Journal of Urban Mathematics Education

July 2012, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 66–83

©JUME. http://education.gsu.edu/JUME

ERICA N. WALKER is an associate professor of matheamtics education at Teachers College,

Columbia University, Box 210, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027; email:

ewalker@tc.edu. Her research focuses on social and cultural factors as well as educational policies

and practices that facilitate mathematics engagement, learning, and performance, especially for

underserved students.

Cultivating Mathematics Identities In and

Out of School and In Between

Erica N. Walker

Teachers College, Columbia University

n recent years, researchers have explored the question of literacy development

both within and outside of school (Hill & Vasudevan, 2007; Mahiri, 2004;

Morrell, 2007). Many have focused on specific cultural practices that contribute

to literacy acquisition and development. In addition, they have considered the no-

tion of these sites and places as spaces (Lefebvre, 1974; Soja, 1989) in which lit-

eracy is developed and an identity related to one’s literacy experiences is ac-

quired. These spaces encompass more than a physical location; they include “so-

cial and cultural ideas of place, the meaning humans attribute to place, and the

cultural and social knowledge surrounding various locations” (Cole, 2009, p. 22).

In thinking about these directions in literacy research and how “literate persons”

are developed through their backgrounds, experiences, and practices both within

and outside of schools, it is worth thinking about the analogous question of how a

“mathematical person” is developed. It is important to consider how people’s

mathematics identities might be cultivated in spaces within schools, outside of

schools, and in spaces in-between, and how these experiences might contribute to

the development of a mathematical identity as well as the development and dis-

semination of mathematical knowledge.

Although some who have focused on the acquisition of mathematical

knowledge have used out-of-school contexts to engage students in mathematics

learning within schools (Bonnoto, 2005; Moses & Cobb, 2001), others have

demonstrated that both functional and rigorous mathematics can be done by those

using methods obtained outside of school (Saxe, 1991). Further, researchers have

also explored how mathematical conceptual understanding might be supported

and developed out of school: for example, Nasir (2000) explored how African

American young men used percent and ratio when choosing players for their bas-

ketball teams. Several have suggested that “mathematics learning and practice in

and out of school can build on and complement each other” (Masingila, Daviden-

ko, & Prus-Wisniowska, 1996, p. 177), and that formal and informal mathematics

learning should not be experienced in schools or outside of schools as completely

discrete entities (Schoenfeld, 1991). The mathematics backgrounds, knowledge,

and experiences that students bring with them to school can be effectively used to

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

develop mathematics understanding and knowledge and serve to engage students

(Bonnoto, 2005).

It has been shown that these out-of-school contexts for enacting mathemat-

ics practices are informed by students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences

(Saxe, 1991). Cobb and Hodge (2002), Martin (2000), Nasir and Saxe (2003) and

others have attended to the role that culture, context, and community play in

mathematics learning for young people. A broader discussion of cultural practices

(Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003; Nasir & Saxe, 2003) that positively affect mathemat-

ics learning, practice, and socialization outside of school, particularly for young

people of color in the United States, would be useful for developing in-school

practices that support mathematics engagement as well as for creating intentional

out-of-school spaces that do the same. For example, literacy educators and educa-

tion researchers have begun to develop and explore literacy spaces outside of

school that are sites for induction into literacy communities and contribute in in-

tentional ways to individual and group socialization around literacy (e.g., Kinloch,

2005). Further, elements of these practices are used in informal and formal school

settings. Despite the compelling research exploring the role of culture and context

in mathematics learning, we do not do enough to create meaningful spaces within

cultural contexts for mathematics practice for young people outside of school (the

Young People’s Project, which seeks to promote mathematics literacy among

young people participating in The Algebra Project, founded by Robert [Bob] Mo-

ses, is an exception), nor do we do enough to build on the mathematics experienc-

es that they do have outside of school.

What remains underexplored in mathematics education research is how the

mathematically talented in the United States are socialized to do mathematics out-

side of school—how do they develop their mathematics skills, interests, and dis-

positions? In the past, I have explored the mathematical experiences of high

achieving high school students and the networks that foster their mathematics

success (Walker, 2006). Most recently, I have been conducting a study of African

American mathematicians, exploring their formative, educational, and profession-

al experiences in mathematics (Walker, 2009, 2011). What has emerged as a key

factor in the success of high achievers and mathematicians alike is the important

role that out-of-school experiences and relationships, many rooted in specific cul-

tural and social contexts, have played in their mathematics knowledge develop-

ment and socialization.

