A Framework for Understanding Whiteness in Mathematics Education

Battey, Dan; Leyva, Luis A.

doi:10.21423/jume-v9i2a294

Cited by 108 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The authors are particularly critical of a set of studies focusing on student characteristics that "can be interpreted as student deficits that must be addressed or ways in which students must be 'fixed' to improve their success" (p. 16), e.g., academic preparation, family obligations, finances, and student goals. Battey and Leyva (2016) provide a theoretical framework for understanding Whiteness in mathematics education. The framework details three dimensions of Whiteness in mathematics education-institutional, labor, and identity.…”

Section: Implications and Recommendations That Seek To Disrupt Power ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Research Methods in Stem Higher Education: A State-of-the-Art Review

Patrick

Martín

Borrego

2022

J Women Minor Scien Eng

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Critical theories and critical research methods have been applied extensively in higher education and in STEM K-12 education, but to a much lesser extent in STEM higher education settings. This stateof-the-art review synthesizes exemplar papers that employ critical theories and research methods to make recommendations for research about how certain groups are systematically oppressed in STEM higher education settings. Using guidance developed for critical education research and exemplar studies in and around STEM higher education settings, we seek to improve the use and quality of critical research methods in STEM higher education and practice. We provide thick descriptions of 22 example papers that, in our opinion, have effectively addressed one or more aspects of critical theory and critical research methods relevant to STEM higher education. In doing so, our review points readers to papers that have done a particularly good job in applying some aspect of critical theory or critical research methods in ways that resonate with STEM higher education. Our list of themes is as follows: (a) describing the social/historical context for oppression; (b) critical author positionality; (c) engaging and empowering participant; (d) consistency of critical approaches in theory, methods, and discussion; (e) deep explanation of critical race theory tenets emphasized in the study; and (f) implications and recommendations that seek to disrupt power structures. Our conclusions are directed at researchers who identify with STEM disciplines-those in colleges of science or engineering-as well as critical education researchers moving into postsecondary STEM settings.

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Section: Implications and Recommendations That Seek To Disrupt Power ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Research Methods in Stem Higher Education: A State-of-the-Art Review

Patrick

Martín

Borrego

2022

J Women Minor Scien Eng

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“…Racial equity demands a raceconscious approach that (a) presses faculty to make sense of who they are, what they believe, and how they teach (Dowd & Bensimon, 2015;Rousseau & Tate, 2003); (b) uncovers the racial norms and This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. logics of math education (Battey & Levya, 2016;Levya et al, 2021); and (c) advances a humanizing pedagogy in which minoritized students feel validated and cared for as learners and persons with complex lives (Acevedo-Gil et al, 2015;Aronson & Laughter, 2016;Gutiérrez, 2018;Joseph et al, 2019). This is a tall ask for math faculty, many of whom were hired for their disciplinary credentials rather than teaching experience, student-centeredness (Flannigan et al, 2004), and/or racial equity commitments (Liera & Ching, 2019).…”

Section: Why Center Race In Math Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Organized around idealized notions of objectivity, meritocracy, rigor, color-blindness, and individualism, and expectations faculty hold about students' capabilities, this dominant instructional template impacts minoritized students' opportunity to learn-whether they are deemed capable of doing math, have positive math experiences, and are allowed to develop robust math identities (Battey & Levya, 2016;Levya et al, 2021;Martin, 2007Martin, , 2019. Faculty enacting this template dehumanize minoritized students by constraining their ability to perform in mathematics spaces (Gutiérrez, 2018), by attributing course outcomes to what they do or do not/can or cannot do, and by expecting them to succeed in an environment where negative stereotypes about their math knowledge and skills are pervasive (Martin, 2019;Shah, 2017).…”

Section: Why Center Race In Math Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While they can help minoritized students do math better, they emphasize iterative change and do little to disrupt institutionalized beliefs of math as a racially, culturally, and politically neutral activity (Gutiérrez, 2008, 2018). Racial equity demands a race-conscious approach that (a) presses faculty to make sense of who they are, what they believe, and how they teach (Dowd & Bensimon, 2015; Rousseau & Tate, 2003); (b) uncovers the racial norms and logics of math education (Battey & Levya, 2016; Levya et al, 2021); and (c) advances a humanizing pedagogy in which minoritized students feel validated and cared for as learners and persons with complex lives (Acevedo-Gil et al, 2015; Aronson & Laughter, 2016; Gutiérrez, 2018; Joseph et al, 2019).…”

