“Blacks aren’t good for math”: Racial ideologies and mathematics teaching practices in Colombia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i16.1909Keywords:
Racial ideologies, Algebra, Mathematics teaching practices, RacismAbstract
The study focuses on the forms wherein student racial identities nurture and shape teacher expectations and influence the teaching practices of algebra. Using a comparative method and an interpretative approach, racial ideologies and teaching practices of three different mathematics teachers in three different social, cultural and racial contexts in Cali, Colombia were studied. The findings highlight the prevalence of cultural and class deficit views about black students that position them as incapable of learning mathematics. These racial ideologies translate into poor teaching practices and interactions that could explain their low mathematics performance. Implications for research and teacher education are suggested.and forces them to stake resources to distinguish or being consistent the private and the public.Downloads
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References
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Bernard, H. R. (Rev. ed.) (2006). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. The U.S.: AltaMira Press.
Berry III, R. (2008). Access to upper-middle level mathematics: The stories of successful African American middle school boys. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 39(5), 464–488.
Boaler, J. (2002). Paying the price for “sugar and spice”: Shifting the analytical lens in equity resarch. Mathematics Thinking and Learning, 4(2\3), 127–144.
Boaler, J., Altendorff, L., y Kent, G. (2011). Mathematics and science inequities in the United Kingdom: When elitism, sexism and culture collide. Oxford Review of Education, 37(4), 457–484.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (Rev. ed.) (2010). Racism without racists. A color-blind racism y racial inequality in contemporary America. Lanham, MD: Rowman y Littlefield Publishers.
Borman, G. D., y Overman, L. T. (2004). Academic resilience in mathematics among poor and minority students. The Elementary School Journal, 104(3), 177–195.
Creswell, J. (2007, 2nd edition). Qualitative inquiry and research design. Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
D’Ambrosio, U. (2010). Mathematics education and survival with dignity. En H. Alro, O. Ranv, y P. Valero (Eds.), Critical mathematics education: Past, present and future (pp. 51-64), Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2004). The color line in American education. Race, resources, and student achievement. Du Bois Review, 1(2), 213–246.
DIME (2007). Culture, race, power, and mathematics education. En F. Lester (Ed.), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp.405 -434), The U.S.: Age Publishing.
Ernest, P. (1991). The philosophy of mathematics education. New York, NY: Falmer Press.
Frankenstein, M. (1995). Equity in mathematics education: Class in the world outside the class. En W. Secada, E. Fennema, L.B. Adajian (Eds.), New directions for equity in mathematics education (pp. 165–190). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
García, M., Espinosa, J., Jiménez, F., y Parra, J. (2013). Separados y desiguales. Educación y clases sociales en Colombia. Colección DeJusticia. Bogotá, Colombia: Ediciones Antropos.
Giroux, H. (1981). Ideology, culture, and the process of schooling. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Harel, G., y Kaput, J. (1991). The role of conceptual entities and their symbols in building advanced mathematical concepts. En D. Tall (Ed.), Advanced Mathematical Thinking (pp. 82–94). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press.
Hoadley, U. (2007). The reproduction of social class inequalities through mathematics pedagogies in South African primarily schools. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39(6), 679–706.
Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior, ICFES (2009). Saber 5 y 9 2009. Resultados nacionales. Recuperado de http://www.icfes.gov.co/resultados/pruebas-saber-resultados
Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior, ICFES (2010). Resultados de Colombia en TIMSS 2007. Recuperado de http://www.icfes.gov.co/resultados/pruebas-saber-resultados
Ladson-Billings, G., y Tate, W. (1995). Towards a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 79(1), 47-68.
Lee, J. (2002). Racial and ethnic achievement gap trends: Reversing the progress toward equity? Educational Researcher, 31(1), 3–12.
Lee, V., Smith, J., y Croninger, R. (1997). How high school organization influences the equitable distribution of learning in mathematics and science. Sociology of Education, 70(2) 128–150.
Lim, J. (2008). Double jeopardy: The compounding effects of class and race in school mathematics. Equity & Excellence in Education, 41(1), 81-97.
