing summative assessments in our mathematics education system (i.e., ACT/SAT). Overall, findings reveal that Black girls are not getting opportunities to learn mathematics through their own epistemological orientations and intersectionality-assets, such as collective learning. Other findings show that Black girls’ face intersectionality-barriers through criminalization and adultification which negatively impacts their mathematics identities. Black girls are also positioned by teachers as anti-intellectual with low aspirations for advancement and as average students (Neal-Jackson, 2018). A discussion about what mathematics teachers who care about Black girls can do is included. It is a three-part plan for mathematics teachers who want to transform mathematics teaching and learning for Black girls. The significance of this work is multi-faceted, but a key contribution is its longitudinal study that not only exposes the racialized/gendered inequalities Black girls face in mathematics learning contexts but also offers a vision for how to disrupt and dismantle these inequalities in solidarity with Black girls and their families.

Author

• Nicole M. Joseph, Vanderbilt University