Section: Why Center Race In Math Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since it is not the norm to consider race in math education, faculty beginning to develop their racial equity practice need to have foundational knowledge of racial equity. This includes concepts like “color-blindness,” which is the logic that frames policies and practices as race-neutral despite having racially material effects (Battey & Levya, 2016), and “deficit-minded,” which roots outcome inequity in perceived deficiencies of minoritized students rather than structural inequalities (Valencia, 1997). To activate these concepts and not leave them in the abstract, faculty should apply them to their teaching, as one participant in the REI did with “color-blindness.” “Color-blindness” helped surface his belief that delivering math content, grading fairly, and having office hours worked well for all students.…”

Section: How To Develop a Racial Equity Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Crafting a racial equity practice in college math education.

Ching¹,

Roberts²

2022

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

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While assessment, curricular, and pedagogical reforms have improved overall success rates in college math courses, they have been less effective in closing racial equity gaps and fostering equitable classroom experiences for racially minoritized students. Following the insights of critical race math scholars, we argue that racial inequity persists because these reforms do not tackle the dominant instructional template that informs how many math faculty teach. We propose that racial equity requires a reconfiguration of practice involving (a) race-conscious sensemaking of teaching; (b) awareness of racial dynamics in math classrooms; and (c) a humanizing math pedagogy. We describe these three principles of a racial equity practice, along with the challenges that can arise when faculty confront complicity in producing racial inequity, attempt to undo practices serving them well, and wrestle with institutional factors that constrain change.

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“Getting along” and “using evidence”: Elementary engineering as contentious practice

Carlone,

Lancaster

2024

J Res Sci Teach

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Elementary engineering, as an emergent or “contentious” practice, is fertile ground for cultural analysis. Contentious practice (Holland, D., & Lave, J. (2001). History in person: Enduring struggles, contentious practice, intimate identities. School of American Research Press) highlights how historically enduring narratives of science, engineering, schooling, and minoritized youth get taken up, figured, and refigured in local practice. The study's research questions were: What classroom cultural narratives of “good engineers” were important for fifth‐grade, minoritized children's engineering design work? How did local and macro‐level cultural narratives about science and engineering, elementary schooling, and minoritized students intersect? How were multi‐leveled cultural narratives consequential for children's engineering work? Using ethnographic methods, researchers analyzed videos, field notes, and interviews with 20 students and their teacher, focusing on engineering design discussion and activities. The authors identified two key narratives: good engineers (1) get along well with others and (2) use evidence to make design decisions. The banality of these narratives makes them ripe for deconstruction. By beginning with children's meanings of engineering competence and framing engineering as contentious practice, the authors: (1) identify the tensions in these seemingly innocuous narratives and practices; (2) illustrate children's creativity and labor in navigating tensions; (3) demonstrate the workings of macro‐level racialized, technocratic, and Western scientistic narratives and their reconfigurations in local practice; and (4) reject deficit‐based perspectives that would frame classroom struggles by assigning blame to the teacher or students. Recommendations for practice include normalizing disagreement, providing tools for joint decision‐making, broadening meanings of evidence, and co‐constructing meanings of kindness. A contentious practice lens highlights the ever‐presence of historicized narratives in local productions of practice and renders elementary engineering as an ongoing accomplishment, opening spaces of possibility less readily available to established practices of elementary schooling. However, without explicit attention to countering racialized narratives applied to minoritized youth in such settings, these spaces tighten up, limiting the potential for social change.

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A Framework for Understanding Whiteness in Mathematics Education

Cited by 108 publications

References 55 publications

Critical Research Methods in Stem Higher Education: A State-of-the-Art Review

Critical Research Methods in Stem Higher Education: A State-of-the-Art Review

Crafting a racial equity practice in college math education.

“Getting along” and “using evidence”: Elementary engineering as contentious practice

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