Positive Intent, Negative Impact: How Teachers Shape the Mathematics Identities of Black Girls

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: CERECG SIG Round Table 4: Intersectionality in STEM Education (Table 7)

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 mathematics teachers at the time of study 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 while teachers may have positive intentions, their approaches to conveying ideational resources or messages to Black girls can inadvertently reinforce stereotypes and have a negative impact on their mathematics identities.

Author

• Kyalamboka Brown, Stanford University