Examining community cultural wealth of a transfronteriza multilingual student in mathematics classrooms

Abstract

We use Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) asset-based framework to make sense of the cultural capital of Leyla, a student who recently arrived in the USA from México. Drawing on counterstory methodologies, we illustrate how Leyla uses multiple forms of capital (aspirational, familial, linguistic, social) to navigate within and resist oppressive schooling structures. Her resistance capital could be seen through the application of her different forms of cultural capital, in which she critiqued the structures of her schooling experiences and engaged in actions that may function as a way to pursue her aspirations. We end with a discussion that elaborates on Leyla’s story in light of our experiential knowledge to suggest implications for teaching and research.

Keywords:

• Community cultural wealth
• cultural capital
• multilingual students
• mathematics education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We use the terms “People of Color” and “Students of Color” from Yosso (2005, 2006). In modern parlance, a more common term might be Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).

2 We use the term “transfronterizo/a/e” (transborder) to describe the binational context of the students who experience education across the USA and México borders (Mordechay & Alfaro, 2019).

3 There are many panethnic labels used to identify communities who can trace their roots back to Latin America. In this paper, we use Latinx to transform the gender-specific term Latino to be more inclusive of women, non-binary and non-conforming, and gender fluid people who identify with any of the 33 countries labeled as Latin America. Chicanx is a term rooted in the Chicanx Movement in the USA that seeks to empower Mexican American and other Latinx communities around a shared cultural, ethnic, political, and intersectional identity. At the same time, we recognize that these labels are personal, not static, and not universal.

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Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1553708. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Kevin Pelaez

Dr. Kevin Pelaez graduated from San Diego State University and University of California San Diego with a PhD in Mathematics and Science Education. He earned a BA in mathematics from the University of San Diego and an MS in statistics from San Diego State University. Prior to pursuing a PhD, Kevin taught mathematics at the high school and college level as well as high school AVID and statistics. His research interests include teacher education, equity and justice in education, and statistics and data science education.

Ernesto Daniel Calleros

Ernesto Daniel Calleros is a PhD candidate in the Mathematics and Science Education joint doctoral program at University of California San Diego and San Diego State University. He earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Texas A&M University and an M.A. in Mathematics from Rice University. Prior to enrolling in the PhD program, Ernesto taught college-level mathematics. His research interests include the teaching, learning, and thinking in university mathematics. He also enjoys working to make mathematics learning linguistically accessible to all students, especially multilingual learners.

Jose Parra

José Antonio Parra graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A in Liberal Arts and Sciences Mathematics and a mathematics teaching credential. José worked as a bilingual tutor at local high schools in San Diego and is currently working as a high school mathematics teacher.

William Zahner

Dr. William Zahner is an associate professor in the mathematics and statistics department at San Diego State University. Zahner’s research investigates how to design secondary mathematics classrooms to improve student learning, with a special focus on meeting the needs of English Learners in secondary mathematics classes. In addition to directing this project, Zahner is also co-PI of another project investigating the affordances of dynamic representational technology for fostering abstract and quantitative reasoning among linguistically diverse middle school students. Prior to joining the faculty at SDSU, Zahner was an assistant professor in the School of Education at Boston University. Zahner earned his doctorate and master’s degrees at UC Santa Cruz, and his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Boston College.