Centering Humanity within Ethnographic Research: A Critical Read of Black Boys’ Lived and Everyday Experiences in STEM

Karina Méndez Pérez; Alexandra  Aguilar; Amy Rae Johnson Johnson; Chandel F. Burgess Burgess; Carlos Nicolas Gomez Marchant  Gomez Marchant

doi:10.21423/jume-v16i1a476

Authors

Karina Méndez Pérez University of Texas at Austin
Alexandra Aguilar The University of Texas at Austin
Amy Rae Johnson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6681-1100
Chandel F. Burgess https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5545-9028
Carlos Nicolas Gomez Marchant https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2286-4144

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21423/jume-v16i1a476

Keywords:

STEM education, Black boys, Latine learners, educational ethnography

Abstract

Our research collective explores Latine learner’s experiences with mathematics. Therefore, we must consider possible methods to de-settle the white gaze surveilling and erasing Latine learners in K-12 schools, as well as the white ideologies in educational research. In this book review, we discuss KiMi Wilson’s Black Boys’ Lived and Everyday Experiences in STEM (2021) and explore his use of ethnographic research to tell the story of his boys (Carter, Malik, Darius, and Thomas). Wilson highlights how he disrupts the norms of educational ethnography through his research and posits the need to amplify Black voices and experiences in STEM education. He challenges the reader to push against white ideologies and reconsider the deficit narratives surrounding Black boys. By reflecting on Wilson’s work and our own, we consider two points of reflection: Centering humanity and emotionality, and the importance of place. We explore how Wilson addresses these two points through his stories of his boys and how our research collective considers these ideas in our work with Latine learners in mathematics. As educators, educational researchers, and policy makers, we must reflect, acknowledge, and create transformative actions centered around humanity and emotionality, as well as the importance of place, to ensure equitable learning spaces for Black and Latine learners.

References

Aikenhead, G. S. (1997). Towards a first nations cross-cultural science and tech-nology curriculum. Science Education, 81(2), 217–238.

Comas-Díaz, L. (2021). Afro-Latinxs: Decolonization, healing, and liberation. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 9(1), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000164

De Lissovoy, N., Campos, E., & Alarcon, J. (2013). Challenging epistemological authority in qualitative research. In T. M. Kress, C. Malott, & B. Porfilio (Eds.), Challenging status quo retrenchment: New directions in critical re-search (pp. 29–51). Information Age Publishing.

Dumas, M. J. (2017). Against the dark: Antiblackness in education policy and dis-course. Theory into Practice, 55(1), 11–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2016.1116852

Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (2011). Writing ethnographic field-notes (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.

Sánchez Gutiérrez, G., Jones, S. R., Johnson, A. R., Méndez Pérez, K., Burgess, C. F., Aguilar, A., & Gomez Marchant, C. N. (2021). Parents’ as facilita-tors: Utilization of bilingual language practices during mathematical problem solving. In S. Bateiha & G. Cobbs (Eds.), Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning (pp. 28–34).

Gómez Marchant, C. N., Aguilar, A. R., & Gargroetzi, E. C. (2023). “Simply a matter of numbers”: Public commentators’ construction of a mathematical model of equality perpetuating the myth of mathematics as objective and neutral. International Consortium for Research in Science & Mathematics Education, 27(1), 1–17.

Hand, V., Herbel-Eisenmann, B., Byun, S., Koestler, C., & Bartell, T. (2021). Ten-sions and failures in an analysis of whiteness among a racially and socially diverse group of mathematics teacher educators. In A. Andersson & R. Barwell (Eds.), Applying critical mathematics education (pp. 123–143). Brill.

Johnson, A. R., Burgess, C. F., Gómez Marchant, C. N., Sánchez Gutiérrez, G., Cantu, E., Méndez Pérez, K., & Aguilar, A. R. (2023, March). Mathematics and identity: Lived experiences of prospective teachers of color. Proceed-ings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning.

Jones, S. P., Duncan, K., Johnson, L., & Dillard, C. B. (2017). When Cinderella is a sister: Finding space and grace as Black teacher educators in predominant-ly white institutions. International Journal of Curriculum and Social Jus-tice, 1(2), 69–96.

Jones, S. R. (2022). Estamos en la lucha: Revealing and resisting racism and lin-guicism in mathematics education [Unpublished dissertation]. The Univer-sity of Texas at Austin. http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/42143

Kokka, K. (2019). Healing-informed social justice mathematics: Promoting stu-dents’ sociopolitical consciousness and well-being in mathematics class. Urban Education, 54(9), 1179–1209. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918806947

Larnell, G. V., & Bullock, E. C. (2018). A socio-spatial framework for urban math-ematics education: Considering equity, social justice, and the spatial turn. In T. G. Bartell (Ed.), Toward equity and social justice in mathematics educa-tion (pp. 43–57). Springer.

Matias, C. E. (2016). Feeling white: Whiteness, emotionality, and education. Sense Publishers.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1476399

Moore, W. L. (2008). Reproducing racism: White space, elite law schools, and ra-cial inequality. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Rodríguez, G. (2020). Suburban schools as sites of inspection: Understanding Latinx youth’s sense of belonging in a suburban high school. Equity & Ex-cellence in Education, 53(1–2), 14–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2020.1758245

San Miguel, Guadalupe. (2001). “Let all of them take heed”: Mexican Americans and the campaign for educational equality in Texas, 1910-1981. Texas A&M University Press.

Soja, E. W. (2010). Seeking spatial justice. University of Minnesota Press.

Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2001). Critical race and LatCrit theory and meth-od: Counter-storytelling. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Ed-ucation, 14(4), 471–495. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390110063365

Translanguaging Study Group. (2020). Translanguaging and the mathematics class-room. In Z. D. Araujo, S. A. Roberts, C. Willey, & W.

Zahner (Eds.), Teaching for Excellence and Equity in Mathematics (11 ed., no. 2, pp. 8–15).

Wilson, K. (2021). Black boys’ lived and everyday experiences in STEM. Emerald Publishing Limited.

Yosso, T. J. (2006). Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano edu-cational pipeline. Routledge.

Zembylas, M. (2005). Discursive practices, genealogies, and emotional rules: A poststructuralist view on emotion and identity in teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 935–948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.06.005