Homeplace: Black Teachers Creating Space for Black Students in Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

Background: Although large-scale research over the last 15 years demonstrates the positive effects of Black teachers for Black students on various student outcomes, these studies focus on average effects. This leaves space to examine classroom practices to detail how the positive effects may be realized through the everyday interactions between Black teachers and their Black students, specifically in mathematics. To conceptualize the mathematics classroom we draw on hooks’s (2001) concept of “Homeplace” as a site where one is humanized in resistance to broader contexts of power, as a “haven” free from negative dominant discourses. Focus of Study: This research documents the classroom practices of successful Black mathematics teachers who are affirming students’ identities through their classroom practices: How do successful Black mathematics teachers enact affirming mathematics classrooms with their Black students? Setting: This research was a secondary analysis of videos collected as part of the Gates-funded Understanding Teaching Quality (UTQ) project. All of the schools in the UTQ study were located in one metropolitan area. Case Study Selection: The study used MANOVA to quantitatively select teachers based on mathematics achievement and quality of relational interactions. Two teachers were selected and, although not part of the selection criteria, both mathematics teachers identified as Black. Research Design: The study used a case study design to describe the mathematics practices of two Black teachers. Data Collection and Analysis: The dataset included four lessons per teacher with two cameras for each lesson. Open coding was used to identify the practices used by teachers drawing on Homeplace as an orienting concept. Findings: The classrooms enacted Homeplace through affirming students’ humanity and communicating a sense of belonging in three ways: building collective responsibility for the mathematics, framing students as mathematically capable, and relating to students’ lives. In addition to the themes, undercurrents of care, humor, praise, and the use of Black Language were clearly visible. Conclusions: Although the classrooms did not display the sociopolitical consciousness foundational to culturally relevant pedagogy, the Black teachers did create an environment consistent with Homeplace. Through cultivating a classroom that affirmed Black students’ humanity and dignity and communicated to them a sense of belonging, they resisted negative racialized narratives and increased students’ mathematics achievement.