THE
BRILLIANCE OF BLACK CHILDREN IN MATHEMATICS: Beyond the Numbers and
Toward New Discourse,
Chapter 2: "A Critical Review of American K-12 Mathematics
Education, 1900-Present, Implications for the Experiences and
Achievement of Black Children" by Berry, III, Pinter, McClain;
Edited by Jacqueline Leonard, Danny B. Martin, (2013) Pp. 45-49
“The
implicit message is that Black children are not worth studying in
their own right and that a comparison group is necessary. Such
framing situates Whiteness as the norm, positioning Black children
and Black culture as deviant (Gutierrez, 2008). However, there is a
growing body of research that positions Black children as brilliant
(Berry, 2005, 2008; Jett, 2010; Martin, 2000, 2006, 2008; Noble,
2011; Stinson, 2010; Thompson & Lewis, 2005; Walker, 2006). This
body of research considers issues of race, racism, contexts,
identities, and conditions as variables that impact the mathematical
experiences of Black children. This growing body of research is
relatively small but an important contribution when considering the
broader body of mathematics education research. This body of research
challenges the dominant discourse and pushes the field
“To
understand the broader body of research focusing on Black learners in
mathematics education and to examine trends in research
methodologies, we conducted searches in four databases focusing on
research articles since 1970: a) Google Scholar; b) ERIC; c)
Education Retro & Full-text, and d) Sociological Abstracts. The
protocols included peer-reviewed journals using (math or mathematics)
AND (Black OR African American) as the search criteria. Table 2.1
shows the result from the searches, which suggests that research on
Black people and mathematics has grown significantly since 1970....
“These
topics represent a shift from examining issues in mathematics
education from being technical to examining the realities of people's
lives. From 2010-2011, the same trends of the early 2000s persisted.
However, there were studies using large data sets focusing on Black
learners without using a comparison group, suggesting a shift towards
research aimed at understanding the complexities within Black
learners (Joe & Davis, 2009; Lewis, James, Hancock &
Hill-Jackson, 2008). …
“While
not exhaustive, our searches have found that there is considerable
current research focused on documenting Black children's failure and
how Black children achieve relative to White children. In contrast,
there are a growing number of Black mathematics education researchers
publishing work on issues of racial and mathematics identity,
socialization, student success, social justice, culturally relevant
teaching, opportunities to learn, and critical mathematics education.
The implications of research by this growing number of researchers
will inform and impact the experience of Black children and influence
positive shifts in the broader field of mathematics education to
consider variables beyond those traditionally used to investigate the
experiences and outcomes of Black children. The challenge for these
researchers is to convince the funding agencies, such as the National
Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education, that
studying how Black children learn and do mathematics is a worthwhile
endeavor. Then these researchers will have greater opportunities to
interface with the broader mathematics education community to support
what we already intuitively know: Black children are inherently
creative, talented, and brilliant in mathematics.”
