Equity & Excellence in Education

This article was downloaded by:[University of North Carolina Charlotte] On: 18 March 2008 Access Details: [subscription number 768609684] Publisher: Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Equity & Excellence in Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713770316

Double Jeopardy: The Compounding Effects of Class and Race in School Mathematics Jae Hoon Lim a a University of North Carolina at Charlotte,

Online Publication Date: 01 January 2008 To cite this Article: Lim, Jae Hoon (2008) 'Double Jeopardy: The Compounding Effects of Class and Race in School Mathematics', Equity & Excellence in Education, 41:1, 81 - 97 To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/10665680701793360 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10665680701793360

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article maybe used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Downloaded By: [University of North Carolina Charlotte] At: 18:17 18 March 2008

EQUITY & EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION, 41(1), 81–97, 2008 C University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Education Copyright ISSN: 1066-5684 print / 1547-3457 online DOI: 10.1080/10665680701793360

Double Jeopardy: The Compounding Effects of Class and Race in School Mathematics Jae Hoon Lim University of North Carolina at Charlotte

This article reports a cross-case analysis examining the impact of class and race upon two young adolescent girls’ experiences with school mathematics. Based on repeated in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation of their mathematics classroom, the researcher portrays contrasting pictures of two high-achieving, young, adolescent girls who come from different class and racial backgrounds. Although a very small sample, this study reveals the impact of class intertwined with race upon the girls’ experiences with school mathematics as well as their teacher’s evaluation of their academic potential in the discipline. I argue that traditional ways of teaching and learning mathematics present middle-class-based cultural values and dispositions as an essential, legitimate, and objective indicator of one’s academic potential. This reflects implicit classism existing at the structural level of the schooling process.

During the last three decades, researchers have confirmed persistent disparities in mathematics achievement and enrollment in advanced level mathematics classes among white, middle-class males and other groups of students, such as females, African Americans, Latinos/as, and poor students (Lee, 2002; Tate, 1997). Numerous efforts have been made to identify causes for this problem and to close the achievement and enrollment gap across various groups of students. For example, several curriculum reforms and professional development initiatives were launched to make school mathematics more relevant for culturally diverse students (e.g., Campbell & Rowan, 1997). A recent analysis of National Assesment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data nationwide, however, reported that the significant achievement gap between low socioeconomic status (SES) students and middle/upper SES students remained unchanged during the last 30 years (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2005; Tate, 1997). In his extensive review of social class and mathematics achievement across various assessments, Tate concluded that “a strong relationship between SES and mathematics achievement is evident” (p. 667) across NAEP data, SAT, and ACT scores. He identified that poverty is more prevalent among black and Latino/a students than white students, possibly creating a compounding effect of class and race among low SES minority students. More disturbing, some scholars reported that the achievement gap between Whites and ethnic minority students in mathematics stabilized or even widened during the last two decades (e.g., Lee, 2002). SES differences partially explain some of the achievement Address correspondence to Jae Hoon Lim, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, College of Education, Educational Leadership, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001. E-mail: [email protected]


82

LIM

gap, though not the entire race/ethnicity related disparity (Lee, 2002; Lubienski & Shelly, 2003). Therefore, it still remains unclear to many researchers and practitioners why the phenomenon persists and how educators can achieve equity in their mathematics classrooms. Researchers suggest that various social and cultural factors (e.g., class affiliation, ethnic membership, and gender) may influence students’ experiences in learning mathematics and affect both their motivation to acquire advanced mathematical knowledge and their actual performance in the domain (Reyes & Stanic, 1988). However, research focusing on sociocultural issues in mathematics education has not flourished. The field of mathematics education has been dominated by individual psychological approaches (Atweh, Forgasz, & Nebres, 2001) emphasizing the cognitive process rather than analyzing the structural aspect of social inequity (Tate, 1997). Concepts of class and race, which are critical to understanding sociocultural issues in mathematics education, may still be overlooked by the majority of researchers whose primary training was in math subject content and in cognitive science (Lubienski, 2002). As a result, few educational researchers have investigated the sociocultural aspects of mathematics classrooms or examined how class, race, and gender—three powerful systems of social stratification in America—are reflected in mathematics learning environments. In particular, there is a significant lack of research examining the class and racial components in a traditional math classroom environment, including cultural norms and expectations held by teachers. Little is known about how female students from different class and racial backgrounds respond to the traditional learning environment and develop positive or negative attitudes toward mathematics learning (Campbell, 1989). Therefore, I argue that there is a need to explore the intersection of class and race in girls’ everyday experience of learning mathematics from a critical and structural perspective. This mode of research helps researchers better understand the complexity of class, race, and gender inequity in the mathematics discipline by drawing attention to the implicit, yet significant, structural forces embedded in our schooling process. In particular, I examine the structural forces that shape everyday mathematics learning experiences for two girls. Instead of “blaming the victim,” I emphasize research that helps math education researchers and practitioners ponder the legitimacy and objectiveness of cultural values and dispositions often taken for granted in the current ways of mathematics teaching and learning, and become aware of their own class, racial, and gender assumptions. This cross-case analysis of two young adolescent high-achieving girls, Jessica and Stella, is part of a larger ethnographic study I conducted in a rural middle school located in the Southeast. Cross-case analysis is an analytic strategy used to elicit a conclusion or synthesis that explains the processes and outcomes of interest in multiple cases, including a “two case” case study (Yin, 2003). I first engaged in a hypothesis-generating inductive process in a single case (e.g., a student participant) and later examined the relevance of the initial hypothesis across new cases. In this report, I present only two of eight girls who participated in my study because these two high-achieving girls (one white, middle-class and the other black, working-class) exhibit the largest disparity between their reported experiences of school mathematics. In order to explain the disparity reported by the two girls’ learning experience and their teacher’s evaluation of each student’s academic potential, I use the concept of “cultural/social capital” introduced by Bourdieu and Passeron (1990). This concept is applicable to all eight participants in my study, yet these girls, Jessica and Stella, demonstrate the most dramatic contrast of learning experiences. This contrast shows the intersection of class and race upon the two girls’ different experiences of motivation and identity related to school mathematics. A detailed, thorough portrait of the two


CLASS AND RACE IN SCHOOL MATHEMATICS

83

participants poignantly reveals two possible ways, among many, in which “cultural and social capital”—fundamentally based on white, middle-class culture and values—plays a significant role in adolescent girls’ experience of mathematics learning.

