Dr. Maisie Gholson Examines Black Youth Identities in Mathematics

Attending to a theoretical gap in the field of mathematics education research related to the lack of conceptualization of Black youth mathematics development, the project capitalizes on the local context in which approximately 120-150 Black youth per year enroll in a college-bridge program. Students are selected based on grades and standardized test scores and, for all intents and purposes, are highly successful in their local contexts. The context of the college-bridge program allows for the study of the mathematical trajectories of high-achieving Black youth from 8th to 12th grade from three predominantly Black communities in the Detroit-Ann Arbor metro area, as well as a curriculum designed for the college-bridge program.

Gholson’s goal is to produce a developmental framework for successful Black youth in mathematics. Currently, teachers, counselors, and instructional coaches must rely on lay theories when designing learning opportunities for children with only the emerging mandates for cultural relevance and the promotion of justice. There is little guidance as to what the developmental needs of Black children and youth may be in mathematics contexts and, thus, learning is built around the mathematics learning trajectories solely and not the needs of children, who are embedded in different school communities with varying levels of support. 

While there are many ways of coming to know mathematical concepts, not all of the ways of knowing promote robust mathematics identities that are attuned to day-to-day realities of Black girls and boys as learners. The hope is that this study will offer teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers a helpful guide when attempting to resolve the question of how it might be best to approach the needs of Black mathematics learners at different points in their mathematical trajectory.
 
The study will also achieve several broader impacts. First, the study has the potential to improve the participation of historically (and currently) underrepresented demographic groups in mathematics in advanced mathematics course-taking in secondary mathematics, as well as improve the pursuit of degrees at the post-secondary level in the mathematical-sciences (e.g., computer science, engineering, and physics) by developing supports for mathematical development. Second, the study also has the potential to improve the teaching of mathematics in secondary mathematics and the preparation of teachers in secondary mathematics by making explicit what needs to be known about Black mathematics learners pedagogically. This study could shift the field to consider the trajectories of mathematical knowledge and the trajectories of Black children and youth. Thirdly, the study has the potential to improve the social well-being of mathematics learners as they understand the socially constructed nature of mathematical success and develop the capacity to author and envision themselves into the field as they develop mathematical knowledge and skills. Finally, the study has the potential to improve features of curriculum that are attuned to mathematics learners' identities with respect to race, class and gender.

The project will yield understanding of how college-focused Black youth develop as
mathematics learners in communities of varying socio-economic status. It will be the first of its scale that studies, descriptively, the mathematical development of Black youth. Given that a primary concern of the field is the long-term mathematical success of girls, racialized groups, the economically disadvantaged, as well as intersections among these groups, this study is situated in contexts in which the cultivation of long-term mathematical success is realizable and routine for these marginalized groups.