Exploring the Mathematical Identities of Successful Latino High School Students (original) (raw)
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The purpose of this paper is to reconfigure the functions and effects of ‘play ’ as a developmental tool. We describe how researchers can apply sociocultural theory in order to better understand, and ultimately address issues related to Latinos ’ development in mathematics. The discussion draws on work conducted in an after-school, non-remedial mathematics club and focuses on the nature and role of ‘play ’ in understanding the cultural and linguistic resources Latino students utilize as they do mathematics. One purpose of this work is to create an alternative pedagogical model that challenges today’s dominant perspective of learning environments, which have proven ineffective for minority populations in the U.S. In framing our research, we maintain that students develop most efficiently through dialogues and interactions with others (Vygotsky, 1978; Cole, 2006) in order to make meaning of mathematics. “Some persons have contended that mathematics ought to be taught by making the ill...
Although urban Latinas/os have participated in mathematics workshops in urban universities for over three decades as part of the Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), few studies have explored Latina/o students' perspectives of how and why these learning environments support them in attaining mathematical success. This article presents an in-depth case study of how Vanessa, a Latina undergraduate student from an urban community, simultaneously constructed her mathematics and racial identities as she engaged in a culturally diverse, collaborative ESP Calculus I workshop situated within broader sociopolitical contexts. Vanessa's story was selected because she offered a unique perspective of how encountering identity-affirming workshop spaces aided her in constructing a strengthened self-perception as a Latina mathematics learner. Her counter-story challenges dominant ideologies that disregard the importance of viewing Latina/o students' mathematics participation and learning as racialized forms of experience.
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LATINO FAMILIES INVOLVEMENT IN THEIR CHILDREN'S MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Proceedings of the …, 2007
This study is grounded on a sociocultural perspective and focuses on the role of Latino families in their children's mathematical learning. Through parents' voices we explore possible ways of inclusion that may allow for Latino families to overcome social and educational exclusion. Latino mothers explain strategies to counteract this exclusion using resources they find in their communities.
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School Science and Mathematics, 2020
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Journal of African American Males in Education, 2011
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The Urban Review, 1999
This paper examines Latina/o student success in mathematics as a result of collective teacher beliefs and practices in a high school mathematics department. Based on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework and ethnographic data, the paper finds teacher collectivity allows teachers to develop meaningful relationships with their students. These relationships underlie the ability of teachers to advance large numbers of students to calculus by their senior year. Implications for researchers, policymakers, and teacher educators are discussed. It remains a tragedy that a significant percentage of our student population continues to perform poorly in school mathematics. We know that over the past 15 years, students of various social groups (race, class, gender, ethnicity, and language proficiency) have improved in their mathematics achievement (Tate, 1997). Yet, these gains have been made primarily in basic skills. More important, Latina/os and African-Americans continue to score well below whites and Asian-Americans on examinations of basic skills, advanced placement, and college entrance-tests which have significant life consequences for students. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has recommended strongly that in addition to basic skills, American students need to improve in their abilities to problem-solve, reason, communicate, and make connections in mathematics (NCTM, 1989). Here, too, Latina/os and African-Americans score below their white counterparts (Tate, 1997). With the proportion of Latina/o and African-American students increasing rapidly in our schools, it is imperative that we improve their mathematics performance. To improve the mathematics achievement of Latina/o and African-American
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International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2013
How do children develop identifications with mathematics over time, seeing themselves as agents in their math classrooms (or not)? This ethnographic and interview study followed nine Latino/a children with and without learning dis/abilities through two years of mathematics in a high-poverty urban school. The children participated in two distinct mathematical pedagogies (discussion-based and procedural-based) that differently constructed ability and dis/ability in mathematics. Individual children constructed unique and dynamic self-understandings as math learners over time, using the cultural resources of the multiple contexts in which they participated, including positioning through language use, ethnicity, gender, and dis/ability. Children made connections between equity and discussion-based mathematics, and between procedural mathematics and fixed conceptions of mathematical ability.