THE CONCEPT OF CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CAPITAL Bourdieu and Passeron’s (1990) cultural reproduction theory sheds light on the complicated, dynamic process of class reproduction in society. They propose that there is a set of particular cultural, social, and linguistic characteristics possessed by the people of advantaged backgrounds. Bourdieu and Passeron label such cultural and social characteristics “cultural capital” and “social capital,” and argue that they actually contribute to the reproduction of the existing class structure in society through a seemingly objective, yet fundamentally biased schooling process. Cultural capital consists of “the different sets of linguistic and cultural competencies that individuals inherit by way of the class-located boundaries of their family” (Giroux, 1983, p. 268), and social capital refers to the various social relationships that facilitate one’s access to other forms of capital, such as cultural and economic networks. Bourdieu and Passeron argue that every family, either consciously or unconsciously, transmits a particular set of cultural characteristics (e.g., values, attitudes, linguistic codes) along with profitable or non-profitable social networks to their children; these characteristics subsequently help or hinder them in achieving academic and professional success in later years. Cultural reproduction theorists, of course, acknowledge that the class reproduction process on the basis of cultural and social capital is not a monolithic or mechanical procedure, but a dynamic and complex social phenomenon. No reproduction work can be done without a significant amount of voluntary participation from individuals responding to given environmental constraints. Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) explain this critical juncture—between more objective cultural properties present within an institution, and rather subjective characteristics of individuals’ beliefs and attitudes—by introducing the concept of “habitus,” a system of culturally embedded dispositions shared by both the institution and individuals. They define “habitus” as a system of durable (i.e., inscribed in the social construction of one’s identity) and transferable (from one field to another) dispositions that make groups, institutions, and individuals generate practices conforming with embedded cultural principles and rules without any expressed regulation or explicit reminder of the rule. Therefore, while an institution or group possesses its own “habitus,” a particular set of cultural characteristics and principles, and manifests it at an institutional level, such cultural characteristics and principles also can be found in the plane of individual characteristics of those participating in the community of the habitus. Participants absorb and internalize the cultural codes and principles as psychological and social characteristics and generate practices reproducing and confirming the existing habitus of the institution (Calhoun, 1993). Individuals’ practical sense of linguistic preference (e.g., preference of standard English to Black Vernacular English), developed patterns of social/cognitive engagement (e.g., separate/individuated mode of learning), or acquired “principles of vision and division (what is actually called taste) (Bourdieu, 1998, p. 25)” are often provided as examples of habitus. Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) argue that schooling systems possess institutional habitus derived from the cultural structure of the dominant group or class in society. Schools expect students to exhibit corresponding cultural and social dispositions—habitus at an individual level—


84

LIM

to confirm and reproduce the exiting institutional habitus. Therefore, the entire schooling process, including a certain form of instructional communication and academic engagement required for school success, can be understood to be class-biased and functions against working-class people who possess a different set of cultural and social characteristics. Cultural reproduction theory has emerged as a powerful tool in analyzing various schooling practices that reflect and place a high value on the cultural characteristics of the mainstream society, thereby inherently unfair and discriminating against minority or working-class students (Cooper, 1998; Zevenbergen, 2001). In the context of American society, critical theorists often embrace race/ethnicity as one of the most significant, fundamental axes in explaining social inequality and class reproduction supported by schooling processes (Ladson-Billing, 1998). Ogbu (1986) emphasizes the historical, social, and cultural situations of involuntary minority groups, such as U.S. born African Americans and Latinos/as, who have been incorporated into American society through repressive means and processes (e.g., subjugation or slavery). He explains that, historically, these “caste-like minorities” were not only deprived of political and economic power but also constantly subjected to cultural and social ideologies that denied their intellectual capacities and potential. Therefore, as a way of resisting such degrading social/cultural ideologies, disadvantaged minority groups may develop attitudes and actions in opposition to the dominant culture. Ogbu concludes that minority students’ resistance to school culture, including its norms and values, is fundamentally grounded in the devalued experience of their ethnic communities and expresses their resistance to this devaluation. Recently, a smaller number of scholars influenced by Ogbu’s or other critical theorists’ works started to examine the production/reproduction process of class/racial inequity in mathematics education (e.g., Boykin, 1986; Martin, 2000). For example, Martin (2000) reports that the educational inequality experienced by black communities still exerts negative influences upon the new generation’s learning experiences with school mathematics. Stiff and Harvey (1988) argue that the culture of traditional mathematics classrooms poses a challenge to black students because it lacks cultural relevance. Stiff (1990) suggests that the African American cultural frame of reference entails a particular set of dispositions, such as working in support groups and using a “conversational style” of discourse in an instructional situation. Yet, traditional mathematics classrooms remain largely based on individual and procedural work and employ an elaborate syntactical discourse as the acceptable form of communication for mathematics learning. The African American cultural frame of reference or “Afrocultural ethos” (Boykin, Tyler, & Miller, 2005, p. 521) could be found across different spectra of social class within a black community (Timm, 1999), yet such cultural differences/conflicts seem most visible and were frequently documented in urban schools serving primarily working-class, black students. For example, Boykin and his colleagues (2005) confirm that there is a consistent cultural mismatch between workingclass, black students and their teachers in urban schools. Experiencing a significant mismatch between their own cultural dispositions and what is expected of them in a traditional mathematics classroom, black students—particularly working-class, black students—may feel a high level of anxiety, and even inadequacy, in their endeavor to succeed in mathematics (Reyes & Stanic, 1988; Ryan & Ryan, 2005).

