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Mathematics Learning and Participation as Racialized Forms of Experience: African American Parents Speak on the Struggle for Mathematics Literacy

June 2006
Mathematical Thinking and Learning 8(3):197-229

Authors:

University of Illinois at Chicago

This article draws on 3 ethnographic and participant observation studies of African American parents and adults from 3 northern California communities. Although studies have shown that African American parents hold the same folk theories about mathematics as other parents, stressing it as an important school subject, few studies have sought to directly examine their beliefs about constraints and opportunities as- sociated with mathematics learning for both themselves and their children. I argue that, as they situate the struggle for mathematical literacy within the larger contexts of African American, political, socioeconomic, and educational struggle, these par- ents help reveal that mathematics learning and participation can be conceptualized as racialized forms of experience. As they attempt to become doers of mathematics and advocates for their children's mathematics learning, discriminatory experiences have continued to subjugate some of these parents, whereas others—as demonstrated in their oppositional voices and behaviors—resisted their continued subjugation based on a belief that mathematics knowledge, beyond its role in schools, can be used to change the conditions of their lives. The characterization of mathematics learning as racialized experience put forth in this article contrasts with culture-free and situated perspectives of mathematics learning often found in the literature.

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Mathematics Learning and Participation

as Racialized Forms of Experience:

African American Parents Speak

on the Struggle for Mathematics Literacy

Danny Bernard Martin

College of Education and Department of Mathematics, Statistics,

& Computer Science

University of Illinois at Chicago

This article draws on 3 ethnographic and participant observation studies of African

American parents and adults from 3 northern California communities. Although

studies have shown that African American parents hold the same folk theories about

mathematics as other parents, stressing it as an important school subject, few studies

have sought to directly examine their beliefs about constraints and opportunities as-

sociated with mathematics learning for both themselves and their children. I argue

that, as they situate the struggle for mathematical literacy within the larger contexts

of African American, political, socioeconomic, and educational struggle, these par-

ents help reveal that mathematics learning and participation can be conceptualized as

racialized forms of experience. As they attempt to become doers of mathematics and

advocates for their children’s mathematics learning, discriminatory experiences have

continued to subjugate some of these parents, whereas others—as demonstrated in

their oppositional voices and behaviors—resisted their continued subjugation based

on a belief that mathematics knowledge, beyond its role in schools, can be used to

change the conditions of their lives. The characterization of mathematics learning as

racialized experience put forth in this article contrasts with culture-free and situated

perspectives of mathematics learning often found in the literature.

As a result of their experiences with oppression in this society, the concept of race has

historically played a major role in the lives of African Americans. Although race has

dubious value as a scientific classification system, it has had real consequences for

the life experiences and life opportunities of African Americans in the United States.

MATHEMATICAL THINKING AND LEARNING, 8(3), 197–229

Correspondence should be addressed to Danny Bernard Martin, College of Education, University

of Illinois at Chicago, 1040 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, IL 60607. E-mail: dbmartin@uic.edu

Race is a socially constructed concept which is [a] defining characteristic for African

American group membership. (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998,

p. 18)

Does race

really matter? Although some scholars have argued for its “declining

significance” (D’Souza, 1995; Wilson, 1978), the sentiment expressed in the

previous quote by Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, and Chavous (1998) suggests

that because race permeates so many areas of African American life—an asser

tion that is supported in the sociological, psychological, and critical studies liter

atures, in the mass media, as well as in the everyday accounts of ordinary

folks—those contexts where mathematics learning and the struggle for mathe

matics literacy assume primacy offer no exception. In light of this claim, I ad

dress three questions in this article. First, in what ways can mathematics learn

ing, participation, and the struggle for mathematics literacy be conceptualized as

racialized forms of experience—that is, as experiences where race and the mean

ings constructed around race become highly salient? Second, based on their de-

sires for equal treatment and meaningful participation in all aspects of life, and

their frequent experiences to the contrary, what do the narratives of African

American parents and caregivers reveal about their struggles for themselves and

for their children in the context of mathematics? Finally, how do African Ameri-

can parents respond to these racialized constructions of their own and their chil-

dren’s mathematical experiences?

RACE PROBLEMS AND PROBLEMS WITH RACE

The questions just posed are provocative ones, capable of stirring emotions, as is

often the case when issues of race enter a dialogue. Given the backdrop of dispro

portionately low mathematics achievement and persistence of African American

students (Johnson, 1989; Tate, 1997; U.S. Department of Education, 2000), how

ever, the need to develop interventions and solutions that are in the best interests of

these students (Delpit, 1988, 1995), and the increasingly political nature of mathe

matics education that empowers some parents and silences others (Anhalt, Al

lexsaht-Snider, & Civil, 2002; Civil, Andrade, & Anhalt, 2000; Civil, Bernier, &

Quintos, 2003; Civil, Quintos, Bernier, & Bratton, 2004; Gutstein, 2004; Martin,

2002, 2003, 2004; Peressini, 1997, 1998), there is an urgency that demands the

stirring of emotions. In my view, disregarding race in discussions of education in

America would be dishonest and sloppy science (Bonilla-Silva, 2001; Bulmer &

Solomos, 2004; Connoly & Troyna, 1998; Gunaratnam, 2003; N. Lopez, 2002;

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MARTIN

Race is viewed here as socially, politically, and relationally constructed so that issues of margin

alization, power, dominance, and devalued social status assume prominence.

Steele, 1992).

Moreover, to disregard issues of race for the sake of less controver

sial, but far less meaningful, analyses would essentially silence the voices of Afri

can American parents and others who take seriously their advocacy roles for Afri

can American children (Delpit, 1995; Lareau, 1987; Lareau & Horvat, 1999).

Admittedly, the dialectic between racialized experience on one hand and adap

tive responses by African American parents on the other is both interesting and

complicated. Within the broader literature on African Americans and schooling,

this dialectic is one that has often received ineffectual or controversial treatment

(e.g., Ogbu, 1978, 1988, 1990, 2003). Discussions are typically framed within a

deficit perspective, finding fault with those cultural norms and adaptive behaviors

that do not conform to a single, normative notion of good parenting and advocacy.

Moreover, these same studies of African American parental practices and family

socialization rely on frameworks that are related, explicitly or implicitly, to one of

two questions: Do the supposedly deviant cultural norms and parenting behaviors

give rise to differential treatment and subjugation, or does racism and differential

treatment give rise to so-called deviant cultural norms and parental behaviors? In

my view, both of these questions do a disservice to African American parents. The

first question leads to answers that “blame the victims” for the treatment that they

endure. The second question fails to address within-group variations in the re-

sponses of African American parents, ignoring the fact that, despite negative expe-

riences, many African American parents exhibit positive agency and advocacy on

behalf of their children, historically and in contemporary times (J. Anderson,

1988; Clark, 1983; Harding, 1981; Lareau, 1987; Lareau & Horvat, 1999; Martin,

2000).

Within mathematics education, research on African American parents is scarce.

Although recent educational (e.g., Rutherford, Anderson, & Billig, 1997) and

math education reform documents (Nation Council of Teachers of Mathematics,

2000) have identified increased parental involvement as an important goal to be

achieved, I argue that underlying these calls is a normative notion of White, mid

dle-class parents as all parents. I make this claim knowing that extant mathematics

education research, with a few notable exceptions, has failed to present sufficiently

detailed characterizations of the mathematical beliefs, experiences, and advocacy

practices of parents of color. What are their theories of mathematics learning and

participation? In my view, it would be incorrect to suggest that what a majority of

White, middle-class, or politically powerful parents want for their children is what

they also desire for African American, Latino, Native American, and poor children

(e.g., Becker & Jacob, 2000). I argue that what most of these parents want for their

children’s mathematical educations are those things that are better than what is

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 199

Because I do not wish to perpetuate essentialist perspectives of African American experiences,

race is but one of many factors that I consider in my research with African Americans. My argument

here is aimed at those who would advocate consideration of any factor except race.

provided to African American, Latino, Native American, and poor children to

maintain any advantages that their children might enjoy. Consider the following

statement by Gilmer (2001):

People who receive status from their kids performing well in school do not like the

idea that other kids’performance might be raised to the level of their own kids (Kohn

1998). They are not concerned that all children learn but that their children learn.

They see school not as a place for learning but as a place for accumulating creden

tials. Often these are predominately white, middle-class parents of high achieving

students. These parents might be some of the community’s most outspoken and influ

ential members … . With their substantial political power, they fight efforts to create

more heterogeneous and inclusive classrooms—preferring instead ability grouping,

gifted and talented programs, honours courses and a tracking system that keeps virtu

ally every child of colour out of advanced classes … . Arguably, their agenda has lit

tle to do with meeting children’s needs. (p. 86)

Although not specific to mathematics, a recent example from the San Francisco

Unified School District also sheds some light on this issue. According to a June 28,

2004, article in the San Francisco Chronicle (Knight, 2004), more than 50% of the

students at Newcomer High School, located in the wealthy Pacific Heights neigh-

borhood of San Francisco, are Chinese or Chinese American. During a recent

Board of Education meeting, discussion focused on the sharing of the Newcomer

building with students from another high school. After listening to a string of New-

comer parents express their unwillingness to share the school with the incoming

students—mostly African American and Latino—the African American superin-

tendent, Arlene Ackerman, chastised the parents. According to the Chronicle:

It was just the latest rebuke from Ackerman to those she sees as promoting racist

agendas, however subtle. She says racist motivations undermine her mission of im

proving the achievement of all students, especially African American and Latino

children, and she refuses to sit back and say nothing. “This is my perspective as an

African American living in this country for some five decades, OK? … I understand

racist behaviors and racist policies when I see them. It’s the elephant in the room that

none of us will talk about. I’m really disappointed, and the minute you bring it up, ev

erybody gets offended … . I’m now saying enough is enough. I’m going to call it the

way I see it.” (pp. B1, B5)

What this episode and Gilmer’s example demonstrate is that African American

parents often do not control the political discourse on education, nor do those at the

forefront of reform actively seek out African American parents (Becker & Jacob,

2000). Rather, their voices are often marginalized. Moreover, many policies and

practices that are developed in the name of being race-neutral and color-blind can

be detrimental to African American parents and their children because such poli

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MARTIN

cies often assume that everyone is starting off in the same place when, in fact, race

is often used as a factor to keep some groups farther behind (Bonilla-Silva, 1997,

2001).