In this article, I discuss the mathematical spaces that mathematicians de-

scribe as important to their success. I identify mathematical spaces as sites where

mathematics knowledge is developed, where induction into a particular communi-

ty of mathematics doers occurs, and where relationships or interactions contribute

to the development of a mathematics identity. These spaces may be physical loca-

tions like a school or classroom or locations to which the individual attaches a

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

particular social, cultural, or mathematical meaning due to interactions and expe-

riences she or he had there. Here I focus on those mathematical spaces experi-

enced by mathematicians during childhood and adolescence, with the goal of con-

tributing to our thinking about how we might engage adolescents in mathematics,

particularly those from underrepresented groups. In the conclusion, I suggest that

we move from these sometimes “inadvertent” spaces that foster development for

individuals to creating and examining “intentional” spaces that contribute in

strong ways to mathematics socialization and talent development for larger

groups, particularly for underserved students. Efforts to craft purposeful mathe-

matical spaces, I argue, should reflect the bridging of out-of-school and in-school

networks, relationships, and practices.

Research Context

In a previous study exploring “academic communities” (interpersonal net-

works that supported mathematics success) of high achieving Black and Latina/o

students at an urban public high school, it became apparent that these students

were doing mathematics in various ways in spaces within school, outside of

school, and in-between (Walker, 2006). I began to wonder what kinds of mathe-

matical spaces were experienced and created by mathematicians, arguably the

highest achievers, and for Black mathematicians specifically. What might we

learn from their narratives about doing mathematics in and out of school? Like

many researchers, I suggest that engagement should be considered as a construct

that simultaneously encompasses behavior, emotion, and cognition (Fredricks,

Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). As Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris (2004) describe:

Behavioral engagement draws on the idea of participation; it includes involvement in

academic and social or extracurricular activities and is considered crucial for

achieving positive academic outcomes and preventing dropping out. Emotional

engagement encompasses positive and negative reactions to teachers, classmates,

academics, and school and is presumed to create ties to an institution and influence

willingness to do the work. Finally, cognitive engagement draws on the idea of

investment; it incorporates thoughtfulness and willingness to exert the effort

necessary to comprehend complex ideas and master difficult skills. (p. 60)

Considering these three components of engagement simultaneously allows

us to deeply understand young people’s attitudes and actions around mathematics

and develop a fuller picture of their mathematics identities and the socialization

process that aids them in seeing themselves as doers of mathematics. While

studies of mathematicians often describe their experiences in graduate school and

within the profession (e.g., Burton, 2004; Herzig, 2004) and some research

addresses the early socialization experiences of mathematicians, these studies do

not critically examine the spaces in which these early socialization experiences

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

occur. I argue that, for Black mathematicians in particular, the locations that

facilitate engagement are weighted with important historical, social, and cultural

overtones that, for some, may be unique to their experiences as Blacks pursuing

mathematical excellence.

Related to these ideas about where mathematics is taking place is the notion

of how those doing mathematics see themselves and are seen. The notion that

one’s mathematical identity might have to be reconciled with one’s core identi-

ty—be it ethnic, gender, or otherwise—has also gained prominence in the litera-

ture (Boaler & Greeno, 2000; Nasir & Saxe, 2003). Some of the research relating

to ethnic identity and academic achievement suggests that students of color must

negotiate multiple identities, at times compromising their ethnic identity in order

to fully embrace their academic identity (e.g., Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). Others

have suggested that these identities overlap in positive ways (e.g., Flores-

Gonzalez, 1999; Horvat & Lewis, 2003). Largely missing from these discussions,

however, is how one’s mathematical identity might be formed and developed—

and evolve—over time. In asking mathematicians about their formative experi-

ences, I hope to contribute to our understanding of how one’s mathematics identi-

ty might shift and evolve over time, and how these shifts are related to one’s ex-

periences within mathematical spaces.

A particularly interesting facet of in-school learning versus out-of-school

learning is the usual characterization of in-school learning as being focused on

individual cognition, while out-of-school learning is seen as developed via shared

cognition (Resnick, 1987; Masingila, Davidenko, & Prus-Wisniowska, 1996).

This “shared cognition” lends itself to Martin’s (2000) formulation of identity and

socialization being informed by community and interpersonal contexts. This study

seeks to address these issues through an examination of the questions below:

1. What experiences contribute to mathematicians’ positive mathematics identity develop-

ment and socialization? Where do these experiences occur?

2. What are key characteristics of spaces that facilitate mathematics identity development
and socialization?

Method

The data presented here come from a larger ongoing study of African Amer-

ican mathematicians. The participants in this study are 27 African American

mathematicians, all of whom were born in the United States, and whose PhDs in

mathematics or a mathematical science were granted between 1941 and 2008.

