"Critical What What?" Critical Race Theory and Mathematics Education

• In Event: Expanding the Use of Critical Race Theory in Mathematics Education Research for the Public Good

Abstract

In an article commemorating the twenty-year anniversary of critical race theory (CRT) in legal studies, legal scholar Devon Carbado (2011) argued that "defining oneself as a Critical Race Theorist can still engender the question: critical what what?" (p. 1595). He surmised that this question reflects, at least in part, a lack of conceptual clarity about what CRT is. In response, Carbado provided an overview of CRT, its "boundaries," and potential future directions.

In this conceptual paper, I draw upon Carbado's (2011) overview to explore what this framing of CRT might mean for scholarship in mathematics education. Specifically, I examine some of the core ideas from CRT and their potential connections to mathematics education and mathematics education research. These core ideas include: (1) recognition of racism as a structural phenomenon; (2) acknowledgement of the racial taxes and racial shelters that operate in mathematics education; (3) recognition of the role of colorblindness as a racial preference; and (4) identification of discursive frames supporting inequity in mathematics education.

To illustrate the ways that these core ideas can inform our understanding of mathematics education, I utilize a classroom vignette to illustrate how a CRT "lens" might differ from other perspectives on mathematics education. Specifically, I contrast the views through a "teaching and learning lens" and a "teacher education lens" with the landscape revealed through a CRT lens. The CRT lens highlights the racial taxes imposed on students of color in mathematics classrooms and the intergenerational nature of these racial costs. Additionally, the CRT lens points to the operation of "accountability" as a discursive frame supporting ongoing racial taxation. In this way, I seek to outline a view of what CRT in mathematics education might look like.

Author

• Celia Rousseau Anderson, The University of Memphis