"It Was My Breaking Point": A DisCrit Case Study of a Black Woman in College Calculus

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Black Women, Intersectionality, and Affirmation of Identities

Abstract

Using interviews and class observations, we present the counterstory of a Black female first year student, Makena, to consider intersections of race and dis/ability in college calculus. We contrast Makena’s experiences with the perspectives of mathematics faculty to explore how student discouragement in calculus may be racialized and pathologized to perpetuate constructions of Blackness as intellectual and emotional deficiency. Makena’s counterstory underscores the need for humanizing pedagogy that attends to students’ social and affective experiences of mathematics instruction to redress inequities of mathematics achievement and STEM major persistence.

Authors

• Taylor McNeill, Vanderbilt University

• Luis Antonio Leyva, Vanderbilt University