This is a purposeful sample; participants were identified using resources including

the website created and developed by Dr. Scott Williams (himself a Black math-

ematician), Mathematicians of the African Diaspora (http://math.buffalo.edu/mad),

as well as the text Black Mathematicians and Their Works (Newell, Gipson, Rich,

http://math.buffalo.edu/mad

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

& Stubblefield, 1980), published in 1980. In addition, once the initial pool of sub-

jects was identified, snowball sampling (by which participants identified other

mathematicians) was used to augment the sample.

Table 1

Characteristics of the Sample of Black Mathematicians

Male Female

PhDs 1940s–1970s 6 1

PhDs 1970s–1990s 7 2

PhDs 1990s–2000s 8 3

Total 21 6

Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured, open-ended interview

protocol developed by me, and lasted between 45 minutes and 3 hours. Most in-

terviews lasted at least an hour. The interview questions focused on mathemati-

cians’ early experiences with mathematics, in and out of school, as well as their

later educational and professional experiences. Interviews were recorded, tran-

scribed, and coded by a research assistant and myself. We first coded interviews

broadly for early episodes and experiences where a mathematician was describing

doing or learning about mathematics. Within these narratives, we examined the

texts for incidences in childhood and adolescence that related to mathematics

learning and categorized those as occurring within school (within or outside of the

mathematics classroom) or outside of school (within some academic setting or

not). After this initial coding, we examined these narratives within and across lo-

cations (in-school, out-of-school, and in-between spaces) for themes relating to

aspects of mathematics identity and socialization, focusing on engagement (emo-

tional, behavioral, and cognitive aspects) as well as racial, social, historical, and

cultural themes relating to mathematics. After exploring these narratives for

common as well as conflicting themes, I then purposefully selected 6 representa-

tive vignettes from 4 mathematicians’ narratives to describe and explore spaces in

which mathematical identities are cultivated, both inside and outside of school,

during childhood and adolescence. All mathematicians have been identified using

pseudonyms.

Two of the mathematicians, Eleanor Gladwell (PhD 1970s) and Wayne

Leverett (PhD 1960s), came of age in the 1950s, attended rural segregated schools

in the South, were undergraduates at historically Black colleges and universities,

and were among the first African Americans to integrate their previously all-

White graduate institutions. One, Nathaniel Long (PhD 1980s), grew up in a mul-

tiracial, working class, urban neighborhood in the North and attended a predomi-

nantly White college and graduate school in the North. The remaining mathemati-

cian, Craig Thomas, earned his PhD in the 1990s. He attended predominantly

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

Black elementary and secondary schools in a Southern city, and attended a histor-

ically Black college and predominantly White graduate school for the PhD.

“Here It Was in Action”:

Cultivating Mathematics Identity in Out-of-school Spaces

In Vignette 1, Nathaniel Long talks about his experiences growing up in a

multiracial working class neighborhood in a Northern industrial city:

I grew up in a—well, call it Little Italy—a mostly Italian and some Irish and German,

but all Catholic [neighborhood]. And then there were a smattering of Black families.

My mother actually grew up [on the block] the generation before, so they all knew

each other. It was very close-knit. One of the kids, Henry, was about five years older

than me and he would play ball with us younger kids…I would play chess with him,

and he started giving me these little puzzles. He would give me little problems to

work on, little brain teasers and that sort of thing, which I was able to solve.

Henry was very interested in mathematics. He ended up majoring in mathematics and

became a math teacher at a secondary school. At any rate, I think Henry Fletcher

[pseudonym] was a very profound influence. Even when we played sports, it was al-

ways correctness. A lot of kids just want to win, and there was always a sense of win-

ning by the rules. It would be second or third down, and we would carefully recon-

struct what had happened to make sure that we had the down right. He would go ex-

amine the sideline to make sure the ball was not out of bounds. There was always this

sort of rigor to what actually happened. “Were you tagged before? Where was the ball

when you were tagged? Were you beyond the pole or not beyond the pole?” At any

rate, I think that was a very positive influence on me in my early to late teens.

Nathaniel Long’s framing of his neighborhood as one that supported intellectual

engagement seems to contradict much of what has been popularly described about

the lack of support for educational activities in predominantly Black settings.

Long’s description helps to develop a “counterweight corpus of scholarship”

(Morris, 2004, p. 72) that challenges this notion (Anderson, 1988; Hilliard, 2003;

Morris, 2004; Perry, 2003). In his narrative, Long is careful to construct his expe-

riences within the context of a “world within a world” that was predominantly

Black, describes the role of the “atmosphere” in contributing to intellectual devel-

opment, and uses mathematical language to describe even the ways in which he

and his peers played street football—down to the “rigor” of play and rules for use

in determining outcomes. Prominent in this narrative is the importance of one per-

son, Henry Fletcher, an older peer who began “giving [Long] these little puzzles”

to solve. Fletcher’s later becoming a mathematics teacher could almost have been

predicted by Long’s story.

