Robust and Fragile Mathematical Identities: A Framework for Exploring Racialized Experiences and High Achievement Among Black College Students

Abstract

I introduce the construct of fragile and robust identities for the purpose of exploring the experiences that influenced the mathematical and racial identities of highachieving Black college students in mathematics and engineering. These students maintained high levels of academic achievement in these fields while enduring marginalization, stereotyping, and other forms of racialization. Their fragile mathematical identities were manifested in the way they were motivated to achieve in order to prove false the negative expectations of others. Their robust mathematical identities were characterized by an evolving sense of self-efficacy and discovery, a growing affinity and passion for mathematics, and a desire to be a mathematically inspiring role model. Extending the work on identity development, I recommend more nuanced interpretations of the interplay of human development, racialized experiences, and distinctly race-related risk and protective factors that complicate mathematical identity formation for Black college students in mathematics and engineering fields.

Black Women’s and Girls’ Persistence in the P–20 Mathematics Pipeline: Two Decades of Children, Youth, and Adult Education Research

“…In this literature review, the authors have demonstrated how the mathematics and mathematics education fields have an important opportunity to interrogate educational achievement in more complex ways, in part by leveraging the national Black girls’ movement. The extant literature has shown that achievement is not just measured by test scores but also other academic outcomes such as persistence, degree completion, and a robust mathematics identity (McGee, 2015; McGee & Martin, 2011). The review of the literature has also allowed authors to address three guiding questions of the text.…”

“…As students continue along the pipeline, adequate prior preparation in high school, as measured by indicators such as American College Testing scores, is a key factor that can predict persistence in undergraduate mathematics and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines (Griffith, 2010; Price, 2010). For those few racial minorities who do make it to graduate mathematics (masters or doctorate), they continue to have to work through the lived reality of exclusion (i.e., “weed-out” courses and comprehensive exams; Herzig, 2004) and attempt to establish robust mathematics identities in unwelcoming environments (McGee, 2015).…”

“…The ways in which Black girls engage in mathematics suggests that they take into account their own ways of knowing and learning to view themselves as effective mathematics learners (Jones, 2012). Finally, Black women’s and girls’ resilience in mathematics suggests that they have strong mathematics identities since they persist in obtaining mathematics knowledge, even though it can come at great personal costs given the prevailing norms of Whiteness or even anti-Blackness (McGee, 2015).…”

“I Didn’t Come to School for This”: A Qualitative Examination of Experiences With Race-Related Stressors and Coping Responses Among Black Students Attending a Predominantly White Institution

“…That is to say that even if this strategy yields academic success, it also may be associated with a psychological and physical toll on students’ well-being. McGee (2015) notes that responding to negative stereotypes in this way can not only be motivating but also psychologically distressing by fostering anxiety and a compulsive work ethic. Smith and colleagues (2007) discuss how sustained, high-effort coping with negative race-related stressors encountered in racially hostile spaces may yield cognitive, emotional, and physical exhaustion (i.e., racial battle fatigue ).…”

Intersectional Analysis in Critical Mathematics Education Research: A Response to Figure Hiding

“…Lambert (2015), for example, argues that intersectionality is useful for considering how disability intersects with race. Scholars such as Berry (2008) and McGee (2015) position intersectionality as a way of thinking about how mathematics identity operates with racial identity. For those mathematics education researchers who center on intersectionality in their work, there are varying modes of engagement.…”