It is true that race has been highlighted as an important “variable” in many re

ports on differential mathematics achievement and persistence among various stu

dent groups. These studies, however, often fail to unpack the term race beyond its

use as a descriptor for group membership (e.g., Campbell, Hombo, & Mazzeo,

2000; Johnson, 1989; Lubienski, 2001, 2002; Reyes & Stanic, 1988; Secada, 1992;

Tate, 1997). Race rarely, if ever, appears as a social construct open to contestation,

resistance, and agency (Auerbach, 2002; Lewis, 2003a, 2003b). Few studies in

mathematics education consider the interaction of race, as a social construct, with

documented causal variables (Holland, 2001). Another reason that race remains

undertheorized in mathematics education is that most studies of achievement and

persistence focus on children and adolescents, many of whom cannot, or do not,

provide articulate or detailed perspectives on issues of race and mathematics.

Moreover, many survey studies, for example, do not probe far enough beneath the

“surface talk” to uncover the deeper meanings and beliefs that reflect experiences

of differential treatment and denied opportunity in school mathematics.

In this article, I address some of the theoretical and practical limitations of the

concept of race as it has been dealt with in mathematics education research. First,

rather than consider race as merely a label for group membership, I explore the so-

cially constructed meanings for race and the consequences of these meanings in

the daily lives of African American parents and their children. I pay particular at-

tention to how racialization processes (Ginwright, 2004; Haynes & Comer, 1990;

Lewis, 2003a, 2003b; Lipman, 1998; Omi & Winant, 1994) operate and are con-

tested in school and nonschool contexts where knowledge of mathematics is cen

tral. That is, rather than focus on race as the central category of analysis, this article

centers on an analysis of its consequences: racism, racialized experience, and

racialized inequality. Second, I show, via the parents in my research, that the social

devaluing of their African American status and their subsequent treatment makes

African American status a salient marker for participation in mathematics. Else

where, I further explain how this social devaluation, and responses to it, influence

the formation of identities of participation and nonparticipation in mathematics

(Martin, in press).

In proposing my conceptualization of mathematics learning and participation

as racialized forms of experience, I am well aware that it is potentially subject to

the same kind of resistance from the larger mathematics education community that

has been well-documented among many White preservice and in-service teachers

(e.g., Sleeter, 1993) when issues of race are introduced into conversations about

students of color. Although my discussion in this article is confined to African

Americans, elsewhere (Martin, under review) I discuss how White, Latino, Native

Americans, and Asian American subgroups also experience mathemetics learning

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 201

and participation as racialized forms of experience. Characteristically, research

that focuses on race is often viewed as nonrigorous, inflammatory, and ideological,

whereas research that is vested in subject matter concerns or curriculum and that

ignores the murkiness and complexity of sociocontextual forces is often canon

ized. As a result, the idea that teaching and curriculum design can contribute to

these racialized experiences and that disparate achievement and persistence out

comes merely reflect this racialization (e.g., Oakes, Joseph, & Muir, 2001; Solór

zano & Ornelas, 2002, 2004; Tate, 1995a, 1995b) is rarely considered by many

mainstream math education researchers. This, in turn, can lead to the belief that dif

ferential outcomes in mathematics achievement and persistence are best remedied

by focusing on “good teaching” and reform-oriented curriculum.

KEY THEMES AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS

In the following, I focus on three themes that consistently emerged across my in-

terviews and interactions with a select group of African American parents. First, I

have found that many African American parents situate their struggle for mathe-

matics literacy within race-based frameworks that they believe characterize their

lives and their children’s lives, as both African Americans and learners of mathe-

matics. In stating their views, many of the parents expressed a kind of racial real-

ism (Bell, 1992), signaling a belief that race will always be a salient marker for

meaningful participation in society at large and mathematics in particular. Second,

although discriminatory experiences in a wide range of mathematical contexts had

the potential to overwhelm and subjugate these parents, many were able to resist

this subjugation—utilizing a variety of agency-related behaviors—often based on

a belief that mathematics knowledge is an important liberatory tool to help under

stand and change the circumstances of their lives and communities (see Franken

stein, 1990, 1994; Gutstein, 2003; Martin, 2000, 2003). This resistant behavior

was also reflected in their theories and beliefs about the need to expose African

American children to role models in mathematics to overcome negative thinking

that mathematics is for others and that who does and does not do mathematics is

determined by race. Third, (re)investment in mathematics and (re)assuming the

role of mathematics learner can serve as a basis for meaningful parent agency and

advocacy in mathematics education (Anhalt et al., 2002; Civil et al., 2000; Civil et

al., 2003; Martin, 2000, 2002, 2003).

Conceptually, what parents had to say in their own words aligns with the theo

retical perspectives of critical mathematics educators (e.g., S. Anderson, 1990;

Frankenstein, 1990, 1994; Gutstein, 2003; Gutstein & Peterson, 2005; Moses,

1994; Moses & Cobb, 2001; Skovsmose, 1994; Skovsmose & Valero, 2001;

Stanic, 1989; Tate & Rousseau, 2002; Thomas, 2001), many of whom focus on so

cial justice issues and the sociocultural context of mathematics education by high

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MARTIN

lighting factors that extend beyond the school: history, politics, language, cultural

values, gender roles, and internationalization and globalization, to name a few.

African American parents’ views also closely align with perspectives outside of

mathematics education, for example Critical Race Theory (CRT), as it has been

applied to education (e.g., Auerbach, 2002; Bernal, 2002; Delgado & Stefancic,

2001; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Parker, 1998; Parker

& Lynn, 2002; Rolon-Dow, 2005; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). CRT

represents a paradigm shift in discourse about race and racism in education. CRT

consists of basic insights, perspectives, methods, and pedagogies that seek to iden

tify, analyze, and transform the structural and cultural aspects of education that

maintain subordinate and dominant racial positions in and out of the classroom.

(Solórzano & Ornelas, 2002, p. 219)

There are at least five defining elements of CRT: (a) the centrality of race and rac

ism, (b) the challenge to dominant ideology, (c) a commitment to social justice, (d)

the centrality of the experiential knowledge of people of color in understanding ra-

cial subordination, and (e) analyzing race and racism in historical and interdisci-

plinary context (Parker, 2004; Solórzano & Ornelas, 2002). Although the themes

and methods are not new, Solórzano and Ornelas claimed

they represent a collective challenge to the existing methods of conducting research

on race and inequality. Indeed, using CRT in education is different from other critical

frameworks because it simultaneously tries to (a) foreground race and racism in the

curriculum, (b) challenge traditional paradigms, methods, texts and separate dis-

course on race, gender, and class by showing how these social constructs intersect to

impact students of color, (c) help us focus on the racialized and gendered experiences

of students of color. (p. 219)

CRT often relies on storytelling and counternarrative to bring forth these issues

(Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).

Racialization of Mathematics Learning and Participation

Vis-á-Vis Cultural Perspectives on Mathematics

In raising questions about the racialized nature of mathematics learning, I concur

with I. H. Lopez (2000), who argued that using the “language of race forces us to

look to the pronounced effects on minority communities of longstanding practices

of racial discrimination” (p. 376). Viewing mathematics learning and participation

as racialized forms of experience contrasts with two other common conceptualiza

tions found in the literature, neither of which deals explicitly with issues of race:

mathematics as context and culture-free on one hand and the doing of mathematics

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 203

as situated or cultural activity on the other. The former approach is based on as

sumptions about the universality of mathematics content and a belief that this con

tent is accessible to anyone, regardless of social, ethnic, or economic background. I

argue that views of mathematics as context-free and culture-free often omit discus

sion of or deny the effects of the racialized experiences of African Americans in

mathematics learning and participation.