THE CONTEXTS OF COMMUNITY AND SCHOOL My ethnographic research was conducted with a 6th grade mathematics teacher and two groups of her students enrolled either in an advanced or regular mathematics class. The middle school



85

was located in a rural area, yet had an ethnically and economically diverse student population consisting of 70% white and 26% black pupils with a very limited number of Hispanic students. The proportion of students living below the poverty level was 16% and almost half of students (44%) were eligible to receive free or reduced-fee lunches. Historically, the county had about equal size racial communities, white and black, living in separate residential areas. During the last several years the county, however, experienced a slow, yet steady influx of educated, middle-class, white families from adjacent urban areas (Rural Development Center, Cooperative Extension Service, & The University of Georgia, 1984, 2001), which significantly increased the proportion of white students at the middle school. This recent demographic change also exacerbated the existing economic disparity between two groups of students at the school, newly arrived, white, middle-class professional families joining with traditionally wealthy, white families operating their own farm business in the county, and a significant number of “rural poor” students including, yet not limited to, many black students. Even though low income and poverty plagued the lives of both white and black students at the school, the percentages of school-aged children living below the poverty level in the county differed significantly between the two racial communities. Less than 10% of white children aged 5 to 17 lived in poverty, compared to 32% of African American children of the same ages (Rural Development Center, 2001; United States Census Bureau, n. d). The entire teaching force at the middle school was white, reflecting the fact that only 0.2% of African Americans in the county held a bachelor’s degree while 16.3% of white residents had bachelor’s or graduate degrees. High school drop-out and graduation rates from the county’s high school(s) revealed a contrasting disparity between the two racial groups of students. In 1996, the percentage of African American students entering high school was 36.5% while Caucasian students were 63%. After four years, in 2000, among all high school graduates in the county, only 16.5% were African Americans and 81% were Whites. The graduation rate for this student cohort (1996–2000) was 53%, making the dropout rate for this student cohort 47%. Furthermore, among the total of all high school graduates who received a college prep diploma, only 6.1% were African American students; 87.9% were white. Not surprisingly, student demographics in advanced, regular, and remedial math classes at the middle school also exhibited racial disparity. Disproportionately more black students attended either regular or various kinds of remedial classes than advanced ones. I recruited eight girls from Mrs. Oliver’s two math classes on the basis of their initial math achievement scores, current academic status in their class, and racial membership. I collected three types of data throughout one semester: participant observation data from the advanced and regular math classes taught by the participating teacher; repeated interviews with the teacher, the eight selected participants, and some school personnel (including other 6th grade teachers); and I reviewed a collection of school records and other school-based documents. Additional observation data were acquired from other classes, such as reading and remedial mathematics, as well as from various sites at the school, such as the library and playground. Thematic analysis using codes and categories was conducted to compare and contrast information from the students, teachers, and classes (Coffey & Atkinsons, 1996). I present only two top-performing girls from the advanced class (Jessica, a white, middle-class student and Stella, a black, working-class student) because they exhibited the largest disparity between their reported experiences of school mathematics despite their comparable academic performances and seemingly positive relationships with their teacher. My core theoretical concept, “cultural/social capital,” was highly applicable to all eight girls who participated in the larger ethnographic study, yet I found that the cross-analysis of these two high-achieving girls poignantly


86

LIM

reveals how cultural and social capital—fundamentally based on white, middle-class culture and values—plays a critical role in supporting (or hindering) their academic pursuit to learn a higher level of mathematical knowledge.

THE TEACHER AND CLASSROOM CONTEXTS Both of the participants reported in this article, Jessica and Stella, attended Mrs. Oliver’s 4th period advanced sixth grade mathematics class at the school. Their mathematics teacher, Mrs. Oliver, a white teacher with 25 years of teaching experience, was known as one of the most effective and respected mathematics teachers in the county. She was an extremely hard-working, enthusiastic teacher who believed in the value of school work and benefits of education in her students’ lives: She often gave up her private time to provide extra instruction for students who approached her for additional help. She expected that everybody agreed on the value of education no matter their background. In fact, very few students I interviewed, either white or black, doubted that she was a devoted and serious teacher. However, Mrs. Oliver’s teaching mathematics also reflected some of the major challenges in mathematics education. She started to teach sixth grade mathematics not based on her professional training or preference but because of a chronic shortage of math teachers in the county. She perceived mathematics as static knowledge and adhered to a somewhat traditional mode of instruction: authoritative, procedural, and individual work-based (Ball, 1990). Mrs. Oliver was also one of the “strict teachers” at the middle school. She held a clear set of rules, and exhibited a very firm demeanor with the students in her math class. She strongly believed in the effectiveness of her strict disciplinarian approach to mathematics learning. Mrs. Oliver identified a self-motivated, hard-working attitude as one of the most important qualities that students must develop in order to succeed in mathematics—a tough and difficult subject to learn. She eagerly committed herself to the students who were concerned about their academic performance and determined to work hard. Mrs. Oliver, though highly confident, also had some teaching challenges. What seemed to trouble her most was a group of students, white as well as black, who seemed not to care about their learning. She observed that those students came from families with little parental support and supervision. She believed that these students had not developed the level of motivation and self-discipline at home that was needed to master the content of mathematics and succeed at school. In order to help the students develop the desirable dispositions and self-discipline, she applied strict classroom rules to control their behavior and monitored their progress very closely. This was her way of expressing high expectation for and caring about the students, yet it also created a clear distance between her and the non-conforming students. Many of her white, middle-class students interpreted her strict and firm attitude as an expression of high expectations for their academic success. These students shared the same assumption that school is fair with Mrs. Oliver and identified themselves with their teacher. In contrast, those from working-class backgrounds, including many black students, who deeply doubted the fairness of school practices, experienced her strict disciplinarian approach differently. These students acknowledged that their mathematics teacher cared or at least was concerned about their learning, yet they still felt uncomfortable and insecure when the teacher tried to engage them by using a reward/punishment system. These students viewed the teacher’s firm attitude and strict



87

rules as something that could hurt them at any time—because school was not fair to them and teachers treated them differently. These two groups of students brought their prior knowledge and experience with school and teachers into the classroom. As a result, despite the teacher’s good intention and hard work, Mrs. Oliver’s students tended to experience the math class differently based on their class and racial membership.1

JESSICA: STRIVING FOR SUCCESS Jessica was one of the high achieving white girls in Mrs. Oliver’s advanced math class—called “fourth period.” She was known as being from a middle-, “possibly upper-middle” class family. Her mother, a healthcare professional, communicated with the school on a regular basis, often volunteering for school activities. Jessica was an exemplary student: punctual, organized, wellprepared, and attentive. She was one of very few students who actually raised her hand and asked a question if she needed more explanation from her mathematics teacher.

