Mathematics Teaching, Learning and Liberation in the Lives of Black Children

With issues of equity at the forefront of mathematics education research and policy, Mathematics Teaching, Learning, and Liberation in the Lives of Black Children fills the need for authoritative, rigorous scholarship that sheds light on the ways that young black learners experience mathematics in schools and their communities. This timely collection significantly extends the knowledge base on mathematics teaching, learning, participation, and policy for black children and it provides new framings of relevant issues that researchers can use in future work. More importantly, this book helps move the field beyond analyses that continue to focus on and normalize failure by giving primacy to the stories that black learners tell about themselves and to the voices of mathematics educators whose work has demonstrated a commitment to the success of these children.

Danny Bernard Martin is Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Preface

Acknowledgements

Section I: Mapping A Liberatory Research and Policy Agenda

1. Liberating the Production of Knowledge About African American Children and Mathematics, Danny Bernard Martin

Section II: Pedagogy, Standards, and Assessment

2. Researching African American Mathematics Teachers of African American Students: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations, Lawrence M. Clark, Whitney Johnson & Daniel Chazan

3. "This Little Light of Mine!" Entering Voices of Cultural Relevancy into the Mathematics Teaching Conversation, Lou Edward Matthews

4. Instructional Strategies and Dispositions of Teachers Who Help African American Students Gain Conceptual Understanding, Carol E. Malloy

5. Contrasting Pedagogical Styles and Their Impact on African American Students, Robert Q. Berry III & Oren L. McClain

6. More than Test Scores: How Teachers’ Classroom Practice Contributes to and What Student Work Reveals about Black Students’ Mathematics Performance and Understanding, Erica N. Walker

Section III: Socialization, Learning, and Identity

7. The Social Construction of Youth and Mathematics: The Case of a Fifth-Grade Classroom, Kara J. Jackson

8. Identity at the Crossroads: Understanding the Practices and Forces that Shape African American Success and Struggle in Mathematics, Joi A. Spencer

9. Wrestling with the Legacy of Stereotypes: Being African American in Math Class, Na’ilah Suad Nasir, Grace Atukpawu, Kathleen O’Connor, Michael Davis, Sarah Wischnia & Jessica Tsang

10. Opportunities to Learn Geometry: Listening to the Voices of Three African American Students High School Students, Marilyn E. Strutchens & S. Kathy Westbrook

11. Negotiating Sociocultural Discourses: The Counter-Storytelling of Academically and Mathematically Successful African American Male Students, David W. Stinson

12. "Come Home, Then": Two Eighth-Grade Black Female Students’ Reflections on their Mathematics Experiences, Yolanda A. Johnson

13. "Still Not Saved": The Power of Mathematics to Liberate the Oppressed, Jacqueline Leonard

Section IV: Collaboration and Reform
14. University/K-12 Partnerships: A Collaborative Approach to School Reform, Martin L. Johnson & Stephanie Timmons Brown

Contributors

Index