Gilmer (2001) commented on this point

of view and its impact on African American students:

The notion that mathematics is culturally neutral … [leads] subsequently to a school

mathematics curriculum devoid of contexts. So while mathematics educators ac

knowledged the universality of truth of mathematical ideas—such as the sum of the

angles of a triangle in a plane is 180 degrees—this knowledge was divorced from the

cultural bases that gave rise to it. For many reasons, such a curriculum has had devas

tating effects on the representation of African Americans and others in mathematical

studies and careers. (p. 80)

In contrast, the situated approach has appeared in the literature in at least two

ways. First, researchers focusing on mathematics activity in the classroom have

highlighted the coconstruction of mathematical knowledge and sociomathemat-

ical norms along with the negotiation of mathematical meanings among teachers

and students (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Cobb, 2000; Cobb & Bowers,

1999; Cobb, Yackel, & Wood, 1992; Lave & Wegner, 1991). Missing from the

studies in this perspective are analyses of power (Apple, 1993, 1995, 1999)

and status differentials (i.e., whose knowledge and knowledge contributions are

viewed as more valuable) and analyses that focus on how the negotiation of mathe-

matical norms in the classroom mimics and reproduces the larger social relations

that exist outside of mathematics classroom (i.e., are some children shut out of the

process). We are often led to believe that children are valued equally and that activ

ities in these mathematics classrooms unfold in a color-blind manner. The achieve

ment and persistence trends cited earlier clearly demonstrate, however, that not all

children experience school mathematics equitably.

Second, there is a growing body of research devoted to ethnomathematics—the

study of mathematical techniques used by identifiable cultural groups in under

standing, explaining, and managing problems and activities arising in their own

environment (D’Ambrosio, 1985, 1990, 2001; Powell & Frankenstein, 1997).

Gilmer (2001) provided a summary of the ethnomathematical approach:

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My critique of the culture-free and context-free perspectives is not meant to imply that African

American students cannot learn mathematics that is devoid of context. As the narratives presented later

in this article illustrate, the racialized experience of African Americans in schools is the main impedi

ment to achievement, not whether the mathematics is taught according to Standards or back-to-basics

approaches (Martin, 2003). I thank Arthur Powell for his commentary on this particular section of the

article.

Researchers in ethnomathematics tend to examine how people learn and use mathe

matics in distinct cultures and in everyday situations within cultures … . In this con

text, we may think of culture as acquired knowledge transmitted among groups. It is

shared meaning but not necessarily consensus. It includes taken-for-granted values

and beliefs seen in what people do, what they know, and the tools they use … . From

this concept of culture, race is not a proxy for culture and “ethno” in ethno

mathematics is not a proxy for ethnic. Since ethnomathematics is oriented to the

masses and the multitude of ways in which mathematical ideas are used on a regular

basis in the community, the concept expands our understanding of what mathematics

is and of who creates it. In ethnomathematics, the focus is on the concepts and tech

niques actually used by a cultural group rather than the possible mathematical theo

ries available (Barton 1985). The concepts and techniques are usually learned with

out formal schooling but are actively transmitted from one generation to another.

Through this cultural interaction, there develops an instinctive kind of common

mathematical knowledge among adults and children who belong to the same cultural

group (Gilmer 1985). (p. 80)

Powell and Frankenstein (n.d.), citing D’Ambrosio (2001), highlighted the po-

litical nature of ethnomathematics:

Beside this anthropological character, ethnomathematics has an indisputable politi-

cal focus. Ethnomathematics is imbued with ethics, focused on the recuperation of

cultural dignity of human beings. The dignity of the individual is violated by social

exclusion that often causes one not to pass discriminatory barriers established by the

dominate society, including and, principally, in schools. (p. 9, our translation)

What is significant about the ethnomathematical perspective is that it does not

privilege the statusof school mathematicalpractices, which are often used tosort and

stratify students along many different lines. Moreover, it is grounded in the history

and experiencesof cultural groups. Unlike most mainstream mathematics education

research, however, research in this perspective also attempts to unpack the concept

ofrace to explainhowitoperates in the livesof mathematics learners (Powell,2002).

RESEARCH CONTEXT

To address the three questions that I raised previously—(a) in what ways can math

ematics learning, participation, and the struggle for mathematics literacy be con

ceptualized as racialized forms of experience; (b) based on their desires for equal

treatment and meaningful participation in all aspects of life, and their frequent ex

periences to the contrary, what do the narratives of African American parents re

veal about their struggles for themselves and for their children in the context of

mathematics; and (c) how do African American parents respond to these racialized

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 205

constructions of their own and their children’s mathematical experiences?—I pres

ent data from three ethnographic participant observation studies designed to ex

plore the factors contributing to mathematics success and failure among African

American youth (Martin, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, in press).

The studies took place in Oakland, Richmond, and San Pablo, California, over a

time period covering 1994 to the present. The first study, the author’s dissertation,

is described in Martin (2000). Work presented here is from the second and third

studies, which build on the earlier work in Martin (2000). For all three studies, the

participants were African American adults, adolescents, and teachers of African

American students. All three studies relied on a grounded theory approach (Glaser

& Strauss, 1967). Data collection included field notes from middle school class

rooms; interviews of more than 100 student, parent, and adult community mem

bers who were identified using convenience sampling or who were self-selected

based on posted and hand-distributed solicitations for the study; and teaching ob

servations in community college mathematics classrooms ranging from arithmetic

to differential equations. In analyzing the parent and adult community member

audiotaped interviews, which lasted anywhere from 1 to 4½ hr and took place in

homes and other community settings, I utilized content analysis and iterative cod-

ing methods to uncover themes relating to the participants’ experiences in and be-

liefs about mathematics and their beliefs about being African American. Questions

solicited information ranging from early life, family, and school experiences to

mathematical experiences in and out of school. All interviews were listened to at

least twice for emergent themes. These themes were analyzed for both uniqueness

as well as any consistency across participants.

To better understand how students and parents experienced mathematics, I fo-

cused on what I called mathematics socialization. Mathematics socialization re

fers to the experiences that individuals and groups have within a variety of contexts

such as school, family, peer groups, and the workplace and that facilitate, legiti

mize, or inhibit meaningful participation in mathematics. To understand how their

mathematical experiences were internalized at a psychological level, I focused on

the construction of mathematics identities. Mathematics identity refers to the dis

positions and deeply held beliefs that individuals develop, within their overall

self-concept, about their ability to participate and perform effectively in mathe

matical contexts and to use mathematics to change the conditions of their lives. A

mathematics identity encompasses a person’s self-understanding of himself or

herself in the context of doing mathematics (i.e., usually a choice between a com

petent performer who is able to do mathematics or an incompetent performer un

able to do mathematics, but often flowing back and forth). It also encompasses

how others “construct” us in relation to mathematics. As a result, a mathematics

identity is expressed in its narrative form

as a negotiated self, the results of our

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Some researchers—Sfard and Prusak (2005)—defined identity as narrative, equating the two. Oth

ers—McAdams (2001)—defined identity as internalized life stories.

own assertions and the sometimes-contested external ascriptions of others. The de

velopment of particular kinds of mathematics identities reflects how mathematics

socialization experiences are interpreted and internalized to shape people’s beliefs

about mathematics and themselves as doers of mathematics.

Because I wanted to contextualize my findings about mathematics learning and

persistence, I decided to incorporate several different levels of analysis—socio

historical, community, school, and individual (see Martin, 2000). This approach

allows for a better understanding of the dialectal relationship between racialized

experience viewed sociohistorically and racialized experience as it plays out in

contemporary settings and in the everyday experiences of African American par

ents and their children (Lewis, 2003a, 2003b; Noguera, 2003; Omi & Winant,

1994). My efforts at the community level were largely focused on documenting the

variety of ways that African American parents and adult community members

shape and influence the mathematical beliefs and dispositions of children as a

function of their own experiences in mathematics. I also wanted to explore the ad

vocacy practices of parents and the kinds of relationships that they developed with

school officials and teachers. In doing so, my goal was not to confirm any presup-

positions about the parents. Rather, I wanted to understand, from their point of

view and in their own voices, the meanings they attached to mathematics learning

and their struggles for mathematics literacy.

Although I have generally tried to include African American parents and adults

from the larger communities, a great deal of my research has focused on parents in

the community college setting where I taught mathematics for 14 years. The Afri-

can American parents that I encountered at the college were from varied socioeco-

nomic and educational backgrounds. Many grew up in the local communities and

are products of the local schools, most of which have experienced long-term prob

lems typically affecting urban schools.

Long before any of my research projects began, I had heard more than a few of

my African American students talk about their prior mathematical experiences in

mostly negative ways. These discussions were often couched within discussions of

their negative experiences and treatment as African Americans. For many stu

dents, the tension of these experiences is often heightened because they face the

prospect of re-enrolling in mathematics courses as a prerequisite to their new edu

cational and socioeconomic goals. It was this convergence of experiences that al

lowed me to explore African American parent views about mathematics learning

and their struggles for mathematics literacy.

My years of teaching mathematics to African Americans parents and other

adults have convinced me that deficit-based characterizations lack complexity.

These deficit-based perspectives are also often ahistorical in nature in that they ig

nore the long history of individual and collective educational activism and advo

cacy by African American parents (e.g., J. Anderson, 1988; Harding, 1981).

In contrast to the deficit approaches, my work has been motivated by a commit

ment to view these parents as insightful commentators, critics, and theory builders

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 207

fully capable of expressing their desires to obtain quality and equitable mathemati

cal educations and opportunities for their children.

