Transforming the Teaching of Statistics to Support the Motivation and Critical Consciousness of Doctoral Students

• In Event: Teaching Critical Quantitative Methods in Higher Education

Abstract

The purpose of this longitudinal case study is to document how one instructor integrated QuantCrit instructional strategies into a year-long graduate level statistics course serving doctoral students in education, counseling psychology, and school psychology. Specifically, the presentation will document how the strategies evolved over the course of three academic years. A specific focus will be placed on the integration of a community engaged research project related to the 2020 race/ethnicity census question, particularly as it pertains to NY Congressional District 15 (the only Hispanic majority district in New York State). Drawing from theory and research on motivation and culturally-responsive and sustaining education (Kumar, Zusho, & Bondie, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 2014), this case study will document the changes that were observed in both the instructor’s and students’ critical consciousness and motivation and skill to conduct QuantCrit based analyses. Data are drawn from various sources, including researcher memos and observational notes, surveys, and other documentation (e.g., syllabi, emails, agendas, lecture notes, student assignments and positionality statements) as well as interviews with students. This case study will largely document that students’ interest in and competence to conduct critically-informed statistical analyses are both constrained and facilitated by how well the instructor infuses QuantCrit into the course, and the instructor and students’ identities and corresponding paradigmatic worldviews and degree of critical consciousness. Furthermore, findings suggest that this kind of instructional approach may be especially valuable in supporting the motivation and learning of minoritized students who are more often than not drawn to QuantCrit-related research questions. One student (who identifies as Arab American), for example, noted the following:

The topics that most interested me this semester were the final two - philosophy and Quant Crit. I honestly found statistics kind of boring, and therefore difficult to connect to and understand), but after those two classes, I was way more interested in what the numbers could tell me. It helped me learn that numbers aren’t boring, they are just out of context. Honestly, if those subjects had been taught at the beginning of the semester instead of the end, I think it would have been easier for me to understand the statistical analyses. I struggled to remain engaged and completely understand the analyses throughout the semester because I didn’t know why and in what context these analyses were used historically. I think it made me realize that as a researcher, I always prefer to look into the historical and sociopolitical context, and when I can’t figure out how that shows up in the numbers, I struggle to connect to how to understand the analyses.

Implications for theory and research on motivation and the teaching of statistics will be discussed.

Author

• Akane Zusho, Fordham University