| This dissertation focuses on improving the teaching and learning of mathematics in urban schools for African-American and minority students. My students played important roles as co-researchers in this two years ethnographic study conducted in a Queens, New York high school in which I employed cogenerative dialogue and coteaching as the two central research methods for connecting with students socially, culturally, and academically as I believe in a polyphonic and polysemic characterization of our classroom experiences. This is central in understanding how African-American and minority students interact, construct knowledge, and experience learning in urban schools. As such, different theories were utilized at different times to make sense of our practices and understandings as new outcomes are produced, as the study progressed. At the same time, my identity along with students' identities was constantly being transformed by our experiences in the classroom. At different stages of the research, our changing focus, ontology and epistemology dictated the theoretical method that was employed. |
