Collaborative Research: Building and Testing a Framework for Liberatory and Conceptual Mathematics Learning with Black Disabled Students

Black disabled students encounter systemic challenges in K-12 education such as being overrepresented in special education categories of behavioral and intellectual disabilities while facing harsher disciplinary consequences compared to other students. These challenges impact their opportunities for meaningful STEM learning. A key avenue to counter these disparities is through high school mathematics teacher coaching encompassing knowledge of the interactional nature of racism and ableism in teaching and decision making. Therefore, this project aims to develop and test a theoretical coaching framework that addresses challenges while advancing conceptual mathematics learning and high school mathematics instructional practices. Using qualitative participatory methodology, this project will involve establishing and sustaining an authentic partnership with a cohort of Black disabled high school students. Their voices, knowledge, and experiences will be central in informing the development of this project’s coaching theoretical framework. The research team will support students’ learning, developing, and enacting ways to counter racism and ableism, advance conceptually oriented mathematics instructional practices, and impact instruction to improve students’ experiences and learning opportunities. Students will have opportunities to convene to share their experiences, and mathematics teachers will participate in professional development opportunities to support working with students as well as piloting and developing the coaching model. This project will contribute to both theory and practice in mathematics education as well as produce positive impact to the lives of Black disabled students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.