“It Seems like They Purposefully Try to Make as Many Kids Drop”: An Analysis of Logics and Mechanisms of Racial-Gendered Inequality in Introductory Mathematics Instruction

Crafting a racial equity practice in college math education.

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

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

“…Standing at the board, faculty talk; facing the board, students speak when spoken to or when asked a question (Martin, 2007). In these “teacher-dominated,” “sink-or-swim” (Martin, 2007, p. 19) classrooms, students are “passive spectators” (Mesa et al, 2014, p. 118) who are rarely encouraged to make meaning of math and whose smartness is based on whether they can solve problems quickly and accurately (Joseph et al, 2019; Levya et al, 2021). For students who need help, faculty hold office hours, recommend tutoring, and/or point to resources online (Schwartz, 2006).…”

“…Each engagement influences how they view themselves as math learners, their outcomes, and whether they continue their math education (Larnell, 2016). Faculty who believe that math is a raceless discipline and math classrooms are raceless learning spaces can harm and marginalize minoritized students through microaggressions, stereotyping, and implicit biases (Martin, 2019; McGee & Martin, 2011), and through supposedly “fair” practices like calling on the first person who raises their hand (Joseph et al, 2019; Levya et al, 2021). Particularly when those students are white, it can signal to minoritized students that white students have innate math intelligence and that faculty value their knowledge (Shah, 2017).…”

“…For decades, reforms have sought to improve (a) the assessment of college math readiness (Rodriguez et al, 2018); (b) the developmental math sequence that many students must traverse before getting to college math (Bailey et al, 2010); (c) the effectiveness and relevance of math curricula (Bragg, 2012; Logue, 2016); and (d) the participation of women and racially minoritized 1 students underrepresented in the discipline (National Research Council, 2013). Recent efforts have turned to what happens in the classroom, how teachers enact curricula and pedagogy, and how the classroom environment shapes the learning and experience of all students (Cox, 2015) and racially minoritized students in particular (Levya et al, 2021; Roberts, 2020). Yet, while these reforms have improved overall success rates, racially unequal outcomes persist (Brathwaite et al, 2020; Rodriguez et al, 2018).…”