Other mathematicians in the sample, like Long, described the importance of

older peers (siblings and cousins as well as classmates and friends) in creating

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

environments that supported mathematics learning and engagement. These expe-

riences took place at home, in school, on playgrounds, and in other settings. A

few younger mathematicians, particularly those who lived in predominantly Black

neighborhoods and attended predominantly White schools, noted that they had a

range of experiences with their “school friends” and “neighborhood friends”.

They “just played” with their neighborhood friends and tended to have academic

interactions with their “school friends”.

In Vignette 2, Wayne Leverett describes two key mathematics experiences

that occurred outside of school and his realization that mathematics was a viable

career option:

One thing I remember is when I was in about the ninth grade, my uncle worked for a

construction company. He saw the foreman using a slide rule. He just got curious

about it, so the foreman said, “Well, next time I place an order for equipment, I will

order you one if you’d like.” So the slide rule came with a thick manual about trigo-

nometric functions and those such things. It was way over my uncle’s head. He was a

carpenter. On the GI bill he got trained to do carpentry. In the family, people thought

that I was some sort of bookworm because I was always reading books. So he just

gave it to me. I wanted to get to the basics of the thing. I wanted to understand it, so I

actually read the manual. I knew enough algebra and trigonometry to figure out most

of the scales. For me it became a hobby.

One day, a good buddy of mine and I were idling time away walking down a country

road headed home. We came upon a little White man who was surveying some land.

He needed two strong fellows to help him pull some chains. He told us that he would

pay us $.75 per hour to do this. This is a lot more than you could make working on

the farm. You could earn two or three dollars a day by working on the farm, but here

is a guy who is going to pay $.75 per hour. I thought that this was an enormous sum

of money to pull these chains… When this guy started talking to us, he had a transit.

He would set it up and sight through here and swing around through a certain angle

and sight through there. He could compute the distance between two far away points.

When he found out that I knew a little trigonometry, he started teaching me how to

use this transit. He was so impressed with me and I was so amazed by how much

money you could make using this trigonometry. So I said right away that I wanted to

be an engineer because I thought that engineers made even more money than high

school math teachers. I wanted to be a civil engineer.

So this was a moving experience. I wish that students at the tenth grade level could

see something like this, where “here is something I am learning in school that is being

used to earn money.” Meeting that engineer who was surveying land... he was friend-

ly enough to teach me things about how he was actually measuring the distance, and

in doing this without having to jump across that ditch over there to get to. Now we

had studied about triangles and all—if you know this side and you know this side and

you know the angle between you can get the length of the third side and all that. But

here it was in action. This was very powerful.

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

Embedded throughout Wayne Leverett’s interview are references to the im-

portance of his family in facilitating his learning. Another uncle marched him to a

college registrar’s office and informed the registrar that Leverett was a top student

and should therefore be admitted to that particular college. He was. At that col-

lege, Leverett benefited from a strong mathematics program. Leverett—as de-

scribed later in Vignette 5—also describes the very important role of his high

school teachers in his mathematics development. But in this vignette, Leverett

describes how two critical experiences with mathematics—both outside of

school—contributed to his understanding of mathematics, and further, how math-

ematics was done in the real world. Further, Leverett expresses a wish that sec-

ondary school students could have this kind of real-world experience, where they

can see the usefulness and importance of the mathematics they are learning in

school to real problems in the world outside of school. His career—in private in-

dustry and as an academic—reflects these early experiences.

Several mathematicians of all ages speak to the importance of mathematics

exposure outside of school, whether or not it was rooted in real-world contexts.

One mathematician recalled she and her siblings embarking on home improve-

ment projects with their father that related to mathematics; another described an

experience attending a lecture in high school that discussed the still unsolved

problems in mathematics that piqued his interest, and helped him to realize that

mathematics was not “just a toolkit.” Craig Thomas’ experience with his grandfa-

ther below echoes these points.