AFRICAN AMERICAN PARENTS SPEAK

ON THE STRUGGLE FOR MATHEMATICS LITERACY

Elsewhere (Martin, 2000, 2002, 2004), I have used in-depth case studies to present

parental beliefs and views. This allowed for detailed study of a few representative

individuals. In presenting the following data, I use a combination of abbreviated

case studies and excerpts from other narratives to illustrate the themes highlighted

earlier: (a) many African American parents situate their struggle for mathematics

literacy within race-based frameworks that they believe characterize their lives and

their children’s lives, as both African Americans and learners of mathematics; (b)

although discriminatory experiences in a wide range of mathematical contexts had

the potential to overwhelm and subjugate these parents, many were able to resist

this subjugation—utilizing a variety of agency-related behaviors; and (c) (re)in-

vestment in mathematics and (re)assuming the role of mathematics learner can

serve as a basis for meaningful parent agency and advocacy in mathematics educa-

tion. The narratives should not be viewed as definitive characterizations of all Afri-

can Americans. Moreover, I acknowledge that the stories that I tell about racialized

experience in mathematics are reflective of my own construction, given the ar-

rangement and use of selected portions of the participants’ words. In this light, the

narratives should also be viewed by readers as serving another purpose: to raise

critical questions about the role of race in mathematics learning and participation

so that sustained and serious conversations can continue to take place, allowing for

race—beyond any novelty assigned to it—to become central in conversations

about mathematics education for African Americans.

Theme One: The Centrality of Race and Racism

During the interviews, some of which lasted up to 4½ hr, the discussion flowed

across a number of areas: overall life experiences, family and educational history,

early mathematics learning, childrearing or assistance, work-related experiences,

higher education experiences, and socioeconomic and educational goals, to name a

few. That race was central in constructing meanings for their experience was no

surprise. What was surprising was the clarity and vividness in which parents de

scribed how race factored into their mathematical experiences and the fact that

many of these parents had internalized their racialized experiences and were still

affected by them. Despite their treatment, many of the narratives highlighted par

ents’ willingness to challenge, in words and actions, what they viewed as the domi

nant ideology: the inferiority of African Americans. A few challenged this ideol

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ogy by working within the school context. Others left the system altogether. Others

created home contexts that provided academic support for their children. Many of

these parents also referred to the historical plight of African Americans in the

United States and how elements of this history continues to manifest itself today.

For them, fighting against and resisting their subordination was not just about

gaining access to mathematics or getting math-related jobs, but more about issues

of social justice, equal treatment, and fairness for themselves and their children.

Consider the case of Raheem,

who I use as a focal example. Raheem was a

35-year-old, married African American father of one. Although Raheem’s daugh

ter had not yet entered school, I include his comments because, in his role as a

teacher and community activist, he had also served as a surrogate parent and care

taker to many African American children. Raheem had attended the community

college several years earlier and subsequently graduated from the University of

California as a history major. At the time of the interview, he was enrolled in

a teacher credential program at a local state university. Before enrolling in the

credential program, Raheem had worked as a teacher’s aide in Los Angeles, Oak-

land, and Richmond. Having passed the California Basic Education Skills Test

(CBEST), he was also able to work as a substitute teacher. Raheem was very much

an activist in spirit and action, as evidenced by a run for the local school board. For

him, the world appeared to be divided along racial lines in almost all respects. He

frequently contrasted African American and White lifestyles and experiences. On

most occasions, he identified people and events using race as a salient marker. In

terms of his teaching career, Raheem made it clear that he was determined to con-

tinue teaching in African American communities so that African American chil-

dren could see teachers who looked like them and so that they could be taught in a

racially conscious and uplifting way, something that he believed many White

teachers did not do. Raheem developed this goal after reflecting on his own lack of

exposure to African American teachers as well as a belief that the images and mes

sages that he had been exposed to about African Americans were distorted and

used to further suppress African Americans:

Raheem: I grew up in North Richmond, and I’m not sure if you are familiar with

North Richmond, it is considered the most depressed area in the city of

Richmond. And I went to the elementary school in the neighborhood as

well … . I didn’t see Black people in positions of power, authority. You

know. I grew up seeing the “Brady Bunch” on television, “Leave It to

Beaver” on the television, “Happy Days,” the “Partridge Family.” So I

grew up looking at the images of families that were pretty much intact

and had more going for them than I saw in my community. So that was

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 209

All names used throughout are pseudonyms.

sort of like my contrast there. Seeing that, I’d be honest, I used to think

that White people just naturally had it better than we did, and that was

the way it was meant to be … . I’ll be honest, I thought that Black peo

ple were inferior and White people were superior because of what I

saw in the world around me. And then also as a child growing up, I can

count on 1, just about 1 hand the Black teachers that I had. I look back

and reflect on the way I thought, in the way I perceived things. That had

an impact on the way I felt about my own people. I saw people that

were not Black as my teachers. So that made me self-consciously come

on with the thought that Black people are just not that smart. White

people are smarter than us. That’s why most of my teachers are White.

Raheem’s racialized framing of his early life experiences is helpful as a back

drop when the focus turns to mathematics. Despite having excelled at mathematics

in earlier grades and barely missing out on early placement in algebra, Raheem in

dicated that he struggled with mathematics from the eighth grade onwards, having

lost interest. To say that Raheem struggled with mathematics is somewhat mis-

leading, however. It is probably more accurate to say that he struggled with the

boredom that he had to endure after a decision was made about his mathematical

future. Reflecting on his trajectory in mathematics, Raheem recounted to me how,

years later, he discovered that he had been intentionally overlooked for early place-

ment in algebra, but not by mistake, as he had been told by his White teacher at the

time:

Raheem: I always liked math. I was in a 3rd grade class and I was running circles

around other students in math. I was just taking tests and getting A’s

like it wasn’t nothing ….Iwasinamath class, a regular math class in

the 7th grade, and I got a B the first quarter and all A’s the other 3 quar

ters in math. And not only that, but whenever Ms. Berks asked a ques

tion in the classroom, my hand was usually the first hand to go up and it

was so obvious that Ms. Berks would call on the other students first to

give them a chance to answer. If they didn’t get it, then she would come

to me and let me give the correct answer. And the only other student in

the classroom whom I thought of was Bruce. He was a White student

who wore braces and he got an A all 4 quarters but Bruce hardly ever

answered questions. Even if he did answer questions, he never beat me

with raising my hand. Part of it was I was always very competitive so I

liked to show what I could do. So anyway I remember Ms. Berks at the

end of the school year telling me that she made a mistake not putting

me in the algebra class in the 8th grade. And I remember her telling me

this and not realizing what algebra was and I was just, “Oh well, no big

deal to me.”

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To justify his claims that race played a factor, Raheem made reference to the

fact that Bruce, his White classmate, was given access to algebra:

Raheem: But she put Bruce in algebra, I remember she said she should have put

me in algebra also. I thought she was saying that because I used to raise

my hand all the time and because I got the A’s the rest of the 3 quarters.

But the first time I really found out why she made that decision was

when I requested my school records this past summer. When I re

quested my school records, I found out that in the 7th grade, I scored in

the 90th percentile for mathematics. And this is the 7th grade. So Ms.

Berks as a teacher should have seen this. And when I read that and saw

that I got in the 90th percentile, I was angry. I was like “Man, I should

have been further. I should have been pushed further along in math than

what I was.” And I tell you man, no way in hell I should I have been put

in a regular math class … . But anyway that’s to me an example of the

fact that Black children, even when you do well, your educational fu-

ture is not planned out properly for you … . When I took math in the

8th grade, because it was a regular math class, I got all Bs that year.

And part of the reason why I got all Bs, I was bored as hell in that class.

It was the first time I ever remember hating math … . I mean it was a

pain to sit there through that. Not only was it the same work that I did

already and knew how to do, the teacher didn’t do much for me. I can’t

remember his name, but I do know he was a White male and me and

him, I don’t recall really hitting it off and he didn’t give me any interest

in math. But by the time I got to algebra in the 9th grade, I had kinda

lost interest in math.

Raheem’s experiences were not unique. Other parents revealed similar epi

sodes, making references to their encounters with (White) teachers whom they be

lieved had steered them out of mathematics or having had experiences that con

veyed the message that participating in mathematics was for others and not for

African Americans. Raquel was a 39-year-old African American mother taking

classes in nursing:

Raquel: I was in high school, it was in the 9th grade, and I had a teacher, I’ll

never forget his name … . I’ll never forget him. I had a C in algebra the

first semester and I had a D the second and he told me, “This is as far as

you can go in math.” I never took another math class from that point on

till I came to Cal State Hayward.

DM: And you bought into it?

Raquel: Why wouldn’t I? I am a 15-year-old Black student and my teacher’s,

whatever race he is, a White male, and you know he’s telling me “This

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 211

is it. You’ve gone as far as you can go.” He didn’t have any patience. It

wasn’t like “Maybe you need to look into another class, maybe another

teacher, maybe another method of instruction.” You know, it wasn’t

stressed, it just wasn’t.

DM: So, now I guess you have this emerging idea of the importance of math,

and how it really relates. And the fact that you stopped in the 9th grade,

do you feel like you had been hurt in any way to not have that math?

Raquel: Oh yes. I really wanted to sue my school district at one point.

DM: Really?

Raquel: Yeah, it’s just a fantasy. I mean I’m not going to do that, obviously. Be

cause I felt that it was a disservice to me, I went through school on a

false pretense that I was okay and I wasn’t okay. And I felt that I wasn’t

educated.

