Some quotes to think about:
Interviewer: Why do you think then that he was the best at maths?
Child: Because look at him [office administrator], all wearing flashy clothes and like he looks like a rich... and he's got such a good job, and him, he's ... nothing he has to do taxi. ... Like if he's ain't good at something he'd have been like him [taxi driver], like he's probably not good at anything. He's [taxi driver] probably came from Pakistan.
(de Abreu and Cline, p. 125)
Gina: [In high school], the counselors would do rqacial steering, try to steer all the minorities into art and cooking and stuff like that. So if you mentioned math, they were like, "No. No." And they really didn't tell me anything about college preparation and stuff because this was way back in '74. (Martin, p. 156)Both of these quotes show evidence of master narratives about which groups of people (racial groups, professional groups, ethnic groups, national groups) are capable of high level mathematics. And both of the articles also included counternarratives, about successful children and adults who defied these stereotypes.
I was interested to read the interviews with adults in the Martin chapter. This time through, I noticed that in some of the interviews, there is a potential for these parents reinforcing other harmful master narratives about schooling. Although Keith doesn't quite come out and say it, his comments about how his kids eat and sleep education could be taken as implying that other kids might be unsuccessful because their parents don't care as much about education as Keith and his partner do. (I read the quotes carefully, and Keith definitely does not come out and say this - in fact, he talks about African American children not having the same kinds of opportunities and resources as white children, rather than blaming parents.)
I bring this up only because I want to point out that even people who are challenging some parts of a master narrative might inadvertently support other parts, and the narrative 'those kids just don't care,' or 'those parents just don't care,' is particularly common in education. I think the ideas about social valorization and about mathematical identities help us to think differently about whether and how people 'care.' I hope we get the chance to talk about this further in class.
Hello Indigo,
ReplyDeleteThe quotes you highlighted were of interest to me as well and I believe I gently addressed them in my post. The perceived notion that mathematics distinguishes those will 'succeed' versus those who will not, is a message that seems to resonate through the hallways of a school. I have often heard parents say that their son/daughter have to do well in math because it is the way to ensure a successful career. Even when I was in high school many of my friends took a heavy course load of math and science subjects and after first year of university, quite a few of them switched to English, the Humanities or Philosophy. They discovered math wasn't the be all and end all.
It was also interesting to read that children believed taxi drivers must have not done well in school (or in math) and that is why they are driving cabs. Yet there are probably multitudes of reasons to why people are driving cabs that perhaps these children are not aware of, but maybe they should be? (For example, immigrants who do have degrees, but cannot use them in a new country?)
With respect to your comment regarding the narratives that "parents just don't care", I have to concur that this is one that I heard a lot in NZ when I was working with lower SES students. It was hard to escape this particular belief when I had a student struggling and I was unable to make any contact with the parent to address the situation. Upon reflection, after these and other readings, I have to admit that there was a underlying issue or acceptance of a particular 'lot in life' that was pervasive in these students lives. I am starting to better understand that there was a particular identity that these students had grown up with respect to what they felt was possible for they to achieve that I was not going to be able to break down in two years I taught there.
I hope we will be discussing the idea of power in more detail in class. I would like to better understand in what context we should be aware of the power struggle in mathematic learning.
My reaction to Keith's comment was slightly different from yours, Indigo. I think it's on the same topic, though. It reminded me a bit of the saying, "A woman has to work twice as hard as a man to get half as far."
ReplyDeleteKeith seemed to be almost covering his bases to make sure that his kids' African American identities couldn't be used against them. Just as he found that white people he worked with were picked on less than he was, regardless of skill level, he probably knows that his kids will be seen as less able than white kids simply because they are black. Therefore, they need to make sure there is no question about their skill level or their commitment to learning.
Ruthie, I agree with you that Keith was not blaming kids or their families for failure. I think I wasn't very clear in my original post!
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant was, the quotes in the article just got me thinking about the various master narratives about school success and failure. I think lately I've been hearing a lot of 'they just don't care,' and so that's what I wrote about.
L,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the master narrative in schools blaming the students and parents. In professional development literature, the teacher belief that they can make a difference in what their students learn is strongly tied participation in PD and willingness to change (and many achievement measures).
I really liked the Martin article. I found the quotes richly illustrated the narrative (Is this the right word for the body of the text?) and found the descriptions clarified some of my own experiences coming from a lower SES background with no expectation of even finishing high school. This understanding has helped me connect with students in my classes, and coming from a fairly white community, I was reassured to think my experiences can help me deal with students of other backgrounds.
One of the things I liked about the article is the sense of activism rather than despair. The quoted individuals were explicitly challenging the stereotypes about African Americans and mathematics, for themselves and their children. As adults, they analysed societal factors that hindered their participation and success in mathematics, and had determined how to counter some of these negative influences.
One issue that I am dealing with is the contrast between the idea of a master narrative and essentializing. In Martin’s chapter, it seemed they were used as synonyms, but in another course I had the sense that a master narrative was a more neutral concept- more the core values that individuals use (not necessarily explicitly) to construct their personal identity.
Second time posting- it disappeared after I posted Wednesday afternoon. Thanks goodness that I put it in word first.
All,
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to engage and grapple with the ideas in my chapter. I agree with all of you about the power of masternarratives. And, of course, I also believe in the power of counternarratives. Based on my knowledge of Keith and parents similar to and different, I do think, as was suggested, that he was trying cover some bases. A life full of experiences with racism and a life spent reflecting on those experiences gave him a clear sense of what it means to "be Black" in U.S. society. Of course, in saying that Keith is strategically essentializing "being Black." However, one has to be able to offer up a characterization as a first step toward acting and doing what is needed based on those perceptions. Part of Keith's reaction is to do all that he can to insure that his children do not have the experiences that he had in life. In some sense, Keith is doing what all "good" parents do for their children. But his experiences with racism have shaped his actions and beliefs in particularly powerful ways.
In terms of masternarratives and essentializing. I would argue that all masternarratives engage in some form of essentializing. The same is true for counternarratives. Of course, they essentialize in different ways and for different purposes.