In Vignette 3, Craig Thomas describes a mathematical experience he had

with his grandfather in a southern city:

My grandfather lived right around the corner from here [the College where Thomas is

now a professor]. I remember he would always have these mental challenges that he

would give me all the time…I actually use one of them in particular [when I’m teach-

ing]. We were on the front porch and he was asking me—he was saying, if he walked

halfway to the end of the porch, and then halfway again, and then halfway again, and

so on, how many steps would it take him to reach the end of the porch? And so, I may

have guessed five or something, I don’t know. So then he actually proceeded to do it,

halfway, and then halfway, and then halfway, but the idea was that he was converg-

ing—he didn’t use the term convergence, but he never actually reached it—but he got

closer and closer and closer, and of course he didn’t say within epsilon…

But anyway, I have fun when I’m teaching about convergence to really tap into it at

this early level. One just because I have fun telling the story—but also to give my

students an idea of the sorts of things they can do with their students, because some of

them may go on to become teachers, or just with their grandchildren one day, whatev-

er the case may be. These are the sorts of things that can really bring high level things

in very early and just challenge the mind and make you think.

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

This experience is so vivid in Thomas’s memory that he shares it with students in

his classes. He recognizes that this story is about more than mathematics: in shar-

ing it, Thomas underscores the importance of passing along mathematical ideas,

that mathematics doesn’t just happen in school, and that his students can use ac-

cessible examples of mathematics when interacting with their own students or

family members to illuminate complex mathematical ideas.

These three vignettes reveal that, for these mathematicians, opportunities to

engage in mathematics occurred within very disparate experiences that were all

rooted in cultural contexts. For Long, the peer culture that had developed in his

neighborhood, perhaps as an offshoot of the close relationships among the moth-

ers, supported intellectual pursuits within multiple contexts—promoting adher-

ence to rigorous rules while playing sports but also engaging in games and puz-

zles. For Leverett, his uncle’s curiosity and recognition that Leverett could benefit

from a book with trigonometric formulas, and further, the convergence of key

events—his school learning, his own out-of-school book learning, and a chance

meeting with someone who used mathematics in his career—all contributed to

Leverett’s understanding that there was more to do in life than work as a farm la-

borer, which was the most visible career opportunity for African Americans in the

rural South in the 1950s and 1960s. For Thomas, the opportunity that his grandfa-

ther gave him to think about mathematics in a deep way while lounging on a

porch one afternoon—not just focusing on drills and number sense, but in think-

ing about some complex mathematical concepts—has, according to him, had an

impact on how he thinks about his own teaching and mathematical development.

What is notable about all three vignettes is that these experiences contribut-

ed to the development of the three mathematicians’ mathematical selves. Further,

the people involved in these vignettes who have a great deal to do with how these

mathematicians think about their early experiences with mathematics range from

close family members (Thomas’s grandfather and Leverett’s uncle), to peers

(Long’s “mentor”), to individuals that are never seen or heard from again (Lever-

ett’s surveyor). Within these out-of-school spaces—a porch, a field, a neighbor-

hood street—there were opportunities to learn mathematics, to develop rigorous

mathematical thinking, and to learn habits of mind that contributed to these math-

ematicians’ development.

“That Was It: I Could Do Math”:

Cultivating Mathematics Identity Within Schools

Many successful adults can point to the critical role of teachers in their

lives, and every mathematician that has participated in the larger study points to

key experiences and relationships with dynamic and charismatic “teachers” both

within and outside of school as being integral to their success. These teachers

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

might have been peers as in the case of Nathaniel Long, traditional school-

teachers, or out-of-school adults like Craig Thomas’s grandfather, who were in-

strumental to these mathematicians’ development. But in this section I focus on

in-school experiences, and how classroom teachers crafted mathematical spaces

that were meaningful to these mathematicians. Eleanor Gladwell illustrates in Vi-

gnette 4 how school relationships have an impact on one’s mathematics identity

and describes the power of learning beyond the typical and traditional classroom

teaching/learning dynamic:

I had a high school math teacher who was a younger man that was recently out of col-

lege, so that means he had lots of energy and enthusiasm about mathematics. And that

was about the time of Sputnik. So they had all these institutes around the country to

try to increase interest in math, and they had a lot of teacher’s institutes. And so he

would go to those.

I think it’s because of him that I really excelled in math in high school. For example,

when I got to trigonometry, the county would not allow them to teach trigonometry

because there were not enough students—you had to have enough for a big class.

Well, he only had five, six, or eight, you know. So he decided that we needed trigo-

nometry to go to college. So he agreed that if our parents would bring us back in the

evenings, he would teach trigonometry. And they did. That’s how we learned, that’s

how we got our trig.

When Mr. Holly said I could do math, that was it, I could do math. So I never thought

that was strange at all. And the high school teachers, they all told us we could do

whatever we wanted to, you know. So in a school with mostly Black teachers, you got

the message that you just needed to work hard and you could do whatever you wanted

to do.