“Loving strict”: Cultural Capital Shared in Family and School Jessica described her experience of learning mathematics in Mrs. Oliver’s class positively. She felt comfortable learning mathematics in a structured setting with a firm, clear expectation from the teacher, saying, “I kind of like strict teachers, so when the first day of school she was kind of strict, I said, ‘Oooh, I think I’m going to like her.”’ In her view, a strict teacher meant a responsible and loving teacher who made sure that students learned. Her level of comfort in Mrs. Oliver’s class was related to previous experience with her parents, particularly her father, whom she described as “loving strict.” Jessica found that her father and Mrs. Oliver used a similar approach to help her succeed and accepted the teacher’s strictness as an expression of care and support. Furthermore, valuing their dispositions—strict and tough—Jessica identified with them and believed that she also possessed the same characteristics. Jessica viewed her relationship with teachers in school contexts as an extension of her relationship with her parents. She did not feel a significant difference between her home and school in terms of respective values, behavioral codes, and expectations. Rather she perceived that her parents tried to foster the same dispositions and standards in her life. Jessica had a clear goal for learning mathematics. She understood the usefulness of school mathematics and its instrumental value in her current school success and future professional career. Elaborating on the possible uses of mathematics in her career, Jessica firmly stated, “I want to be a pharmacist. . . . You should be good at math because not everybody can get into the [pharmacy school]” and “it’s getting very competitive.” Because of this clear professional goal, Jessica never doubted the value of effort invested into mathematics learning. Like other students in Mrs. Oliver’s math class, Jessica occasionally felt anxious and worried because of the competitive and individual nature of work in the space, yet, her anxiety tended to be time- and event-specific (e.g., occurring the day before a test or while taking a difficult test). In general, she was aware of the reason for her anxiety and accepted it as a productive feeling that would motivate her to study harder. In any case, her anxiety was hardly related to the teacher’s strict observance of classroom rules that affected other students.


88

LIM

Not surprisingly, Jessica exhibited a strong conformist view about school and teachers. She strove for strong self-discipline, meticulous and accurate study skills, and an ethic of hard work. Most of those characteristics were fostered in Jessica through the upbringing of her parents, while others resulted from socializing with her friends. Jessica’s assertiveness, high motivation, and conformity were acknowledged by Mrs. Oliver as a sign of academic potential. The teacher described Jessica as self-assertive and self-motivated and assumed she would proceed to college. [Jessica] is a good worker. She does her work. And she’s concerned about learning. Some of them, you know, feel it’s ok if they get a good grade; it’s ok if not. But she wants to learn and she wants to [succeed]. And I feel like that she will go on to college. So she needs to be prepared and get into that pre-algebra class as soon as she can.

In the classroom, Mrs. Oliver often overestimated Jessica’s performance, presuming that she already knew everything being discussed. Even though at times Jessica could not answer or explain the answer to a specific math question, Mrs. Oliver responded, “You may have forgotten,” or “Yes, you know, but you just have a hard time telling me.”

“They call us smarties”: Social Capital and Construction of Collective Identity Literature indicates that young adolescence is a critical period of time in one’s identity development (Gilligan, 1993). Jessica was not an exception: Her “we” (her social clique) frequently appeared in her interview data showing her close tie to her friends. Jessica’s social clique consisted of white girls from similar class backgrounds, yet most of her friends were not in the same math class with her but in another class that included other high-achieving math students at the school. Jessica repeatedly proclaimed that all of her friends were good students who “love school” and “like mathematics.” She enjoyed being identified as a member of her social clique known for their high academic performance at the school: “They call us smarties . . . I take that as a compliment.” Her socialization with other high-achieving girls gave her a sense of collective identity and feeling of belonging to the group. Jessica wanted to excel in her current class so that she could join her clique in a pre-algebra class the following year. Grounded in her collective identity with her smart friends, Jessica rarely doubted her ability to be a successful mathematics student. Mrs. Oliver knew that all of Jessica’s close friends were in another advanced math class and that the majority of that class would be placed in the pre-algebra class the following year. “Most of [Jessica’s] friends are part of that first period class. So she would probably just be part of the group . . . Most of the time it’s [students] out of that first period class that she associates with and spends a lot of time with.” Mrs. Oliver believed that Jessica belonged in the first period group and expected her to “get into that pre-algebra class” along with her close friends. Based on her contact with Jessica’s parents, Mrs. Oliver knew that “they expect Jessica to do well” and that they provide parental support for her education. The teacher believed that Jessica’s college education and professional career were a predictable consequence of her disposition and her family’s support. At the end of the year, Mrs. Oliver directed Jessica to the pre-algebra class for the following year. “I expect her to be on track.”



89

Clearly, Jessica was on the right track. Her family and school, represented by the mathematics teacher, formed a cultural and social alliance that supported her smooth transition from home to school. Both parties shared white, middle-class cultural values, such as strong self-discipline and assertiveness, readiness to ask questions, a hard work ethic, and belief in meritocracy. Being exposed to such middle-class-based cultural and social capital at her home and among her peer group, Jessica developed values, attitudes, and dispositions that reflected those of mathematics learning habitus in a traditional mathematics classroom. Her parents, friends, and teachers transmitted a positive message to her, reaffirming her ability, the legitimacy of her goal, and her way of pursuing it. As a result, Jessica had strong confidence in her ability and was aware of the path she needed to follow to achieve success.

STELLA: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS Stella, a high-achieving black girl from a working-class background was another exemplary student in Mrs. Oliver’s fourth period, the same class as Jessica’s; yet her experience with school mathematics was less positive than Jessica’s. Initially, Stella impressed me as a quiet, meticulous, and hard-working student. Mrs. Oliver described her as “a very quiet and sweet girl.” During the first interview, however, Stella surprised me by revealing unexpected sides of her personality: “real loud” and “wild.” She described herself as a cheerful, sociable girl, proud of her outstanding singing voice and athletic talent. In her mathematics classroom, however, she always sat in the back near the door, rarely asking a question or speaking in public.

“Just different”: Cultural Conflict between Home and School Stella was one of only three black girls in Mrs. Oliver’s advanced math fourth period class with the possibility of entering the pre-algebra class the following year. However, unlike Jessica, she suffered from a high level of anxiety and fear in her mathematics classroom. All three of her interviews revealed her uncomfortable feelings about her mathematics class and her ability to learn mathematics. Well . . . [pause] when I get in there, I’ll be thinking that we’re going to do something hard that day . . . [pause] It be messed up all the time, messed up everywhere. . . . The first day I went in there I didn’t talk. I didn’t do nothing. My stomach was hurting real bad. I was just like nervous. I didn’t ask no questions. I just sat there. And when she called on me to do something, I just . . . didn’t say anything, I just sat there. I was scared.

