| The achievement gap between African American students and their white counterparts is pervasive in elementary school mathematics classrooms (Lee, 2006). Too often, step-by-step methods of instruction are utilized in mathematics teaching, exacerbating cultural incongruities that exist between teachers and students. Work in the area of culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2000) provides a useful and powerful theoretical framework within which to explore these inequities while uncovering successful practices in classrooms that promote equity and access to mathematical knowledge. Within this framework, particular, culturally-based pedagogies and effective styles of communication have been documented through the study of highly effective teachers of African American students (Gay, 2000; Irvine, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1994), though very little of this work focuses on the unique work of mathematics teaching and learning. As such, mathematics teachers are struggling to help students of color succeed as inequitable tracking practices continue.;This dissertation presents a working grounded theory meant to help teachers and teacher educators in the field of mathematics education conceptualize culturally responsive teaching in the context of mathematics. Grounded in the work of Gloria Jean Merriex, a highly effective mathematics teacher in a largely African American, high-poverty elementary school, this theory can guide teacher efforts to help students of color succeed in mathematics classrooms.;Results show that the work of culturally responsive mathematics teaching is complex and fluid, effecting student perceptions and supporting racial identity development among African American students. Specifically, there are four main, interconnected cornerstones of culturally responsive mathematics teaching that frame the everyday cycle of pedagogy and discipline and experiences of the student: communication, knowledge, trust, and constant reflection and revision. These cornerstones can be used to guide pre- and in-service teachers who are working to become more culturally responsive, teacher educators who are working with pre-service mathematics teachers, and administrators and policy-makers who seek to promote equity in mathematics classrooms. (Full text of this dissertation may be available via the University of Florida Libraries web site. Please check http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/etd.html). |