Larry was a 29-year-old fatherof one child who wasenrolled in a local elementary

school. Larry was a social science major who had completed, or attempted to com-

plete, several math classes ranging from arithmetic to statistics. His goal was to

transfer to a 4-year university and eventually become a writer or teacher. Larry was a

student whose struggle with mathematics was lifelong, including his current

coursework. At one point in his early schooling, Larry had been labeled as gifted. He

transferred from the local schools to a nearby wealthy, mostly White school district

for a short time and characterized his experiences at both schools by saying that he

had been both “the smartest of the dumb and the dumbest of the smart.” Although he

was labeled as gifted very early in his schooling, Larry still struggled, consistently

receivinglow grades and neverreally feelingsatisfied with his education. Because of

his poor performance, he was eventually removed from the gifted track:

Larry: I tested very high as a youth and so thus I got put in special programs.

You’re in inner city schools but they send you to another class where

they celebrated learning and all of that stuff like that. But then at a certain

point, I never got good grades. I could always verbally talk but I could

never write that well. I don’t mean the art of writing or composition. I

mean my handwriting and everything was so terrible. I was spelling

things backwards all that kind of stuff. So, they basically told me, kicked

me out of the program and then basically said, “You’re not gifted any

more.” I failed all of high school. I mean I basically felt like they passed

me just because I was 18. I think they just wanted to get rid of me.

When I asked Larry if he thought his experience of being removed from the

gifted program was unique or whether he believed it was a common experience for

African American children of high ability to be identified and nurtured, his com

ments were very similar to those of Raheem and Raquel:

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DM: Do you feel that African American children are often identified as be

ing the best and the brightest?

Larry: No. I think a lot of times they are overlooked, or whatever as being the

best and the brightest. Yep. But a lot of times their teachers really don’t

recognize where they’re from and don’t see what this child has been

through or is like “This kid can’t even do basic math.” Yet this kid is

more gifted than some kid whose parents and everybody else has been

showing him stuff and even overhearing it his whole life. And so they

get overlooked that way. A lot. Way too much. It’s the same thing with

a lot of kids now. They get labeled as behavior problems. And a lot of

those kids probably they are bored or either fed up or disgusted or you

know, whatever, with the situation and they need a more interactive

style of dealing with the classroom situation.

When the conversation turned to mathematics, Larry generated several explana

tions for his own aversion to mathematics as well as for underachievement and lim-

ited persistence among African Americans in general. Larry’s explanations were

grounded in history and also referenced the impact of teachers and what many re-

searchers have called cultural capital:

Larry: Because, I don’t know. I don’t have the confidence, I feel in math be-

cause I’ve had lots of bad experiences with math. I’ve lost jobs over

math. They start training you and you get to a certain point. I just have

an anxiety attack right there at the job. Just like “I can’t do this, you

know?” Obviously my life has kinda shown you gotta have math to ex-

cel, I feel. It shuts off a lot of doors for you if you don’t do well at it.

Larry: If you’ve got the history of not doing well. I mean African Americans

were not even allowed in math and sciences in certain colleges for a

long time. You got historically not being exposed to math. Like my par

ents. How are they gonna? I mean when I was with other kids in high

school, their parents are like doctors, scientists, you know, newspaper

writers. And all these people went to college. They all had to take some

type of higher math and they all know what college represents and they

all got to push it all strongly on their children. And their children see

that their parents do it, can do it, have done it, brother, sister, mother,

grandparents, have done it. It’s like ice-skating downhill. It’s not

ice-skating uphill.

Chantal was a mother of two elementary school children. Like many of the

other parents, she, too, had internalized the belief that African Americans do not

readily identify with mathematics as “ours” and that seeing African Americans

who actually do mathematics would go a long way in changing these beliefs and

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 213

stereotypes. She makes reference to Kaleel, one of the few African American

mathematics tutors at the college, to make her case. His outward appearance did

not fit the “image” of someone who was talented in mathematics. He often wore a

large coat, a scarf on his head, or his hair in braids. Over the years, Kaleel had

worked in the tutoring center and was a tutor in the math and science honors pro

gram as well as the Equal Opportunity Program. He had attracted a large following

of African American students, who utilized his services through several of their

courses. Many young African American men on campus were like Kaleel, in terms

of outward appearance. And because of stereotypes and presumptions about who

can and cannot do mathematics, many of these young men are often overlooked by

society as potential scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, and their potential

status as role models in mathematics is diminished. For Chantal, these role models

are essential in helping African Americans establish ownership of the idea that

mathematics is something in which they can participate:

Chantal: Because a lot of Black people that I’ve come encountered, we all like

basically have the same stories, there’s a phobia about math that must

come from probably further back than I would even care to remember.

Stereotypes, you know. People automatically think that if you are

Asian you can do math, you know and that’s not true. Kaleel for in-

stance. You see Kaleel out on the street, that’s the furthest thing from

your mind, is that this brother is brilliant in math. And that has a way of

influencing our kids … . But a lot of people don’t get this opportunity

to meet someone like that and using math … . I think we’re going to

have to have more Black role models, more Black people like you to go

into the communities and maybe go to different community centers

and get together a math group. If you’re having trouble with math, this

group meets at this time. Parents would have to be involved. Taking

them there so they could get these skills. And I think that would, like a

snowball, you know, gradually build up over years where we would

have a race of Black people that aren’t scared of math … . With Black

people, we’re going to have to find a connection, that would connect us

[to math] like this is ours, because right now, I don’t think that Black

people look at math as being ours. You know, this is something we

don’t feel like we’re good at. It’s because it’s not ours. And we were us

ing math back in Africa.

Larry also commented on this notion of mathematics as being “ours” versus

“someone else’s.” Commenting on classrooms that are populated mainly by stu

dents of color but taught mostly by White teachers, Larry was critical of how these

teaching classroom interactions often perpetuated the superiority of Whites in ar

eas like mathematics and science:

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Larry: In the community where so many people just don’t know, and don’t un

derstand the point of higher math or higher education, then you’re go

ing to have to have places where people look like those students come

back to their community, teach these kids to be excited about math. We

had a guy named Mr. Smith, who came to my elementary and we use to

call him Mr. Einstein. Still it was like he came in and was still basically

a White guy coming into a Black school doing magic. That’s how it

was to me. It wasn’t like you know someone I could really relate to or

whatever, you know. He’s from over there and that’s what they do. It’s

not what we do.

Amber was a 32-year-old African American mother. She attended ethnically di

verse private schools before transferring to an Oakland high school. After transfer

ring, Amber’s past academic accomplishments, including having already taken al

gebra, were nullified by her experiences at this new school. Rather than make room

for her in the appropriate advanced classes, she was placed in unacceptable alter-

natives. Following, readers can see how Amber resisted this situation and exer-

cised her agency to fight back:

Amber: Everyone got bussed in. It was supposed to be great … . I went up there

and I’m a year ahead of everybody because I came from a private

school [but] they’re going try to hold me back a year because they said

all of their classes were filled for the classes I needed to graduate. Now

in private school I already had Algebra I. I should be going onto trig,

and then algebra II and statistics, leaving out of there. They told me that

trig was full, algebra II was filled and statistics was filled. All the kids,

the people that was in there was Asian and White. So they gave us 2 PE

classes. Why the hell you need 2 PE? I had 2 PE, a dance and an insur

ance class. That was most of my day. And all the people who were in

insurance were Black and Hispanics. Why do I need insurance? … But

I didn’t plan on being a small business person in that kind of business.

It was orientated for someone who was in small business. Everybody

else who wanted to be doctors and lawyers who were the Asians and

Whites, got all the science classes, all the algebra, algebra II, statistics,

trigonometry.

Theme Two: Agency and Resistance

to Racialized Mathematical Experience

One of the limitations of the literature on African American parental practices and

school involvement is that these parents are often portrayed as passive, lacking the

kind of agency and advocacy that is accepted and expected as the norm for White,

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 215

middle-class parents. The practices and behaviors that are idealized—for example,

volunteering in schools and classrooms, helping students with homework, fund-

raising—are those against which all parents are judged. What is not discussed or

conceptualized is the fact that agency for many African American parents can take

alternative forms and may or may not involve direct involvement in the school con

text. If school policies and practices are such that they make schools appear to be

unwelcoming places, these parents may avoid contact with teachers and school of

ficials and choose to engage their energies in other ways. For many African Ameri

can parents, this often includes support of community-based organizations and ef

forts such as church-based academic support. Even in those cases where African

American parents enter the school context, it may be for the purpose of challenging

those practices that are thought to be detrimental to African American children. Or

it might be to insure that the needs of African American students are brought to the

attention of teachers and other school officials. The main point is that those forces

that are often thought to be deterministic—poverty, negative school experiences,

teacher bias, and discrimination in nonschool contexts, for example—are often re-

sisted by African American parents in ways that take into account what they have

learned from their own racialized experiences in life as well as in school.

For example, believing that her progress in school was being stunted and that

the best learning opportunities were being reserved for White and Asian American

students—despite the fact that she was 1 year ahead on transferring—Amber de-

cided that the best way to fight back was to leave the school system altogether. She

dropped out and earned a GED, explaining her decision as follows:

DM: And so when you think back on these classes that had mainly Asians

and Whites in the upper levels, did you notice that back then?

