Discover. Create. Change. Robert Q. Berry, III, Ph.D. Associate Professor Mathematics Education...

Discover. Create. Change.

Robert Q. Berry, III, Ph.D.Associate Professor Mathematics Education

University of Virginia

Beyond Catchphrases and statistics: Culturally Relevant

Mathematics Teaching

Narratives

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Impact of Narratives

• These narratives lead to masternarratives• Masternarratives are public discourses

that often position Black learners in mathematics as:– Incapable – Deficient– Underachievers

Damaging Effect of Masternaratives

• The narratives about Black children in mathematics education research, policy, and practice contexts are often conversations about how they differ from “white” children and “Asian” children (Martin, 2012). – Achievement Gap Lens

Change the Narrative

• Black children are inherently creative, talented, and brilliant in mathematics.

• This narrative is not focused on exceptions or counter examples:– Find the brilliance in the daily occurrences– Find the brilliance in their stories

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Change the Narrative

• In order to change the narrative we must know students’ stories.

• When we know their stories, we know their motivations, and when we know their motivations, we recognize their brilliance.

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Math, Men, & Mission

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M-Cubed

• Partnership – Albemarle County Public Schools– Charlottesville City Public Schools– 100 Black Men of Central Virginia

• Black Boys in Grades 3-8

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Why Black Boys?• There is a growing

appreciation for the struggles of black boys to grow and develop into productive and emotionally integrated men. – Boy imparts vulnerability

and youth, a word that calls forth support

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Recognizing Brilliance• Helping boys

recognize their own brilliance– “Truly Wonderful and

Getting Better.”

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That’s Impossible• The Train Problem

– A train of length 5 is a row of rods whose combined length is 5. listed separately. If you use identical rods in a different order, it is considered a separate train. How many trains of length 5 are there? 6? 7? 10? • Come up with a formula

for the number of trains of length n.

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Taking-Risks

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Culturally Relevant MathTeaching

Knowledge

CommunicationRelationship/Trust

Adapted from Bonner & Adams 2012

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CRMT

Knowledge– Personal history– Knowledge of mathematics

content and pedagogy– Knowledge of students,

and – Knowledge of the

community

• To orient instruction toward students’ culture and life experiences

Communication• Explicit and intentional

connection to student culture and language is essential in developing student self-esteem.– Student-to-Student– Student-to-Teacher– Teacher-to-Student

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Relationship/Trust

• Warm demanders are teachers who know the culture of the students and have strong relationships with the students and demands that students maximize their efforts, show respect, and follow classroom norms.– Social-Emotional-Learning– “Truly Wonderful and Getting Better”

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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

• “All students can be successful in mathematics when their understanding of it is linked to meaningful cultural referents and when then instruction assumes that all students are capable of mastering the subject matter” (Ladson-Billings, 1995; p. 141)

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Communities for Black Male Students

• Develop caring relationships and set high expectations for academic and mathematics success

• Access and build on experiences and community funds of knowledge;

• Implement culturally relevant pedagogy;• Disrupt school mathematics as a white

institutional space (Jett, Stinson, William, 2015).

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Disrupt Institutional Space

• Generally, mathematics textbooks, and other curricula materials continue to support the myth that mathematics is an enterprise primarily reserved for white men.– Construct the mathematics classroom

community as one in which their black male students can elevate their classroom status.

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Capturing Brilliance– Create opportunities

for students to notice• Environment• Situations• “…man I am feeling

this…why am I feeling this?”

– Create opportunities for students to take risk• Rehearsal• “…Kyle you are up

next.”

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Celebrate Brilliance• Questions or

Compliments– Questions moved the

learning forward– Compliments

celebrated brilliances and moved the learning forward.

– “I have a compliment…Jadien’s table helped me see the pattern.”

Change the Narrative• Twitter, Facebook &

Instagram– Use #blackkidsdomath

to acknowledge this brilliance when they are engaged in mathematical thinking.