Human Development Colloquium: Dr. Bethany Rittle-Johnson (Vanderbilt)
Moving Towards Inclusive and Equitable Math Classrooms: Learning From Marginalized Students’ Experiences and Achievement
Abstract: Students of color and those from economically-disadvantaged homes are often marginalized in and outside of school and are too often denied equal opportunities to learn math (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Martin et al., 2017). In this talk, I will discuss two studies conducted as part of the same longitudinal study of students’ experiences and achievements in math. Students were predominantly Black and experienced racial and economic marginalization. Across 67 focus groups conducted when the students were in high school, students often shared concerns about their teacher’s math knowledge for teaching and effectiveness in supporting their academic success. Students varied in how positive or negative their math identities were, and Black girls often had negative math identities. Finally, students often distinguished between the utility value of basic and advanced math and did not value advanced math even when they expressed career interests that require advanced math.
Their experiences provided useful context for considering their fairly low scores on average on a college-readiness assessment for math, the math ACT. There was strong stability in their math achievement scores from prek to 12th grade. Executive function skill and math self-concept in 6th grade were not unique predictors of math ACT scores. Accelerated course placement (high-school math course in 8th grade) was a unique, positive predictor of math ACT scores. Findings highlight the importance of simultaneously considering multiple factors and systems that influence students’ math achievement across preschool to 12th grade, including the need to consider systemic, structural factors that shape students’ experiences and opportunities for
Bio: Professor Rittle-Johnson is the Anita and Antonio Gotto Chair in Child Development and Professor in Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, where she has been on the faculty since 2002. Her research focuses on math learning and teaching and bridges between psychological theory and educational practice. Much of her research centers on understanding how knowledge change occurs. In 2022 she received the rank of second most prolific author in mathematics education research according to Akin & Guzeller’s “The 500 Most-Influential Articles in Mathematics Education Research for the Period 1970-2020: A Bibliometric Citation Analysis". Her research has been funded by NSF, the U.S. Dept. of Education, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