Stella’s anxiety in Mrs. Oliver’s mathematics classroom was based on several factors. Most of all, Stella poignantly described the dislocation of her two social worlds—one of family and friends and the other of school and mathematics. She explained the huge difference in her identities, her ways of feeling and acting, when she was in school and when she was at home. Her home was a place of freedom, where she was accepted as she was. In contrast, Stella perceived the school, especially her mathematics class, as a dangerous place where she had to constantly monitor and control her behaviors in order to not “get into trouble.” She worried if she “would carry” her “real


90

LIM

loud” personality at school too much without even knowing it, and be labeled as a troublemaker. Stella was very conscious about her own behaviors at school, and self-monitored them constantly, which made Mrs. Oliver perceive her as “a very quiet and sweet girl.” Presenting herself as a quiet and respectful—even obedient—student was Stella’s strategy to adapt to her math class that emphasized separate, authoritative, individual work-based learning. Despite her affirmative and favorable view about Mrs. Oliver, Stella admitted that she felt insecure in the “good” math teacher’s room, as if she was in a “mean” teacher’s room. Stella, in addition, could not completely give up her desire to learn in a more comfortable atmosphere; she chose to sit in the far back of the classroom with another black girl and a few white, working-class girls sharing a similar discomfort in the space. Like her close, white, working-class peers, Stella listed language arts class as her favorite class, where the teacher used more collaborative, group-based instructions and allowed students’ free body movement to a larger extent. Stella’s parents were proud of their high-achieving daughter and hoped for her success in school. However, they confessed being uncomfortable about schools and teachers based on their past schooling experiences. In particular, school mathematics was something beyond their capacity for parental support. They were not aware of different levels of math tracks available and how success or failure in mathematics would influence Stella’s academic endeavors and aspiration to attend medical school in order to become a pediatrician. As a result, Stella had little understanding about the instrumental value of learning mathematics for her future career, an understanding that was clearly articulated by Jessica and other high-achieving white peers in the advanced classes. Her descriptions of use of mathematics always presented a simple calculation of numbers as the ultimate goal of mathematics learning, “like if you work at a store” or “if you get a job as a secretary.” Stella did not have a success story to emulate. What she kept hearing at home was the story of her cousin who had failed in high school mathematics even though “she was very smart.” Few members of her core and extended family had positive experiences with school mathematics. Stella‘s cousin warned her, “Even though you’re smart, it’s probably gonna be hard to do what you [need to do] . . . like knowing the stuff like that” making her “scared.” Little support or guidance was available to Stella as she tried to adapt herself to the impersonal, competitive, and separate learning environment of her mathematics classroom. As a result, even though Stella successfully constructed and practiced an alternative identity—a “very quiet and sweet” one—in order to be accepted and acknowledged by the math teacher, she continued to experience a feeling of difference, inadequacy, and inferiority in relation to high-achieving, middle-class, white girls. This fostered in her mind a high level of anxiety, negative self-prophecy, and doubt about her ability to achieve excellence in the mathematics domain.

“To me, she do”: Dislocation of Social World within School Stella’s position among her peers also posed a challenge in her effort to identify herself with her mathematics teacher. Stella strongly believed that Mrs. Oliver was a good teacher and acknowledged her mathematical competency. However, Stella’s close friends, other black girls in “regular math classes” did not have a favorable view of the mathematics teacher. Stella experienced confusion and inner conflict in understanding her mathematics teacher and friends. When I asked Stella to describe the mathematics teacher in detail, she replied:



91

Well, she’s a good teacher. Some folks say she’s mean. Because when they ask for help she’ll probably . . . [pause] probably don’t want them . . . [long pause] Well, if they ask for help and she’ll tell them, but they probably won’t get it that good, so they’ll probably say she’s mean like that. But I think she’s nice. I get, whenever she be talking about a subject, I get it, because she explains it good. To me, she do. But I don’t know to other people, how other people think and [whether] she explains it . . . I don’t know.

Stella’s desire to maintain a good relationship with both her teacher and her friends turned out to be very difficult because there was tension already existing between the two. In order to avoid such dilemma and contradiction, Stella often resorted to her subjective knowing—“to me, she do” or drew herself back into an intentional ignorance: “I don’t know.” In her everyday school life, Stella constantly hid “real” self from both sides to be accepted: She consciously monitored her own behaviors in the math class in order to be positively evaluated by the teacher. On the other hand, Stella also hid her high achieving status—hiding her high test scores—from her peers to be as humble and invisible as possible. By doing this, Stella felt distance and difference between herself and her close friends as well as from Mrs. Oliver. Stella confessed to a deep self-alienation in learning mathematics. Proceeding without meaningful purpose and supporting cultural and social structures, she did not know what she was doing, why she was doing it, or what the end result of her struggle would be. Stella described herself as a “rat in a maze,” unveiling her lonely and painful struggle in her mathematics learning. “I think of math like . . . I’m in some kind of hard thing that I’m trying to get out of. Like a maze. I’m like a rat. You know how they put the rat in the mazes. I think of that. And I’m trying to get out, but it’s hard, too hard.” Stella’s aspiration for school success was not supported by her teacher, who barely understood Stella’s inner conflicts and failed to appreciate her potential for learning mathematics. Because Stella remained very quiet sitting in the back, and her working speed was slower than that of other high-achieving students, the teacher underestimated her mathematical ability. Stella’s test scores and grades declined over the year, yet were slightly higher than Jessica’s. However, Stella’s name was not on the teacher’s recommended list for the seventh-grade pre-algebra class. The teacher’s projection for Stella’s career was “a two-year or possibly a four-year college and a semi-professional job.” Still another issue contributed to Mrs. Oliver’s underestimation of Stella’s mathematical potential. The teacher doubted that the girl was working hard enough in her class, a factor that she often cited as the most important individual characteristic for learning higher mathematics. Mrs. Oliver believed that Stella was “not as interested in her academics as a whole” but “happy just doing what everybody else does.” “Simply because she likes where she is, she’s comfortable. She likes that area of comfort. So she did not want to get out of that box into a box where she’s going to have to struggle.” Mrs. Oliver was disappointed that Stella “doesn’t say ‘I can do better than this,’ or ‘I’m going to see what I missed and see if I can pull it up.”’ The teacher did not find in Stella the same level of assertiveness or self-motivation as Jessica clearly exhibited. As a result, Mrs. Oliver simply viewed Stella as a passive learner or, at best, not as motivated as she should have been. Stella was not sure which track she really wanted to enroll in for the next year. On one hand she hoped to study in the pre-algebra class even though she was concerned that it might be a “too smart” class for her. On the other hand, she wanted to be with her friends in a regular mathematics


