:: COLLOQUIUM

November 30, 2007
Centering the Teaching of Mathematics on Urban Youth:
A Focus on Teacher Learning

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Room 2121 Benjamin Building
With discussion and complimentary lunch to follow

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Dr. Laurie Rubel
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York

Centering the Teaching of Mathematics on Urban Youth is an ongoing, three year project that created and studies a high school teacher learning community organized around learning to implement culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy. We define culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy as pedagogy that 1) advances students toward understanding of and proficiency with mathematical concepts and skills by teaching for understanding, 2) includes aspects of the lived experiences of students and their communities as contexts for mathematization; and 3) uses mathematics to analyze societal inequities to develop students’ awareness, critical literacy and sense of agency. In my talk, I will present a theoretical framework that supports culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy and describe the project’s activities. I will also describe one particular analytical strategy that offers insight into teacher learning trajectories.

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Dr. Edd V. Taylor
Northwestern University

Dr. Taylor will be describing a 3-part study that explores the relationship between engagement in shopping practices and mathematical development in children from a low-income African American neighborhood. This research included in situ analyses of children’s shopping activities at a local liquor store, revealing the variety of arithmetic tasks that emerged in relation to varied artifacts, shopping routines, social norms, and clerk support. In an effort to reveal competences that could not be measured through observation alone, he included individual interviews of 30 first and second graders on tasks that require them to purchase items at a mock store. Analyses revealed both strategies that were frequently and infrequently associated with successful purchasing. An analysis of students‚ performance on tasks assessing their multiunit understandings when these tasks were presented with coins (tokens associated with shopping) as contrasted with base-10 manipulatives (tokens associated with instruction) was also conducted. The results indicated that children demonstrated more advanced understanding with coins as compared to base-10 blocks. This research reveals the properties of everyday shopping practices of children from a low-income African American community and the competences that these children display when assessment tasks are linked to these practices.

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Previous Semester Speakers

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Dr. Alan H. Schoenfeld
University of California, Berkeley

My 1985 book Mathematical Problem Solving offered a framework for analyzing how and why people are successful (or not) when they engage in problem solving - but, it didn't offer a theory that explained how and why people made the choices they did. Such a theory is now within reach. Solving a mathematical problem, teaching a lesson (or a year's course), and building a theory of problem solving are all examples of goal-directed behavior. I'll try to make a case that such behavior can be explained on the basis of models of individuals' knowledge, goals, beliefs, and a particular form of decision-making. In addition, this account will be consistent with what is known about learning and development, context and identity, and more.

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March 9, 2007
Understanding the Experiences of High Achieving African-American Mathematics Majors

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Room 2121 Benjamin Building
With discussion and complimentary lunch to follow

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Dr. Roni Ellington
Morgan State University

Despite increased attention given to African-American students in mathematics, few studies have explored the experiences of African-Americans who excel in mathematics and pursue undergraduate mathematics degrees. Borrowing elements from social, cultural, and personal factors identified in mathematics education research and factors from the college persistence literature relating to African-American students, this research study sought to understand the factors that shaped eight high-achieving African-American mathematics majors' decision to persist and succeed in mathematics. In particular, the study explored the ways in which these students perceived their own role, and the roles of family, educational institutions, and the community in their success. The data suggests that several factors were essential to these students' success in mathematics, including parental social and cultural capital, elementary school tracking, participation in elite academic programs, and participation in college scholarship programs. The participants' evolving social consciousness and spirituality provided a framework underlying their success and persistence in mathematics, particularly in college. In this colloquium, I plan to discuss some of the major findings of this research and their implications for mathematics educators, researchers and policy makers. I will also discuss how the study's findings can be used as a framework to guide future research on high achieving African-American students.

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January 19, 2007
Researching Race in Mathematics Education

11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Room 2121 Benjamin Building
With discussion and complimentary lunch to follow

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Dr. Danny Martin
University of Illinois at Chicago

Within mathematics education research and policy, race remains undertheorized in relation to mathematics learning and participation. While race is characterized in the sociological and critical theory literatures as socially and politically constructed with structural expressions, most studies of differential outcomes in mathematics education begin and end their analyses of race with static racial categories and group labels used for the sole purpose of disaggregating data. One consequence is a widely accepted, and largely uncontested, racial hierarchy of mathematical ability. Rather than challenging and deconstructing this hierarchy, many math educators take, or unwittingly accept, it as a natural starting point in their assumptions about learners, learning, and teaching. Disparities in achievement and persistence are then inadequately framed as reflecting race effects rather than as consequences of the racialized nature of students’ mathematical experiences. This inadequate framing is, itself, reflective of a racialization process that continues to legitimize the social devaluing and stigmatization of students identified as African American, Latino, and Native American and the privileging of students identified as White and Asian American. In this colloquium and paper discussion, I hope to foster a critical conversation and dialogue about how race has been addressed in mathematics education research, policy, and practice. Participants are asked to read the accompanying paper and prepare comments and questions.

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>> Previous Colloquiums From Academic Year 2007
>> Previous Colloquiums From Academic Year 2006
>> Previous Seminars From Spring 2005

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