Learning From Underrepresented Students’ Perspectives: Investigations by Female Mathematics Education Scholars From STEM Backgrounds

Session Submission Type: Working Group Roundtable

Abstract

This session describes the complexities of underrepresented students’ mathematics participation and learning in racialized urban spaces. Goals include extending prior research to investigate equitable mathematical environments where diverse student populations have access to opportunities-to-learn mathematics. Three women from diverse backgrounds with recent doctorates present interrelated studies situated in educational settings that do not expect underserved students to succeed. We hear African American and Latina/o students from seventh grade, undergraduate, and doctoral levels express sources of their successes and resilience. The presenters discuss how their research goals connect to personal experiences as marginalized women and women of color in STEM fields. Two prominent female mathematics education researchers of color will facilitate discussion among the presenters and the audience participants.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 2: Education in Multicultural Contexts Within and Across Subject Areas

Chairs

• Jacqueline Leonard, University of Wyoming

• Rochelle Gutierrez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Papers

• Latina/o Undergraduates Resist Racialized, Gendered, and Classed Spaces Through an Emerging Scholars Calculus Workshop - Sarah Oppland-Cordell, Northeastern Illinois University

• Three African American Students Defy a Racist School Culture to Develop Confidence as Mathematics Learners - Della R. Leavitt, LIS Curriculum Research Consulting

• Race, Identity, and Resilience: Black College Students Negotiating Success in Mathematics and Engineering - Ebony Omotola McGee, Vanderbilt Peabody College