CAREER: Black Youth Development and Curricular Supports for Robust Identities in Mathematics

学生在数学上的成功与对这门学科的积极认同、倾向和关系有关。由于数学教育研究努力理解黑人学习者在数学方面的历史不平等，小规模的研究描述了黑人学习者的身份、主体性和位置性之间的关系，因为这与他们的数学成就和兴趣有关。这项研究建立在描述性工作的基础上，试图描述描述黑人学习者发展为特定类型数学学习者的方式的轨迹。这项研究是在一个建立多年的大学桥梁项目的背景下进行的，该项目的目标是增加历史上被边缘化群体在大学社区的代表性。桥梁项目的学生来自大底特律地区的三个社区，在数学方面有很强的学术成就。他们在桥梁项目中的经历将被追踪，以确定描述黑人学习者在数学方面发展的轨迹，并记录支持学习者在这些轨迹中移动的课堂活动的设计特征。该项目的核心是对8-11年级学生进行暑期桥梁项目的研究。桥梁项目目前的课程特色是一系列课程，重点关注与数学相关的身份发展。这些课程将在整个项目期间的夏季课程中实施、研究、修订和重新部署。教师焦点小组和调查将评估活动的实施情况，并收集对设计的反馈。将从三个人口结构截然不同的都会区招募三组学生参加更广泛的项目活动。学生数学效能将被评估为所有参与的学生。在三个都会区内，将招募代表不同数学效能水平的学生，以确保重点学生在参与研究时可能经历不同的轨迹。学生将在每学年接受三次面试，以描述他们的发展轨迹。学生成绩数据也将被收集到所有参与的学生，以及关于学生收到的关于数学的信息的叙述性描述和自传。这些信息包括他们对自己如何看待自己作为数学学习者的内在思考，以及其他学生、老师和社区发给他们的信息。该研究的成果将是描述黑人数学学习者身份发展轨迹的案例研究，以及为支持黑人学习者的以数学身份为中心的桥梁项目提供的传播课程。这是在发现研究PreK-12 （DRK-12）计划下授予的教师早期职业发展计划（Career）提案。探索研究PreK-12 （DRK-12）项目旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高PreK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Student success in mathematics correlates with positive identities, dispositions, and relationships towards the subject. As mathematics education research strives to understand historic inequities in mathematics for Black learners, small-scale research has described the relationships between identity, subjectivity, and positionality in Black learners as it relates to their achievement and interest in mathematics. This study builds on that descriptive work by seeking to describe trajectories that describe the ways in which Black learners develop as particular kinds of mathematical learners. The study takes place in the context of an established, multi-year college bridge program that has as its goals to increase the representation of historically marginalized groups in the university community. Students in the bridge program from three communities in the greater Detroit area with strong academic achievement in mathematics will be recruited. Their experiences in the bridge program will be traced to identify trajectories that describe the development of Black learners relative to mathematics, and document the design features of classroom activities that support learners in moving through those trajectories. At the center of the project is the study of cohorts of students in grades 8-11 as they move through the summer bridge program. The bridge project's current curriculum features a series of lessons focused on identity development related to mathematics. These lessons will be implemented, studied, revised, and redeployed across the duration of the project across the summer sessions. Teacher focus groups and surveys will assess the implementation of the activities and aggregate feedback on the design. Three cohorts of students will be recruited to participate in the broader project activities from three metro areas with distinctly different demographic profiles. Student mathematical efficacy will be assessed for all participating students. Within each of the three metro areas, students will be recruited that represent differing levels of mathematics efficacy to ensure that focus students are likely to experience different trajectories through their engagement with the study. The students will be interviewed three times in each academic year to describe their trajectories. Student achievement data will also be collected for all participating students along with narrative descriptions and autobiographies about the messages students receive about mathematics. These messages include their own internal thinking about how they see themselves as mathematics learners, and messages that are sent to them by other students, teachers, and the community. Products of the study will be case studies that describe trajectories of identity development in Black mathematics learners, and a disseminated curriculum for a mathematics identity-focused bridge program supporting Black learners.This is a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) proposal awarded under the Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program. The Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.