What is notable about this story is Mr. Holly’s commitment to ensuring, despite

policy constraints, that students he felt could benefit from having extra mathemat-

ics would get it-even outside of school hours. In addition, it underscores the par-

ents’ commitment (Siddle Walker, 1996) to helping their children get the educa-

tion they needed during an era of rigid racial segregation. Like Long, Gladwell

talks about the importance of the community in supporting intellectual endeav-

ors—in this case the parents of the students making sure that they were able to

take advantage of Mr. Holly’s after school instruction. But Gladwell goes on to

talk about the larger cultural context of her experience: the educational leaders

that small, southern, predominantly Black towns and communities have created.

In addition, Gladwell’s telling of this story about Mr. Holly reveals some-

thing about her mathematics identity. In a field where much of the discourse about

women in the field focuses on their supposed lack of self efficacy, Gladwell talks

about how growing up in a segregated era posed clear challenges related to her

race and gender. But she also describes how teachers who believed in her and

demonstrated that belief in tangible ways, made her believe in herself and her

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

mathematical talent, too. It was, therefore, not at all “strange” that she did well in

mathematics.

Many mathematicians also describe teachers (of mathematics as well as of

other subjects) who ensured that students were exposed to extracurricular mathe-

matics opportunities outside of school—through enrichment programs, after-

school or before-school clubs, or summer activities.

In Vignette 5, Wayne Leverett continues his narrative, building on his story

about the surveyor and the slide rule to one about the importance of his secondary

school teachers in his mathematical development:

But this slide rule was one of my first memories about experiences that got me

hooked on math for sure. At school when the teachers discovered that I could use this

thing, they were quite amazed. I remember maybe in the tenth grade algebra class, she

[the teacher] gave me half the class [to teach]. My first memory of doing math [in

school] was as a show off. I was having fun, but I think the fact that the teachers gave

me praise really encouraged me to do a bit more. When we were taking algebra, Mrs.

Barr gave me a college algebra book because I think she feared that I could keep up

with the regular algebra easily. She gave me a college algebra book and would check

off a couple of problems and say, “See if you can do these tonight.” I would go home

determined to do them because I wanted to stay in her good graces. She thought I was

smarter than I was and I wanted to keep it that way. So I would work on the problems,

sometimes, half the night before I would figure out how to solve them, but I would

come in the next day as if I had solved them in 15 minutes. “Here is the solution, give

me some more.” I managed to keep that going until I graduated…[A]t the end of the

year when I tried to return the book, she said, “Wayne, you keep that book. It will do

you more good than it will do me.” I thought it was such a great treasure to have her

book.

There was another math teacher at school who did pretty much the same thing, except

that he collected his books back at the end of the year. His name was Mr. Barr. I do

feel that I had some sort of special treatment that at least two teachers at a very small

school noticed that I had some abilities and they did it on their own. They didn’t get

extra pay, but they were essentially giving me after school tutoring. Nobody, not even

the principal, [knew] that these things were going on. So I never have enough praise

for those two teachers.

The only thing that I have taken to everywhere I go is to remember what teachers did

for me when I was in high school. Because if Burgess had ignored me, or if Barr had

ignored me, or [his college mathematics professor], I don’t know where I would be

today. I certainly wouldn’t be here. So when I see a student who has some ability and

is trying, I always try to pull them aside and do something special. I keep looking for

students to befriend and yes, I try to find a good student to mentor and watch them

and see how they grow.

Both Gladwell and Leverett talk about these particular high school experiences

without mentioning much about the other students who were in their classes. But

teachers are not the only actors within schools who have an influence on students.

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

In Vignette 6, Craig Thomas talks about his peers and the supportive culture for

his mathematics work at his high school:

One thing I often remember: I was in 8

th
grade, I believe, and I was on a little local

television show, a little game show. And the thing I remember about this, I [made it to

the final round], and if I had gotten my [last] question right, I would have won.

I remember getting to school the next day and I remember Ladonna Rogers [a pseu-

donym], she was one of those who would just make your life miserable. She was

loud, she was just one of those who would make life hard, just because she could.

And I remember I was so stunned—Ladonna Rogers came up to me and said, “We

were rooting for you! I said, he’s in my homeroom!” I was so stunned—she liked to

take digs at everybody and me, especially, and she’s up here rooting for me because

I’m in her homeroom. And I remember that sticking out in my memory, that she was

proud of me, I guess, or something, and that I guess I could infer from other experi-

ences that there was more of that than I realized [at the time].