92

LIM

class. She said, “I don’t know” in response to my question about her preference for a mathematics class the following year. Stella repeated, “I don’t know” 48 times throughout her three interviews showing a stark contrast to Jessica who used the same phrase only 8 times in her three interviews. Stella’s best strategy—presenting herself as “a very quiet and sweet girl’ to the teacher while being invisible to her black peers—did not provide her with an opportunity to pursue a higher level of mathematics learning. The teacher expected the opposite disposition in her as the sign of academic potential—an assertive, self-motivated, active learner, therefore, clearly visible in the classroom.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY: CLASS AND RACE IN POOR MINORITY GIRLS’ MATHEMATICS LEARNING Jessica’s and Stella’s contrasting profiles as reported in this paper suggest the interconnectedness of class, race, and gender issues in mathematics education. These two high- achieving girls clearly presented different sets of cultural and social dispositions based on their class and racial membership, which became a fundamental basis for their negotiation or construction of academic identity in the discipline. The impact of white, middle-class-based cultural and social capital is revealed in the two girls’ experiences with school mathematics, as well as in their teacher’s evaluation of each student’s academic potential based on a seemingly unproblematic, yet fundamentally biased assumption about essential characteristics (dispositions) of potentially successful students. First, this comparison suggests a critical outlook toward the general culture of a mathematics classroom that can be generalized to middle and high schools across the country. The two participating girls’ experiences with school mathematics were fundamentally grounded in the cultural characteristics of their mathematics classroom that emphasized separate, procedural, individual, and competitive work. Clearly, there was a difference between the way that mathematics teaching and learning was structured and practiced in Mrs. Oliver’s math classroom (e.g., emphases on individual rather than cooperative work, limited body movement, and structured communication mode) and Stella’s cultural and social dispositions (Stiff, 1990). Black students’ communication style (e.g., free verbal expression and talking aloud) and learning preference (e.g., holistic, relational, and field-dependent) were rarely respected in the classroom space; rather they were considered disruptive behaviors or, at best, an attitude non-conducive to mathematics learning (Neal, McCray, Webb-Johnson, & Bridgest, 2003). It should be noted that some of these learning characteristics, such as field-dependent (Bond, 1981) and collective and mutual (Foley, 2005), also have been referred to as the cognitive/learning style of working-class people and students. Stella’s self-description as a “real, real loud” girl and her increased level of free communication/collective group work with peers in another class—where such behaviors were more accepted—provide a glimpse into the reason for the extremely high anxiety she experienced in Mrs. Oliver’s class. Relational, collective learning and less strained communication—her more natural and comfortable way of being—seemed impossible in the authoritative and procedural math classroom. Stella had to show a different set of cultural and learning dispositions to be regarded as a good student in this learning environment. Some mathematics educators and researchers have expressed concerns about the mismatch between the instructional methods used in mathematics classes and the cultural experience of black students (Ladson-Billings, 1998; Robert, 2003). Robert argues that white teachers tend



93

to develop their lesson plans and instructional strategies based on their own cultural experience as a member of the white community. Black students are at a disadvantage in developing their motivation and even making sense of the instruction as a whole because the instruction is not based on their experience. Class adds another layer of challenges to black, working-class students. Critical theorists (e.g., Giroux, 1983) explain that schools in a capitalist society present middleclass cultural practices and dispositions as legitimate tools and goals for education while treating the cultural/communication styles of working-class people as inferior or worthless. Teachers as “pedagogical authority” (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990, p. 11) tend to act in a way that serves the economic and symbolic interests of the dominant social class in society. Boykin et al.’s (2005) study that revealed even black teachers exhibited mainstream cultural behaviors in their predominantly black urban schools partially illuminates this complex dynamic of class and race. While acknowledging the compounding impact of class and race, researchers found that some mathematics teaching strategies reflecting black, working-class students’ cultural and learning dispositions were more effective. They reported that providing a cooperative learning environment in which teachers engage students in group projects and connect their academic work to everyday life experiences/examples is crucial to successful mathematic learning experiences of low SES minority students (Balfanz, Legters, & Jordan, 2004; Boaler, 2006). From a gender perspective, this problem of cultural mismatch may pose a critical challenge to working-class minority girls, considering women’s different ways of knowing: Girls, as connected knowers, tend to rely on the commonality of experience, rather than authority, as they try to access another person’s idea or knowledge (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986). Jessica who was able to make some cultural and relational connection between her home and school appeared to be more comfortable with the authoritative and procedural learning environment than others. In contrast, when the possibility of such connectedness is slim, almost invisible, the task of understanding an abstract mathematical concept or procedure through a teacher may become a challenging task to working-class minority girls. From this perspective, it seems rather inevitable that in the case of Stella, the path to a higher level of mathematics learning did not appear as a pleasant, desirable, and promising one; it looked more like an unsafe route to her. This partially explains the reason for mathematically competent black girls’ reluctance to enroll in advanced math courses (Signer & Beasley, 1997) and dearth of black women in mathematics or related fields (Henrion, 1997). Researchers observed that positive effects of class/SES on girls’ choice of math and science related fields were stronger than boys’ choice of those disciplinary fields (Trusty, Robinson, Plata, & Ng, 2000). As a result, women in mathematics and related fields tend to come from middle- to upper-class families—often in significantly higher numbers than those of their male counterparts in the same disciplines (Oakes, 1990). It should be noted that class and racial membership created a whole new set of social and psychological dynamics in the two girls’ experiences with school mathematics due to such (dis)connected experience and identity with their math teacher. Given the small sample size and the conflation of race/class identity in the two young adolescent girls reported here, findings from this study are limited in explaining the concrete relationship between class/race and the mathematics learning experience of girls with differing class and racial backgrounds. However, this study suggests that there could be a subtle, yet powerful (dis)connection and dynamics existing between the cultural structure of their math classroom and each student’s class/race-based disposition, which determines their “right” place in the school’s math streaming system. Researchers explained that the level that various forms of


