Ethnic Studies Perspectives In Mathematics Education

Among mathematics educational researchers, there are increasing efforts to account for issues of power in mathematical thinking and learning. Yet the construct of "power" in the extant research literature remains under-theorized, thus the production of knowledge pertaining to the learning of mathematics for historically marginalized students remains un-problematized and liable to hegemonic perspectives on the apparent achievement gap in mathematics between minority youth and their majority peers. This paper reports findings from our review of literature emanating from the "counter research" (Shah, 2010) stream of mathematics education. The articles selected for analysis are representative of the predominant theoretical and methodological orientations that guides work in this field. In particular, we are analyzing research articles that consider the construct of power as relevant and important to the study of mathematics-learning processes, categorizing/coding the various ways power is conceptualized in the literature. This review and conceptual analysis of the construct of power is responding to recent calls for research that integrates socio-political perspectives on mathematics educational practices (Gutierrez, 2010), focusing specifically on issues of power vis-à-vis theories of learning (Lerman, 2000; Valero, 2004). Moreover, to ensure plurality of voices within this emerging stream of counter research, we are investing the backgrounds of researchers who proffer particular theoretical perspectives on these issues so as to identify where they might be positioned along socially constructed hierarchies. We hope to illuminate the extent to which knowledge about the learning of mathematics for marginalized students either ‘trickles’ from the top-down or ‘sprouts’ from the bottom-up.