Amber: I knew it right away. They do that because they want to push them

along and keep us back. A lot of the minority students knew this but

they accepted it. I hated it. Why should I accept this, just because I’m a

Black person? This is not fair. You’re advancing them and letting them

advance … . So that’s why I said forget it. “I hate this, I’m leaving.” I

checked out, getting a GED and went ahead and did what I needed to

do.

Keith, a 37-year-old, married father of two boys had taken several steps to in

sure that his children gained access and exposure to educational opportunities out

side of school:

Keith: But we have never had the opportunity or exposure that Whites have.

And what I mean by that, is for example with my own children, my

children have to sleep, eat, and drink education. My wife is at home for

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the specific raising of the children. We could live a lot more affluent

lifestyle, but the issue for us is education. My children are exposed to

things, she, every month she knows all the free places in the Bay Area,

she takes them to the museums, the aquarium, the Lawrence Hall of

Science, so my son can see how math relates to what he is doing right

now….Forexample, my wife never knew about the Berkeley Young

Scholar Program. You told us about that, but because I knew you, you

in turn told me and I in turn told my wife. My wife in turn tries to get,

she’s trying now to get in contact with the program so she can get in

volved with that. So that’s the primary example of exposure … . Her

being involved with his education after school, before school, picking

him up from school, taking him to school, being able to talk to him, in

teract with him. “How’s school going? How are you doing?” Having

someone interact like that and having immediate interest makes a big

difference on how well you will do in school … . In school my wife is

so involved that she grades some of the papers for the teacher. She’ll

help with the hot meals at the school just in case they are short staff. So

there’s a lot of involvement.

Keith also invoked the idea of collective protest in affecting the kind of change

that would result in increased African American participation in mathematics.

This kind of thinking is very similar to Bob Moses’ (Moses & Cobb, 2001) notion

of mathematics literacy as a form of civil rights and stresses the immediacy and ur-

gency of building African American community support for mathematics:

Keith: If African Americans got together down in Silicon Valley, if an African

American group of engineers got together, and say “We’re not going to

stand for this anymore. We want you to now start interviewing African

American supervisors that can work in the engineering capacity for

this firm. We know that they’re out there. But unless you do this, we’re

not coming to work.” … It would change things … [In the past,] you

had African Americans get together, fought, struggled for voting

rights. You had African Americans sit down in the restaurant and say

“We’re not going to the back anymore.” When there’s a struggle that

we’re all knowing about that we can associate with, we get together as

a group and say “We’re not going to stand for it anymore.” Oh yes. If

we were to rally around that and the children knew that their parents

were behind them, the community is behind them, I believe that proba

bly in every major university you would have African Americans tak

ing the lead in math. I never realized that there are African Americans

who did math.

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 217

Keith’s individual efforts, as well as his appeal to collective action, illustrate the

kind of agency and resistance that is often overlooked among African American

parents. Raheem, on the other hand, was committed to changing the school system

from within. His decision to become a teacher, and in many ways infiltrate the

schools, was one of the ways that he was able to invoke agency and resistance and

shatter the destructive messages and psychological images that he believes are pre

sented to African American children:

Raheem: So that’s why I decided to become a teacher, because I want to help too,

plus with that perception in other children’s minds, that Black people

are not intelligent, they’re not capable, their advice and suggestions are

not valid. But if I demonstrate to children that a Black person is intelli

gent and they know what they are talking about, that that will help them

have more confidence in themselves and their own people.

Larry expressed a similar sentiment in expressing his desire to become a

teacher. Like Raheem, he believed that forces within the educational system

worked against African American children, and that because they are often taught

by teachers who do not share their culture, beliefs about their inability to succeed

were allowed to perpetuate:

Larry: You got apathetic teachers. Then you got kids at other schools, like

some African-Centered schools or whatever. They’re learning higher

math at a much earlier age from teachers who believe they could do it at

an early age. They do algebra in elementary or whatever. They believe

they could do it. A lot of these [White] teachers don’t. When you go to

the inner-city school, most of the teachers do not look like the students

there, being Hispanic, Asian, or African American. They may be nice,

good people or whatever. But, for all their efforts, I feel they really

don’t have an understanding of actually who they’re teaching. You

have to love children. A lot of teachers you are teaching by default.

They’re not teaching because they love it, want to do it, or even have a

love for the interest of these children or whatever. The 1 thing, why I

would like to teach, is because I don’t want anybody to go through edu

cation kind of like the way I went through. You shouldn’t have to be al

most 30 before you figure out you can do this. You know, I feel like

someone could have caught this from all these counselors and all these

people. Someone could have helped me out a lot, because I was desper

ate to do well. I just didn’t do well.

Maybe because of his own experiences in mathematics, one of Raheem’s goals

was to complete enough mathematics courses so that he could obtain a single sub

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MARTIN

ject credential and teach mathematics up to the ninth grade. Raheem was con

vinced that more is needed to promote mathematics to African American children

than slogans and disconnected messages. He believed that it was necessary to show

them real examples of African Americans doing mathematics, and one way to do

this was by teaching mathematics. Details of an encounter with a young student

during the time of his assistant teaching helped convince him of this. This encoun

ter also reveals how African American children, even at very young ages, may have

already formulated beliefs about their relationship to mathematics, hinting at the

racialization that is the focus of this article.

Raheem: I remember one student when I was in L.A. One boy was like consid

ered the worst student at the school in terms of his behavior, the way he

acted, always having problems, getting into fights, and also having low

academic skills. I remember talking to him at one time, and explained

to him that he can do the math. I got to the point where I said, “Let me

tell you, there’s Black people who have the ability to do this. Black

people are intelligent people. You are a young Black boy. You should

be able to handle this.” And he looked up at me and said, “If Black peo-

ple are so good at math, if Black people are so smart in everything, how

come they don’t do well in math? How come you don’t see many of

them doing math?” This is a third grade boy saying this to me. And

when he said that to me, I said, “Damn I cannot just come with an opin-

ion with students, with children, I have to come with facts.” … Because

he basically just let me know that “I’m not going by what you say,

you’ve got to show me and prove to me.” His question that he asked me

was the hardest question that any student had ever asked me at that

school. Because when you are a child’s teacher and you are teaching

them science, mathematics, language arts, physical education, chemis

try, whatever subject you are teaching them, every day that that child

comes and sits under you as a pupil, he has been given a visual example

that someone that looks like him can handle this area … . Black people,

since the beginning of time, have been masters of mathematics, so

they’re only doing what they have the God-given talent to handle. So

those are some of the things that I see that need to be given to our chil

dren to let them know that they can go into math.

I also found that Raheem’s resistance to the dominant ideology of African

American inferiority grew out of an analysis of historical context—commenting

on a time when African American children were more likely to have African

American teachers. As he discussed his decision to become a teacher, and the

struggle to earn his credential, he expressed a great deal of frustration about the

structural barriers that he believed have evolved to stand in the way of African

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 219

Americans becoming teachers. In his view, these barriers were a clear indication

that the educational system works against the needs of African American children,

making it even more difficult for African American children to see the kind of pos

itive images referred to previously:

Raheem: During segregation, the teachers who worked in segregated schools,

didn’t have to have any particular credentials to be a teacher. But now

today in order to be a public teacher you have to have a Bachelor’s, you

have to pass the CBEST, you have to get through a credential program

and/or pass that Multiple Subjects Assessment for Teachers if you did

n’t pass those necessary classes as an undergraduate. But those require

ments don’t necessarily mean you’re a good teacher. But one thing it is

saying to me, and other Black people, that unless we get through these

requirements, we’re not qualified to teach our children. And it’s also

saying to us “We are going to put up standards that keep you from

teaching your children. Even though it is having that adverse effect on

the education of your children, we’re still going to leave it in place.” So

it’s telling me that this educational system don’t give a damn about

Black children because it’s allowing the system to perpetuate itself.

That’s causing this demise of our children in the educational system.

And so because of that, I see it as an enemy to the betterment or the im-

provement of Black people.

Raheem’s narrative, like those of Amber, Keith, and Larry, signals varied re-

sponses that African Americans have to their racialized experiences in which they

employ agency and resistance. To suggest that African American parents are passive

recipients of differential and racialized treatment is clearly a false claim. In fact, Af

rican American parents express a wide range of advocacy-related behaviors, inside

and outside of school, that challenge the dominant ideology of African American in

feriority and deficient parenting. This advocacy clearly shows that race (and racism)

is a construct subject to challenge, contestation, and resistance. “Being black” does

not have to mean that African American parents are antiachievement or that they

cannot identify with and strive for equitable participation in mathematics.

Theme Three: Reinvestment in Mathematics

When African American parents come to the community college, they do so for

different reasons. Many are seeking the skills needed to find immediate and mean

ingful employment, and they take vocational courses to achieve that goal. Others

are changing jobs or careers and need to complete a sequence of courses for degree

purposes. Others plan to transfer to a 4-year college or university to pursue more

education. In most of these cases, a mathematics requirement consisting of one or

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MARTIN

more courses has to be met. This convergence of heightened aspirations and, in

many cases, confronting a subject in which one may have previously struggled or

was steered away from is the kind of convergence that often leads to another result:

a reinvestment in mathematics that also has the potential to serve as a basis for

meaningful parent agency and advocacy in mathematics education. That is, by

choice or unintended consequence, many parents now find themselves in the posi

tion of being able to better assist their children with mathematics, both in learning

it and by promoting its value.