94

LIM

cultural and social capital work against working-class, minority students is very subtle and deeprooted. For example, Zevenbergen’s (2001) study points out that the disadvantage of students coming from other than mainstream society happens at a very subtle level of instruction—the linguistic code that is embedded in instructional conversation in the mathematics classrooms. A student’s ability to effectively use the “right form” of linguistic code in an instructional communication is viewed as a sign of the student’s academic competency. Based on previous research studies reporting teachers’ bias against those speaking Black Vernacular English (e.g., Cross, DeVaney, & Jones, 2001; Franklin & Ehri, 1999), Stella’s use of Black Vernacular should be noted as one of the possible factors shaping the teacher’s less favorable evaluation, although not noted by the teacher. Yet, the most critical—and clear—evidence of institutional classism found in this study, lead us to see more than linguistic habitus formerly discussed in the literature. This study reveals that the teacher’s evaluation of and expectation for a student’s academic potential are based on the observed dispositions of the student—one’s expressed eagerness to learn, active participation, and strong self-discipline and assertiveness—grounded in white, middle-class culture and value system. This finding shows that the schooling system, or at the very least this particular classroom, acknowledges a set of white, middle-class-based values and dispositions as the legitimate, objective signs of academic potential creating invisible hurdles against those coming with a different set of dispositions. Disparity in the social capital that supports or fails to support each of two participants’ mathematics learning should be noted as well. Previous studies reported that peer-relationship and social network are critical to the development of students’ positive academic identities during the years of adolescence (Horvat & Lewis, 2003; A. M. Ryan, 2001). This analysis shows how collective identity based on a particular group of peers generates a great advantage or disadvantage to the development of an individual’s academic identity, and how it affects a teacher’s evaluation of the student’s mathematical potential. However, relevant application of the concept (social capital) in this study extends well beyond the girls’ peer-relationship. The two participants’ differing portraits poignantly reflect the contrasting profiles of their own racial and class-based communities—white, middle-class and black, working-class—in the county, which controlled the nature and boundary of their school experience and possible outcome at the structural level. The persistent economic and educational disparity between the two racially segregated communities stems from the gloomy past of the region and explains the lack of minority faculty at the school and the teacher’s differentiated expectation for each student (Gregory & Mosley, 2004). The significant overlap of class and racial stratifications in the community—prevalent in many other places across the nation—was the embedded social structure that generated the compounding effect of class with race in the results of this study. Through the application of Bourdieu’s (1998) cultural/social capital theory, it is clear that the current inequity problem in mathematics education is not a coincidence but an inevitable consequence of the systematic process of exclusion embedded in the very culture and practices of school mathematics. Even though the theory may not provide a clean, simple solution, it helps reveal what is most needed in the discipline—a conscious, consistent, and collective effort to critically examine the class and racial affiliation of cultural dispositions and values embedded in the institutional form of mathematical knowledge and instructional practices prevalent in our schools. Many seemingly objective, unproblematic practices in school mathematics, even most innovative reform efforts, could be fundamentally biased against working-class, racial minority students (Lubienski, 2000). Through such self-reflective efforts, mathematics educators could



95

push the boundary of their disciplinary discourse creating some open space in which different class, racial, and cultural groups of students explore the possibility of their intellectual pursuit in a way that is most appealing and makes sense to them. What is extremely important—and urgent—is to help educators understand that the educational system in the United States has functioned against the hopes and interests of working-class African Americans and Latino/a (Spring, 1997), and it still continues to do so through the seemingly unproblematic, yet fundamentally biased schooling process. Educators’ critical understanding of the schooling system itself and their sense of advocacy for students coming from historically marginalized racial and class backgrounds (Parsons, 2005) is critical to shaping their everyday “teaching as social activism” (Gutstein, Lipman, Hernandez, & Reyes, 1997, p. 732). Most important, however, is that it involves more than an individual student’s or teacher’s agency to create the possible strategies that would lead to a more equitable intellectual pursuit and joyful learning in school mathematics across diverse groups of students: It demands that multiple agencies work together critically examining the current structure and practice of school mathematics in light of their class and racial origins, and constantly solicit strategies that effectively disturb or counteract class reproduction processes across the various pipelines in the discipline. I, therefore, argue that there should be systematic examination and intervention built in the entire public school system directed toward various groups of disadvantaged students. Without such realization and commitment at a structural level—claiming schools a space for social justice (Giroux, 1997)—it would be hard to make a significant difference, a positive long-term lasting effect, in the most marginalized groups of students—black, working-class girls who face double jeopardy in their pursuit of higher level of mathematics learning.

NOTE 1. I would argue that social class was the most critical factor determining each student’s membership in these two groups that coexisted in Mrs. Oliver’s math classes. I often observed that working-class, nonconforming, white students connected themselves with black students based on their shared experience in the space. Yet, race was still an important, complicating factor situating black students’ experiences in the larger school and community context—which included the chronic economic and educational disparity between the two racial communities.

REFERENCES Atweh, B. H., Forgasz, H., & Nebres, B. (Eds.). (2001). Sociocultural research on mathematics education: An international perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Balfanz, R., Legters, N., & Jordan, W. (2004). Catching up: Effect of the talent development ninth-grade instructional interventions in reading and mathematics in high-poverty high schools. NASSP Bulletin, 88(641), 3–30. Ball, D. L. (1990). The mathematical understanding that prospective teachers bring to teacher education. Elementary School Journal, 90(4), 449–466. Belenky, M. F., Clinchy B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. New York: Basic Books. Boaler, J. (2006). Promoting respectful learning. Educational Leadership, 63(5), 74–78. Bond, G. C. (1981). Social economic status and educational achievement: A review article. Anthropology and Education, 12(4), 227–257. Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.