Lubienski, S. (2002). A closer look at black-white mathematics gaps: Intersection of race and SES in NAEP achievement and instructional practices data. The Journal of Negro Education, 71(4), 269–287.
Martin, D. (2006). Mathematics learning and participation as racialzed forms of experience: African american parents speak on th struggle for mathematics literacy. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 8(3), 197-229.
Martin, D. (2009). Reseching race in mathematics education. Teachers College, 11(2), 295-338
Mason, J. (1996). Expressing generality and roots of algebra. En N. Bednardz, C. Kieran, y L. Lee (Eds.), Approaches to algebra. Perspectives for research and teaching (pp. 65-86). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
McNamee, s., y Miller, R. (2004). The meritocracy myth. New York, NY: Rowman y Littlefield Publishers.
Mills, M., van de Bunt, G., y de Brujin, J. (2006). Comparative research. Persistent problems and promising solutions. International Sociology, 21(5), 619–631.
Moses, R., y Cobb, c. (2001). Radical equations. Civil rights from Mississippi to the algebra project. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Nasir, N. (2002). Identity, goals, and learning. Mathematics in cultural practice. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4, 213-247.
Nasir, N. (2007). Identity, goals and learning: The case of basketball mathematics. In N. Nasir y P. Cobb (Eds.), Improving Access to mathematics: Diversity and equity in the classroom (pp. 133- 140). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Nasir, N., y Hand, V. (2006). Exploring sociocultural perspectives on race, culture, and learning. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 449-475.
Nasir, N. y McKinney, M. (2013). Power, identity, and mathematical practices outside and inside school. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 264–287.
Oakes, J. (Rev. ed.) (2005). Keeping track. How schools structure inequality. Binghamton, NY: Yale University Press.
Ogbu, J. (1988). Class stratification, racial stratification, and schooling. In L. Weis (Ed.), Class, race, and gender in American education (pp. 163–182), Albany, NY: The SUNY Press.
Parks, A.M., y Schmeichel, M. (2012). Obstacles to addressing race and ethnicity in the mathematics education literature. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 43(3), 238–252.
Pinnow, R. y Chval, K.B. (2014). Positioning ELLs to develop academic, communicative, and social competences in mathematics. En M. Civil y E. Turner (Eds.), The CCSS in mathematics for grades k-8 (pp. 72-95), Arizona, The U.S.: TESOL press
Philipp, R. (1992). The many uses of algebraic variables. The Mathematics Teacher, 85(7), 557-562.
Powell, A. (2002). Etnomathematics and the challenges of racism in mathematics education. En P. Valero y O. Skovsmose (Eds.), Proceedings of the third International MES Conference (pp. 1-15), Copenhagen: Center for Research in Learning Mathematics.
Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, PNUD, (2011). Afrocolombianos: Sus territories y condiciones de vida. Cuaderno del informe de desarrollo humano Colombia 2011. Recuperado de http://www.pnudcolombia.org/indh2011
Ragin, C. (2006). How to lure analytic social science out of the doldrums: Some lessons from comparative research. International Sociology, 21(5), 633–646.
Reyes, L., y Stanic, G. (1988). Race, sex, socioeconomic status, and mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 19(1), 26–43.
Riegle-Crumb, C., y Grodosky, E. (2010). Racial-ethnic differences at the intersection of math course-taking and achievement. Sociology of Education, 83(3), 248–270.
Rist, R. (1970). Student social class and teacher expectations. The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 40(3), 411–451.
Rodriguez, C., Alfonso, T., y Cavelier, I. (2009). Raza y derechos humanos en Colombia. Informe sobre la discriminación racial y derechos de la población afrocolombiana. Bogotá, Colombia: Ediciones Unidandes.
Sfard, A., y Linchevski, L. (1994). The gains and the pitfalls of reification: The case of algebra. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 26(2\3), 191–228.
Stein, M.K., y Lane, S. (1996). Instructional tasks and the development of students’ capacity to think and reason: An analysis of the relationships between teaching and learning in a reform mathematics project. Educational Research and Evaluation, 2(1), 50-80.
