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

Abstract

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 associated 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 parents 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. Race is a socially constructed concept which is [a] defining characteristic for African American group membership. (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998, p. 18)