As Thomas’ vignette 6 describes, the multiple roles of peers—in childhood

and adolescence, but also continuing in adulthood—is a theme in many mathema-

ticians’ interviews. Some mathematicians describe separate peer groups for aca-

demic and social pursuits, others describe close knit peer groups that had a strong

academic as well as social focus. Peers, in many cases, are key sources of mathe-

matics instruction and inspiration. As one mathematician revealed, his older

classmate’s admonitions were rooted in the social context of the school, which

had been recently desegregated:

He said, “Look, you have a responsibility.” I still remember to this day he says,

“You’re better than any of us in terms of doing this stuff.” And he says, “You’re

probably better that most of the White students.” He says, “You got to stay number

one, and you also have an obligation to help, you know, to tutor and stuff like that.”

So you know, anybody that was kind of interested I would help them. Not because of

him, I would have done that anyway. But I did feel this obligation because he would

monitor what I was doing….He told me that that was my obligation, and I kind of

believed him. There were times when I kind of didn’t feel like studying, I would kind

of like hear his voice. Which was really kind of interesting to me. And I wouldn’t

remember his name or his face if he would walk up to me now at all. In a way I would

like to thank him.

However, Gladwell, Leverett, and Thomas’s experiences also speak to the

importance of mathematics teachers going beyond the prescribed curriculum to

engage students’ mathematical interests and potential. In all three vignettes, as

Gladwell says, there is a “message”—“you just needed to work hard and you

could do whatever you wanted to do”—about mathematics that is being sent to

Gladwell, Leverett, Thomas and their fellow students. In Gladwell’s and Lever-

ett’s case, this message is directly rooted in the historical context of segregated

schooling in the South. To counter this, Gladwell’s teacher enlisted the communi-

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

ty’s aid in preparing students for college mathematics and Leverett’s teachers

gave him a very strong message about their beliefs in his ability, establishing him

as co-teacher and giving him college-level work. Thomas’s teachers, in an era

where school segregation was unlawful but still present, sent a message not just to

Thomas, but to his peers: that his mathematical project is important enough to be

presented to fellow students during instructional time. All of these teachers are

using modes of instruction and induction into mathematical practice that are oc-

curring inside as well as outside of the traditional mathematics classroom space.

Spaces In Between:

Building Bridges Across Multiple Worlds, Modes, and Identities

These six vignettes reveal that spaces and identities are not necessarily dis-

crete. In-school and out-of-school spaces overlap, and the participants within the-

se spaces take on different roles. For example, Leverett’s learning of trigonometry

took place in several settings and through several modalities: through his uncle,

who gave him a slide rule manual with trigonometric functions; through school,

where he learned mathematics in his classroom and from his teachers’ out-of-

school tutoring; and through the surveyor, who gave him practical experience but

also reinforced mathematics content Leverett had learned and fostered Leverett’s

understanding of possibilities of careers using mathematics. In addition, Leverett

in Vignette 5 serves as student and apprentice teacher in his mathematics class-

room, as does Thomas in Vignette 6 in his mathematics class and other classes.

Although Gladwell’s trigonometry class occurred as a traditional teacher-students

mathematics class arrangement, it occurred after school, when parents, teacher,

and students all had to make special arrangements to participate. All of these

characteristics facilitated mathematics learning and socialization within school,

outside of school, and in “in-between” spaces. There was formal and informal

mathematics learning, as well as important experiences that occurred outside of

school that contributed to knowledge and understanding of school mathematics

concepts.

Second, several vignettes echo previous findings in a study with high

achieving high school students (Walker, 2006) that show that persons and rela-

tionships from multiple worlds formed academic communities (comprising family

members, peers, teachers, and others) who had an important impact on the math-

ematicians’ development. In addition, as I discovered in the high achievers study,

the persons providing support or socialization opportunities for the mathemati-

cians are not necessarily themselves mathematics teachers or mathematicians. In

fact, some of these persons are those who would be considered “uneducated”, or

“undereducated”, in the formal sense by many.

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

Third, the importance of opportunity in contribution to mathematics sociali-

zation for these mathematicians is key. Much has been made of the concept of

“opportunity to learn” and specifically, opportunity to learn rigorous mathematics.

However, as I define the concept here, this idea is not limited to within school op-

portunities to learn, but opportunities in and outside of school that are both pre-

sented to and sought by mathematicians as adolescents. The mathematicians in

this study—and the four whose vignettes are presented here—describe multiple

opportunities and contexts in which to learn mathematics. Mathematics learning

occurred both outside of school (in family settings, with friends, through random

interactions), within school (in mathematics classrooms, through school projects),

and in in-between spaces (after school sessions and informal mathematics teach-

ing and learning spaces in school buildings).