Tate, W. (1997). Race-ethnicity, SES, gender, and language proficient trends in mathematics achievement. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(6), 652–679.
Turner, J., Midgley, C., Meyer, D.K., Gheen, M., Anderman, E., Kang, Y., y Patrick, H. (2002). The classroom environment and students’ reports of avoidance strategies in mathematics: a multimethod study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(1), 88–106.
Urrea, F. (2012). Transformaciones sociodemográficas y grupos socio-raciales en Cali a lo largo del siglo XX y comienzos del siglo XXI. Recuperado de http://urosario.edu.co/subsitio/Catedra-de-Estudios-Afrocolombianos/Documentos/14-Fernando-Urrea-Articulo-sobre-Cali-sigloXX.pdf
Urrea, F., Viáfara, C., Ramírez, H., y Botero, W. (2007). Las desigualdades raciales en Colombia: Un análisis socidemografico de condiciones de vida, pobreza e ingresos para la ciudad de Cali y el departamento del Valle del Cauca (en prensa).
Valoyes, L. (2013). Estudio de la representación del álgebra en los documentos curriculares colombianos. Revista Perspectivas Educativas, 6, 15-32.
Valoyes, L. (2014). Colombian teachers’ expectations of black and poor students’ abilities to learn algebra. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.
Van Dijk, T. (1987). Communicating racism. Ethnic prejudice in thought and talk. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications
Van Dijk, T.(1992). Discourse and the denial of racism. Discourse and Society (3)1, 87-118.
Van Dijk, T. (2004). Racism and discourse in Spain and Latin America. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Walker, E. (2006). Urban high school students’ academic communities and their effects on mathematics success. American Educational Research Journal, 43(1), 43–73.
Williams, R. (1981). The sociology of culture. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Zevenbergen, R. (2003). Teachers’ beliefs about teaching mathematics to students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds: Implications for social justice. En L. Burton (Ed.), Which way social justice in mathematics education? (pp. 133–152). Westport CONN/London: Praeger.
Zevenbergen, R., y Niesche, R. (2008). Equity, Mathematics and Classroom Practice: Developing rich mathematical experiences for disadvantaged students. Australian Primarily Mathematics Classroom, 13(4), 21–27.
Bernard, H. R. (Rev. ed.) (2006). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. The U.S.: AltaMira Press.
Berry III, R. (2008). Access to upper-middle level mathematics: The stories of successful African American middle school boys. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 39(5), 464–488.
Boaler, J. (2002). Paying the price for “sugar and spice”: Shifting the analytical lens in equity resarch. Mathematics Thinking and Learning, 4(2\3), 127–144.
Boaler, J., Altendorff, L., y Kent, G. (2011). Mathematics and science inequities in the United Kingdom: When elitism, sexism and culture collide. Oxford Review of Education, 37(4), 457–484.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (Rev. ed.) (2010). Racism without racists. A color-blind racism y racial inequality in contemporary America. Lanham, MD: Rowman y Littlefield Publishers.
Borman, G. D., y Overman, L. T. (2004). Academic resilience in mathematics among poor and minority students. The Elementary School Journal, 104(3), 177–195.
Creswell, J. (2007, 2nd edition). Qualitative inquiry and research design. Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
D’Ambrosio, U. (2010). Mathematics education and survival with dignity. En H. Alro, O. Ranv, y P. Valero (Eds.), Critical mathematics education: Past, present and future (pp. 51-64), Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2004). The color line in American education. Race, resources, and student achievement. Du Bois Review, 1(2), 213–246.
DIME (2007). Culture, race, power, and mathematics education. En F. Lester (Ed.), Second handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp.405 -434), The U.S.: Age Publishing.
Ernest, P. (1991). The philosophy of mathematics education. New York, NY: Falmer Press.