What is particularly important about this reinvestment, and what makes it dif

ferent from the kind of resisting behavior described previously, is that parents are

doing mathematics and not just talking about, reflecting on it, or observing it being

done by others. Their active participation in relearning or learning mathematics

concepts that are, in some cases, also being learned by their children renders them

more capable of helping their children.

Many of these parents also expressed beliefs about the instrumental value of

mathematics and its perceived relation to meaningful participation in the larger

opportunity structure. In expressing their desires for their children, most parents

expressed the belief that lack of mathematical knowledge, coupled with their chil-

dren’s devalued African American status, would further relegate them to second-

class status in society.

Although Keith was one of the parents who could vividly recall the negative

messages that he received in society and in school, he did not succumb. His rein-

vestment, and success, in mathematics helped him develop positive agency and

perspective on mathematics:

Keith: I felt a struggle at one time but what I began to find through the years of

working and exposure is that Whites are not smarter than me….The

point I’m making is that when you’re exposed to things early on and

have role models and this is just banged in your head early on, you turn

out to be a completely different person. There’s no guarantee but at

least you have the tools … I honestly feel that through my struggles and

working and living as long as I have so far, that math is an essential

foundation for everything.

Chantal also believed that it was necessary to invest in mathematics for the sake

of her children, not just for instrumental reasons. This reinvestment had begun to

pay off in the form of improved school performance. Chantal’s reinvestment in

mathematics allowed her to turn mathematics learning into a family event. Al

though she was still hesitant to express full confidence in her mathematics ability,

she had gained greater confidence in her ability to help her children. Moreover, she

believed that the example that she was setting for her children was a very positive

one and that mathematics was something she could “pass down” to them:

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 221

Chantal: I questioned my ability in math. Though it’s better than it was, you

know, before first coming back to it.

DM: Has your thinking changed at all from that time till now?

Chantal: I’m more confident about math, more so than I was. Not as confident as

I would like to be. But it is better since, you know, because I came back

into basic math. So I’ve gone through the basic and beginning algebra,

so I am building my confidence.

DM: But you are making efforts now to … ?

Chantal: Oh yeah. Absolutely. So I can pass it down to my kids, you know. So

when they get here, they should be already at a whole other level. They

shouldn’t have to come in and start at basic. I’m seeing stuff, that I’m

doing in algebra right now, that my daughter is bringing home, and

she’s in the 6th grade. And I’m like “Did I have this stuff in the 6th

grade?” And that’s what made me start questioning, basically what was

I doing.

DM: Can you say a little bit more about that?

Chantal: Yeah. Well you know, with my oldest son, I had no math experience at

all. So he would come home with math and I was like “I can’t help

you.” And that was discouraging that I couldn’t help him with his 5th

grade 6th grade math. 6th grade math. Same thing with my daughter.

So when I came up here and took math, I found out it was easier for me

to help her with her homework. Before, I wouldn’t be so patient when I

didn’t know what I was doing. You know, “Why didn’t you ask your

teacher before you left, and bring this home to me!” But now since I

can help her with it and remain calmer, she’s learning it better. And I

am able to help her so that’s giving me confidence. So, you know, I

want to progress, so that as she comes along in her math, we can work it

out together.

DM: Now does that make you feel any different about yourself as a person

or as a mother?

Chantal: Oh absolutely. Absolutely, I feel better informed and I feel that I can

pass that down to my kids which is something that they will need. I

want them to remember 7 years from now that my mom did this. She

had us sitting down to math every day.

Given the comments presented previously, it is important for mathematics edu

cators to consider the role that African American parents can play in making or

breaking reform efforts. It is often assumed that one reason for limited parent par

ticipation in mathematics education is their own lack of mathematical knowledge,

resulting in an inability to help their children. Yet, a focus on parents who are com

munity college students and who are enrolled in mathematics courses significantly

alters this characterization of parents. First, many of these parents can often dem

222

MARTIN

onstrate proficiency in topics typically covered in the K–12 curriculum. Second,

many of these parents understand, and can articulate, relationships between mathe

matics learning and the larger opportunity structure, even if those relationships ex

ist only for credentialing purposes and not for immediate, hands-on use of mathe

matics. In my view, parents who are armed with both types of knowledge can serve

as powerful points of leverage to support reform-oriented, school-based mathe

matics practices. Indeed, not all parents have the time, inclination, or personal need

to reinvest in mathematics. But, as the previous excerpts show, reinvestment does

lead to the kind of awareness and advocacy that represents a step in parents helping

teachers and school officials help students, particularly those who need it the most.

Designing interventions to foster reinvestment in mathematics learning among

parents is something that math education reform has quietly overlooked (e.g., Civil

et al., 2000; Starkey & Klein, 2000). Building on the agency and advocacy of par

ents in the community college context would represent a start.

CONCLUSION

I opened this article with the question “Does race really matter?” in the struggle for

mathematics literacy among African Americans. Studies of achievement and per-

sistence among African American children have only hinted at the answers by

showing that achievement and persistence differ along racial lines. The narratives

from the African American parents, however, make it clear that race does matter.

Being completely aware of the ways that society, including schools and some

teachers, devalue their African American status, these parents were able to recall

specific instances in their mathematical histories where race played a lasting and

prominent role. These parents were also able to formulate personal theories about

how the socially constructed meaning for race comes to be a deciding factor in who

gets to do mathematics and who does not.

I claim that African American parents, within the context of their life and prior

mathematical experiences, conceptualize mathematics learning and the struggle

for mathematics literacy as racialized forms of experience. Their narratives reflect

beliefs that society, schools, and teachers practice exclusion from mathematics

along racial lines. These beliefs and responses are more closely aligned with

race-sensitive theories, such as CRT, signaling a major limitation in mathematics

education research and policy that purport to characterize and include African par

ents in the dialogue about what is best for their children. In contrast to their por

trayal in the deficit-based theories, African American parents presented here and

elsewhere (Martin, 2000, 2002, 2003) proved to be active agents in resisting, and

transforming, their racialized experiences (see also Stinson, 2004). By reinvest

ment in mathematics, many African American parents are able to position them

selves to better assist their children with mathematics and to formulate stronger

MATHEMATICS LITERACY 223

opinions and increased awareness about the relationship of mathematics knowl

edge to the larger opportunity structure.

In my view, utilizing and leveraging knowledge about (a) the mathematical ex

periences of African American parents, (b) their perceptions of school-based

mathematics, (c) how parents situate school-based mathematics in their lives and

their children’s lives relative to their socioeconomic and educational goals, and (d)

their resulting advocacy practices will prove to be an effective strategy to help suc

cessfully reverse negative achievement and persistence trends. African American

parents must become meaningful partners in mathematics education reform. Theo

retical perspectives on mathematics learning and efforts designed to assist mar

ginalized students and parents must be expanded to consider the role of race, not

just as a descriptive variable, but also with a consideration for the social devaluing

of African American status. This further implies that future research on equity in

mathematics education, including that which focuses on parents and students of

color, must move beyond race as simply a way to disaggregate data. Theory and

empirical work must make explicit the ways in which the meanings for race con-

structed by parents, students, and teachers impact student learning, teacher prac-

tice, and parents’ ability to help their children in mathematics.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is a revision of earlier papers presented at the annual conferences of the

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, San Antonio, TX (Martin, 2003)

and Philadelphia, PA (Martin, 2004). Portions of the research described here were

funded by a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to the author in 1998 and a

National Science Foundation grant (0204138) awarded in 2002, both while the au

thor was a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics at Contra Costa Col

lege. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect those of

the Spencer Foundation or NSF.

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Wilson, W. J. (1978). The declining significance of race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Combination of mathematical literacy with ethnomathematics: How to perspective sundanese culture

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

Mathematical literacy and ethnomathematics are the two main approaches to understanding mathematics in everyday life. Research on the two aspects should be conducted in an integrated manner. It is expected to be a reference for the development of urban mathematics education based on the social requirements of mathematics and individuals' mathematical competence in a cultural group. The primary goal of this research is to describe the Sundanese people's mathematical literacy through an ethnomathematical perspective. The research is focused on living equipment systems and technology, which is one of the elements of the seven universal culture elements. The study employed phenomenographic and ethnomethodological approaches with a realist ethnographic design. Participant observations and interviews were chosen as data collection techniques, while content analysis, triangulation, and identification of patterns were chosen as data analysis techniques. Ethnomathematics in living equipment systems and technology consists of counting, measuring, explaining, discovering, designing, and explaining activities. The results show that the ethnomathematics of the Sundanese community are relevant to the aspects of mathematical literacy consisting of content, context, and mathematical processes. The study's results emphasize that mathematical literacy and ethnomathematics cannot be separated from daily life.

Identidad matemática y transición a la educación superior en contextos virtuales

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2023

El estudio de corte narrativo analiza las experiencias matemáticas de cuatro estudiantes de ingeniería que inician sus estudios universitarios durante el confinamiento por la pandemia de COVID-19. Las nociones de trabajo identitario e identidad matemática permiten examinar los procesos de reconstrucción identitaria de los estudiantes en contextos virtuales de enseñanza. Los resultados muestran que el trabajo identitario está estrechamente vinculado a la naturaleza de la actividad matemática y el contexto en el cual ocurre. El tránsito a la educación matemática universitaria en entornos virtuales representa una oportunidad para reconstruir positivamente las identidades matemáticas y las elecciones profesionales de los estudiantes.

