You're My Resource! Teacher Role in the Mathematics Identity Negotiation of Black Girls

• In Event: I Love You, Black Girl: An Exploration of Strengths-Based Supports Informed by Critical Theories

Abstract

Black girls’ racialized and gendered experiences in mathematics are understudied in mathematics education literature. This study centers the voices of teenage black girls and their recounts of mathematics-related experiences since elementary school to examine the process in which their mathematics identities are constructed. The identity resource framework (Nasir & Cook, 2009) provides a lens through which to investigate how Black girls use resources (i.e. relationships, ideas, and materials) in their environment to negotiate their mathematics identities. Findings suggest that mathematics teachers play a pivotal role in mathematics identity development by providing ideational resources that either support or constrain a positive mathematics identity.

Author

• Kyalamboka Brown, Stanford University