Frankenstein, M. (1995). Equity in mathematics education: Class in the world outside the class. En W. Secada, E. Fennema, L.B. Adajian (Eds.), New directions for equity in mathematics education (pp. 165–190). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
García, M., Espinosa, J., Jiménez, F., y Parra, J. (2013). Separados y desiguales. Educación y clases sociales en Colombia. Colección DeJusticia. Bogotá, Colombia: Ediciones Antropos.
Giroux, H. (1981). Ideology, culture, and the process of schooling. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Harel, G., y Kaput, J. (1991). The role of conceptual entities and their symbols in building advanced mathematical concepts. En D. Tall (Ed.), Advanced Mathematical Thinking (pp. 82–94). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press.
Hoadley, U. (2007). The reproduction of social class inequalities through mathematics pedagogies in South African primarily schools. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39(6), 679–706.
Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior, ICFES (2009). Saber 5 y 9 2009. Resultados nacionales. Recuperado de http://www.icfes.gov.co/resultados/pruebas-saber-resultados
Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior, ICFES (2010). Resultados de Colombia en TIMSS 2007. Recuperado de http://www.icfes.gov.co/resultados/pruebas-saber-resultados
Ladson-Billings, G., y Tate, W. (1995). Towards a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 79(1), 47-68.
Lee, J. (2002). Racial and ethnic achievement gap trends: Reversing the progress toward equity? Educational Researcher, 31(1), 3–12.
Lee, V., Smith, J., y Croninger, R. (1997). How high school organization influences the equitable distribution of learning in mathematics and science. Sociology of Education, 70(2) 128–150.
Lim, J. (2008). Double jeopardy: The compounding effects of class and race in school mathematics. Equity & Excellence in Education, 41(1), 81-97.
Lubienski, S. (2002). A closer look at black-white mathematics gaps: Intersection of race and SES in NAEP achievement and instructional practices data. The Journal of Negro Education, 71(4), 269–287.
Martin, D. (2006). Mathematics learning and participation as racialzed forms of experience: African american parents speak on th struggle for mathematics literacy. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 8(3), 197-229.
Martin, D. (2009). Reseching race in mathematics education. Teachers College, 11(2), 295-338
Mason, J. (1996). Expressing generality and roots of algebra. En N. Bednardz, C. Kieran, y L. Lee (Eds.), Approaches to algebra. Perspectives for research and teaching (pp. 65-86). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
McNamee, s., y Miller, R. (2004). The meritocracy myth. New York, NY: Rowman y Littlefield Publishers.
Mills, M., van de Bunt, G., y de Brujin, J. (2006). Comparative research. Persistent problems and promising solutions. International Sociology, 21(5), 619–631.
Moses, R., y Cobb, c. (2001). Radical equations. Civil rights from Mississippi to the algebra project. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Nasir, N. (2002). Identity, goals, and learning. Mathematics in cultural practice. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4, 213-247.
Nasir, N. (2007). Identity, goals and learning: The case of basketball mathematics. In N. Nasir y P. Cobb (Eds.), Improving Access to mathematics: Diversity and equity in the classroom (pp. 133- 140). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Nasir, N., y Hand, V. (2006). Exploring sociocultural perspectives on race, culture, and learning. Review of Educational Research, 76(4), 449-475.
Nasir, N. y McKinney, M. (2013). Power, identity, and mathematical practices outside and inside school. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(1), 264–287.
Oakes, J. (Rev. ed.) (2005). Keeping track. How schools structure inequality. Binghamton, NY: Yale University Press.
Ogbu, J. (1988). Class stratification, racial stratification, and schooling. In L. Weis (Ed.), Class, race, and gender in American education (pp. 163–182), Albany, NY: The SUNY Press.
Parks, A.M., y Schmeichel, M. (2012). Obstacles to addressing race and ethnicity in the mathematics education literature. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 43(3), 238–252.
Pinnow, R. y Chval, K.B. (2014). Positioning ELLs to develop academic, communicative, and social competences in mathematics. En M. Civil y E. Turner (Eds.), The CCSS in mathematics for grades k-8 (pp. 72-95), Arizona, The U.S.: TESOL press
Philipp, R. (1992). The many uses of algebraic variables. The Mathematics Teacher, 85(7), 557-562.