96

LIM

Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (R. Nice, Trans.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Boykin, A. W. (1986). The triple quandary and the schooling of Afro-American children. In U. Neisser (Ed.), The school achievement of minority children: New perspectives (pp. 57–92). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Boykin, A. W., Tyler, K. M., & Miller, O. (2005). In search of cultural themes and their expressions in the dynamics of classroom life. Urban Education, 40(2), 521–549. Calhoun, C. (1993). Habitus, field, and capital: The question of historical specificity. In C. Calhoun, E. LiPuma, & M. Postone (Eds.), Bourdieu: Critical perspective (pp. 61–88). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Campbell, P. B. (1989). So what do we know with the poor, non-white females?: Issues of gender, race, and social class in mathematics and equity. Peabody Journal of Education, 66(2), 95–112. Campbell, P. F., & Rowan, T. E. (1997). Project IMPACT: Influencing and supporting teacher change in predominantly minority schools. In E. Fennema & B. S. Nelson (Eds.), Mathematics teachers in transition (pp. 309–355). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Coffey, A., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data: Complimentary research strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Cooper, B. (1998). Using Bernstein and Bourdieu to understand children’s difficulties with “realistic” mathematics testing: An exploratory study. Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(4), 511–632. Cross, J. B., DeVaney, T., & Jones, G. (2001). Pre-service teacher attitudes toward differing dialects. Linguistics and Education, 12, 211–227. Foley, G. (2005). Educational institutions: Supporting working-class learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No.106, 37–44. Franklin, G., & Ehri, L. (1999). Your dialect could place you on the wrong side of the intelligence bell curve. Negro Education Review, 50, 89–100. Gilligan, C. (1993). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Giroux, H. (1983). Theories of reproduction and resistance in the new sociology of education: A critical analysis. Harvard Educational Review, 53(3), 257–293. Giroux, H. A. (1997). Pedagogy and politics of hope: Theory, culture and schooling: A critical reader. Boulder, CO: Westview. Gregory, A., & Mosely, P. (2004). The discipline gap: Teachers’ view on the over-representation of African American students in the discipline system. Equity & Excellence in Education, 37(1), 18–30. Gutstein, E., Lipman, P., Hernandez, P., & Reyes, R. (1997). Culturally relevant mathematics teaching in a Mexican American context. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(6), 709–737. Horvat, E. M., & Lewis, K. S. (2003). Reassessing the “burden of ‘acting White”’: The importance of peer groups in managing academic success, Sociology of Education, 76(4), 265–280. Henrion, C. (1997). Women in mathematics: The addition of difference. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7–24. Lee, J. (2002). Racial and ethnic achievement gap trends: Reversing the progress toward equity? Educational Researcher, 31(1), 3–12. Lubienski, S. T. (2000). A clash of social class culture? Students’ experiences in a discussion-intensive seventh-grade mathematics classroom. The Elementary School Journal, 100(4), 377–403. Lubienski, S. T. (2002). Research, reform, and equity in U.S. mathematics education. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4(2&3), 103–125. Lubienski, S. T., & Shelley, M. C. (2003, April). A closer look at US mathematics instruction and achievement. A paper presented at the annual meeting of American Educational Research Association. Chicago, IL. Martin, D. B. (2000). Mathematics success and failure among African American youth: The roles of sociohistorical context, community forces, school influence, and individual agency. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. National Center for Education Statistics. (2005). The nation’s report card: Mathematics 2005 Grade 5 & 8 (NCES 2006-453). Washington: Author. Neal, L. I., McCray, A. D., Webb-Johnson, G., & Bridgest, S. T. (2003). The effects of African American movement styles on teachers’ perceptions and reactions. The Journal of Special Education, 37(1), 49–57.



97

Oakes, J. (1990). Opportunities, achievement, and choice: Women and minority students in science and mathematics. Review of Research in Education, 16, 153–222. Ogbu, J. U. (1986). The consequences of the American caste system. In U. Neisser (Ed.), The school achievement of minority children: New perspectives (pp. 19–56). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Parsons, E. C. (2005). From caring as a relation to culturally relevant caring: A white teacher’s bridge to black students. Equity & Excellence in Education, 38(1), 25–34. Reyes, L. H., & Stanic, G. M. A. (1988). Race, sex, socioeconomic status, and mathematics. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 19(1), 26–43. Robert, B. Q., III. (2003). Mathematics standards, cultural styles, and learning preferences: The plight and the promise of African American students. Clearing House, 76(5), 244–249. Rural Development Center, Cooperative Extension Service, & The University of Georgia. (1984). The Georgia County guide. Tifton, GA: Author. Rural Development Center, Cooperative Extension Service, & The University of Georgia. (2001). The Georgia County guide. Tifton, GA: Author. Ryan, A. M. (2001). The peer group as a context for the development of young adolescent motivation and achievement. Child Development, 72(4), 1135–1150. Ryan, K. E., & Ryan, A. M. (2005). Psychological processes underlying stereotype threat and standardized math test performance. Educational Psychologist, 40(1), 53–63. Signer, B., & Beasley, T. M. (1997). Interaction of ethnicity, mathematics achievement level, socioeconomic status, and gender among high school students’ mathematics self-concepts. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 2(4), 377–393. Spring, J. (1997). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education of dominated cultures in the United States (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Stiff, L. V. (1990). African American students and the promise of the curriculum and evaluation standards. In T. J. Cooney & C. R. Hirsch (Eds.), Teaching and learning mathematics in the 1990s (pp. 152–158). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Stiff, L. V., & Harvey, W. B. (1988). On the education of black children in mathematics. Journal of Black Studies, 19(2), 190–203. Tate, W. (1997). Race-ethnicity, SES, gender, and language proficiency trends in mathematics achievement: An update. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(6), 652–679. Timm, J. T. (1999). The relationship between culture and cognitive style: A review of the evidence and some reflections for the classroom. Mid-Western Educational Researcher, 12(2), 36–44. Trusty, J., Robinson, C., Plata, M., & Ng, K. (2000). Effects of gender, SES, and early academic performance on postsecondary educational choice. Journal of Counseling & Development, 78, 463–472. United States Census Bureau. (n.d.). State & county quick facts. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/13221.html Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Zevenbergen, R. (2001) Mathematics, social class, and linguistic capital: An analysis of mathematics classroom interactions. In B. Atweh, H. Forgasz, & B. Nebres (Eds.), Sociocultural research on mathematics education (pp. 201–216). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Jae Hoon Lim is assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research interests include sociocultural issues in mathematics education, multicultural education, and qualitative research methods.