Mathematics identity instrument development for fifth through twelfth grade students

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

Given the importance of mathematics identity for students continued participation and engagement with mathematics, it is important for educators and researchers to be able to explore students’ mathematics identity development. However, an instrument with validity evidence that can be used to explore mathematics identity efficiently and with groups of students is not currently available. This article draws on prior research to test and validate items for a mathematics identity instrument to be used with fifth through twelfth grade students. This study includes 1,559 participants from two school districts in a midwestern state in the Unites States. Analysis includes assessing four components of validity including content validity, internal structure, relationship to other variables, and generalization. Findings provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the items in the mathematics identity scale, giving researchers and educators a way to explore this construct efficiently.

Learning Mathematics While Black

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2012

Danny Bernard Martin

“You can’t just check the box”: the mathematics of ethnoracial contortions at a California high school

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023
Educ Stud Math

Emma Carene Gargroetzi

This article brings critical and postcolonial theories together with extended ethnographic research in a predominantly Latinx high school in California’s “South Bay” to theorize the co-production and co-naturalization of mathematical and racial essentialization. Analysis of vignettes and interview excerpts illuminates both student uptake and resistance to homogenizing narratives of mathematics and racial personhood. Student voices from Sierra High School both evidenced the existence, stakes, and personal consequences of narrowly bounded, taken for granted, conceptions of mathematics and racial personhood and challenged these homogenizing categories. This paper contributes theory illuminating the co-construction of mathematical and racial essentialization along with examples of local critique and resistance from youth and their adult allies at one high school in the USA. Implications suggest that decolonial work in mathematics education must jointly address the narrow and essentializing frames for race and racialization and for mathematics itself as co-producing and co-naturalizing each other. This study contributes insight into mechanisms that perpetuate and also resist or disrupt these processes.

Knowing and Enjoying: Expanding Latinx Students' Experiences With an Integrated Computer Science and Mathematics Curriculum

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Preschoolers and First School Age Children with Intellectual Disabilities and their mathematical attainments: Do parents' attitudes toward mathematics, home numeracy, and literacy practices really matter?

Preprint

Oct 2023

The aim of this study was to explore potential factors that predict numeracy in preschoolers and first school age children with Intellectual Disabilities. Those factors are determined to assess parents' academic expectations and home practices that they use daily with their children. We employed a sample of 187 couples, comprising a total number of 374 parents. All of them had a child with mild intellectual disabilities aged between 4 to 7 years old (m=5.33 and s.d.=.498). We employed structural equation modeling, in order to assess the students' severity of disability, socioeconomic status of the family, book exposure, benchmarks, direct literacy activities, fine motor activities, general activities unrelated to mathematics or literacy, and the parent's/caregiver's attitudes toward mathematics & reading, and the specific way that they affect early numeracy acquisition in a direct or indirect way. Analysis of moments structures (AMOS) revealed that there is a good fit of the suggested structural model (TLI=.97>.95, RMSEA=.045<.080, CFI=.954 ≥.900, and SRMR=.029<.080). Results are discussed for their practical implications.

Geometry, groceries, and gardens: Learning mathematics and social justice through a nested, equity-directed instructional approach

Article

Sep 2023
J Math Behav

Math Attitudes and Identity of High Schoolers Impacted through Participating in Informal, Near-peer Mentoring

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Research in mentoring has shown that students may at times be more willing and able to absorb information that is delivered to them by their near-peers, rather than by traditional figures of authority, like teachers and professors. In this study, underrepresented minority high school students participated in an informal learning experience that was led by college students who were "near-peers" to the high schoolers. Students were engaged by participating in interactive MathShows, following a Math Social Media Campaign, and attending a summer Math Internship. Participants in the quantitative component of the study included N = 559 U.S. high schoolers who were from predominantly (99%) Hispanic ethnic backgrounds. The qualitative component of the study involved another 19 students from the same school. The mixed methods study addresses associations between high schoolers’ attitudes toward mathematics and their identity alignment, as well as classes of reasons that students gave for their identity alignment. Interactions with the college near-peers that occurred during the experiential learning intervention are also discussed. Results of this study address the goal of broadening participation of underrepresented student groups in STEM careers.

Is social media use for math learning beneficial for ethnic minority students' math identity? A socialization perspective

Article

Jul 2023

Although the educational potential of social media has been widely acknowledged, it remains unclear whether social media use might present opportunities for the development of math identity. This study drew on the socialization framework of math identity to examine the relationships between social media use for math learning, bicultural identity integration, ethnic‐math beliefs and math identity among ethnic minority high school students in China. Structural equation modelling results showed that (a) social media use was positively related to math identity; (b) high bicultural identity integration was positively associated with math identity, while biased ethnic‐math beliefs were negatively related to math identity and (c) social media use suppressed the socialization process of math identity, weakening the maladaptive roles of low bicultural identity integration and biased ethnic‐math beliefs in shaping math identity. Our findings highlight the beneficial role of social media use in student math learning. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Social media use for learning is associated with students' academic motivation, engagement and academic achievement. Social media use may have affordances for identity development, especially for ethnic minorities. The formation of ethnic minority students' math identity is intertwined with their math and ethnic socialization. What this paper adds Social media use for math learning was directly and positively related to ethnic minorities' math identity. This study quantitatively confirmed the associations of bicultural identity integration and ethnic‐math beliefs with math identity. Social media use suppressed the relations of bicultural identity integration and ethnic‐math beliefs with math identity. Implications for practice and/or policy Promoting social media use for math learning benefits ethnic minority students' math identity. Social media use for math learning could alleviate the maladaptive role of low bicultural identity integration and biased ethnic‐math beliefs in math identity development. Ethnic minority students' math identity socialization processes merit attention.

Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1995

This article asserts that despite the salience of race in U.S. society, as a topic of scholarly inquiry, it remains untheorized. The article argues for a critical race theoretical perspective in education analogous to that of critical race theory in legal scholarship by developing three propositions: (1) race continues to be significant in the United States; (2) U.S. society is based on property rights rather than human rights; and (3) the intersection of race and property creates an analytical tool for understanding inequity. The article concludes with a look at the limitations of the current multicultural paradigm.

Researching Race in Mathematics Education

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2009

Danny Bernard Martin

Background Within mathematics education research, policy, and practice, race remains undertheorized in relation to mathematics learning and participation. Although race is characterized in the sociological and critical theory literatures as socially and politically constructed with structural expressions, most studies of differential outcomes in mathematics education begin and end their analyses of race with static racial categories and group labels used for the sole purpose of disaggregating data. This inadequate framing is, itself, reflective of a racialization process that continues to legitimize the social devaluing and stigmatization of many students of color. I draw from my own research with African American adults and adolescents, as well as recent research on the mathematical experiences of African American students conducted by other scholars. I also draw from the sociological and critical theory literatures to examine the ways that race and racism are conceptualized in the larger social context and in ways that are informative for mathematics education researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Purpose To review and critically analyze how the construct of race has been conceptualized in mathematics education research, policy, and practice. Research Design Narrative synthesis. Conclusion Future research and policy efforts in mathematics education should examine racialized inequalities by considering the socially constructed nature of race.

White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Article

Aug 2001

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

Mathematics Success and Failure Among African-American Youth: The Roles of Sociohistorical Context, Community Forces, School Influence, and Individual Agency

Book

Jan 2000

Danny Bernard Martin

Cultural mode, identity, and literacy

Chapter

Jan 1990

John U. Ogbu

This book raises the idea of a distinct discipline of cultural psychology, the study of the ways that psyche and culture, subject and object, and person and world make up each other. Cultural Psychology is a collection of essays from leading scholars in anthropology, psychology, and linguistics who examine these relationships with special reference to core areas of human development: cognition, learning, self, personality dynamics, and gender. The chapters critically examine such questions as: Is there an intrinsic psychic unity to humankind? Can cultural traditions transform the human psyche, resulting less in psychic unity than in ethnic divergences in mind, self, and emotion? Are psychological processes local or specific to the sociocultural environments in which they are embedded? The volume is an outgrowth of the internationally known Chicago Symposia on Culture and Human Development. It will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience of anthropologists, psychologists, linguists, historians, philosophers and hermeneutists interested in the prospects for a distinct discipline of cultural psychology.

Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement

Book

Feb 2003

Do the Standards Go Far Enough? Power, Policy, and Practice in Mathematics Education

Article

Nov 1992

Michael W. Apple

Although NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (1989) and Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (1991) are generating considerable interest, there has been little discussion of their ideological and social grounding and effects. By placing the Standards within the growing conservative movement in education, this paper raises a number of crucial issues about the documents, including the depth of the financial crisis in education and its economic and ideological genesis and results; the nature of inequality in schools; the role of mathematical knowledge in our economy in maintaining these inequalities; the possibilities and limitations of a mathematics curriculum that is more grounded in students' experiences; and the complicated realities of teachers' lives. Without a deeper understanding of these issues, the Standards will be used in ways that largely lend support only to the conservative agenda for educational reform.

Race, Identity and Representation in Education

Article

Nov 1997

Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation

Book

Jan 1991

The discovery of grounded theory

Book

Jan 1967

Mathematics Learning and Participation as Racialized Forms of Experience: African American Parents Speak on the Struggle for Mathematics Literacy

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