Powell, A. (2002). Etnomathematics and the challenges of racism in mathematics education. En P. Valero y O. Skovsmose (Eds.), Proceedings of the third International MES Conference (pp. 1-15), Copenhagen: Center for Research in Learning Mathematics.
Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, PNUD, (2011). Afrocolombianos: Sus territories y condiciones de vida. Cuaderno del informe de desarrollo humano Colombia 2011. Recuperado de http://www.pnudcolombia.org/indh2011
Ragin, C. (2006). How to lure analytic social science out of the doldrums: Some lessons from comparative research. International Sociology, 21(5), 633–646.
Reyes, L., y Stanic, G. (1988). Race, sex, socioeconomic status, and mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 19(1), 26–43.
Riegle-Crumb, C., y Grodosky, E. (2010). Racial-ethnic differences at the intersection of math course-taking and achievement. Sociology of Education, 83(3), 248–270.
Rist, R. (1970). Student social class and teacher expectations. The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 40(3), 411–451.
Rodriguez, C., Alfonso, T., y Cavelier, I. (2009). Raza y derechos humanos en Colombia. Informe sobre la discriminación racial y derechos de la población afrocolombiana. Bogotá, Colombia: Ediciones Unidandes.
Sfard, A., y Linchevski, L. (1994). The gains and the pitfalls of reification: The case of algebra. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 26(2\3), 191–228.
Stein, M.K., y Lane, S. (1996). Instructional tasks and the development of students’ capacity to think and reason: An analysis of the relationships between teaching and learning in a reform mathematics project. Educational Research and Evaluation, 2(1), 50-80.
Tate, W. (1997). Race-ethnicity, SES, gender, and language proficient trends in mathematics achievement. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(6), 652–679.
Turner, J., Midgley, C., Meyer, D.K., Gheen, M., Anderman, E., Kang, Y., y Patrick, H. (2002). The classroom environment and students’ reports of avoidance strategies in mathematics: a multimethod study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(1), 88–106.
Urrea, F. (2012). Transformaciones sociodemográficas y grupos socio-raciales en Cali a lo largo del siglo XX y comienzos del siglo XXI. Recuperado de http://urosario.edu.co/subsitio/Catedra-de-Estudios-Afrocolombianos/Documentos/14-Fernando-Urrea-Articulo-sobre-Cali-sigloXX.pdf
Urrea, F., Viáfara, C., Ramírez, H., y Botero, W. (2007). Las desigualdades raciales en Colombia: Un análisis socidemografico de condiciones de vida, pobreza e ingresos para la ciudad de Cali y el departamento del Valle del Cauca (en prensa).
Valoyes, L. (2013). Estudio de la representación del álgebra en los documentos curriculares colombianos. Revista Perspectivas Educativas, 6, 15-32.
Valoyes, L. (2014). Colombian teachers’ expectations of black and poor students’ abilities to learn algebra. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.
Van Dijk, T. (1987). Communicating racism. Ethnic prejudice in thought and talk. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications
Van Dijk, T.(1992). Discourse and the denial of racism. Discourse and Society (3)1, 87-118.
Van Dijk, T. (2004). Racism and discourse in Spain and Latin America. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Walker, E. (2006). Urban high school students’ academic communities and their effects on mathematics success. American Educational Research Journal, 43(1), 43–73.
Williams, R. (1981). The sociology of culture. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Zevenbergen, R. (2003). Teachers’ beliefs about teaching mathematics to students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds: Implications for social justice. En L. Burton (Ed.), Which way social justice in mathematics education? (pp. 133–152). Westport CONN/London: Praeger.
Zevenbergen, R., y Niesche, R. (2008). Equity, Mathematics and Classroom Practice: Developing rich mathematical experiences for disadvantaged students. Australian Primarily Mathematics Classroom, 13(4), 21–27.
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How to Cite
Valoyes Chávez, L. E. (2015). “Blacks aren’t good for math”: Racial ideologies and mathematics teaching practices in Colombia. Revista CS, (16), 169-206. https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i16.1909