Conclusion

These narratives suggest that we can be much more successful in improving

mathematics outcomes and fostering interest in mathematics by rethinking how

and where mathematics learning and practice occur, and where one’s mathematics

identity is developed. To do this, this study of mathematicians suggests that we

should build on out-of-school spaces that support mathematics socialization and

also re-imagine the mathematics classroom to be a space that not only provides

opportunities to learn meaningful mathematics, but supports mathematics identity

development and positive socialization experiences.

But we also have to think about how we insure that meaningful mathematics

occurs beyond fleeting conversations, students’ individual experiences, and the

spaces in which they happen to find themselves. Our expectations of students’

abilities are key—if we think students have potential and if they are worthy of our

attention in spaces that support mathematics learning, we become much more in-

tentional and purposeful about creating these spaces. This is true in all four math-

ematicians’ vignettes—whether it is teachers, peers, or relatives contributing to

early mathematics development. Thus, opportunities to engage in meaningful

mathematics have to have intentionality and purpose, and should not solely be

haphazard or happenstance. For too many of our students, particularly our under-

served Black and Latino/a students, these opportunities are limited.

Evidence shows that for Black and Latino/a high school students attending

urban schools, even those with strong mathematics identities and positive sociali-

zation experiences, opportunities to learn mathematics may not be equivalent to

those at other schools serving predominantly White students. Opportunities to

take advanced level mathematics classes, for example, are not equal across afflu-

ent and poor schools. Elsewhere, I have written about how schools might maxim-

ize opportunity for underrepresented high school students (Walker, 2007b) sug-

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

gesting that schools do the following to foster opportunity and belongingness: ex-

pand our thinking about who can do mathematics, build on students’ existing aca-

demic communities, learn from schools (particularly college and university pro-

grams) that promote mathematics excellence for underrepresented students, ex-

pand the options in school mathematics courses and enrichment opportunities, and

reduce underrepresented students’ isolation in advanced mathematics settings.

Experiences that promote mathematics socialization, identity development,

and learning are critically important, because in the lives of Black mathematicians

they have resonance. To wit, within these mathematical spaces, there are experi-

ences that mathematicians had as young people that continue to resonate with

them years later. These experiences contribute not only to their own construction

of self as a mathematics doer, but also to their knowledge of mathematics content.

Further, these past experiences can contribute to how they think about their own

practice as mathematicians. For example, Thomas’s experience with his grandfa-

ther on the porch “shows up” in his classes when he is teaching the concept of

convergence; Leverett shares his surveyor experience as an example of “mathe-

matics in action”. Gladwell is renowned as a mentor to young mathematicians,

and her experience with Mr. Holly may influence how she conceives of her work

mentoring graduate students. In a program she has co-developed, the emphasis is

on giving participants a “head start” on graduate level work, in much the same

way Mr. Holly ensured that she and her peers would be prepared for college work.

What appears to contribute greatly to a mathematical space’s resonance is

the presence of key individuals and/or relationships. In all of these experiences,

whether described by mathematicians or high achieving high school students, it is

not just the space—the neighborhood, the school, the classroom—but it is also the

significant relationships and experiences with family members, peers, teachers,

mentors, and others in these spaces that are remembered. These relationships and

experiences, built on high expectations, contribute to these individuals’ practices,

and the larger practices, of the mathematical communities to which they belong

(Walker, 2007a, 2012). Much of the research describing factors that contribute to

the high achievement of underserved students in mathematics, in particular, points

to the importance of relationships that are both personal and relate to the content

(Berry, 2008; Moore, 2006).

The process of crafting intentional spaces, rather than allowing for (or hop-

ing for the possibility of) inadvertent spaces, in which young people learn and

practice mathematics, develop a strong mathematics identity, and are inducted

into a community of mathematics doers, I argue, must attend to these issues of

opportunity and resonance. Interviews with Black mathematicians reveal that ear-

ly on there were strong influences on their mathematical development and how

they think about mathematics both inside and outside of school. What was sur-

prising was that both out-of-school experiences and in-school experiences appear

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

to be influential to talent and identity development, and at times, out-of-school

experiences, however fleeting, had a seemingly lasting impact on Black mathema-

ticians’ conceptions of self, mathematics, and their mathematics ability. With the-

se ideas in mind, schools can provide spaces for students that ensure that they feel

that they rightfully belong to a community of mathematics doers, that they have

opportunities to engage in meaningful mathematics, and that their experiences in

these spaces are resonant and contribute to the development of their identities as

mathematical persons.

At the Symposium

During the symposium, I presented work from a study of Black American

high achievers—high school students and mathematicians—focusing on key

mathematical spaces that fostered their mathematics excellence. During the dis-

cussion, we discussed links between mathematical spaces and young people's

mathematics engagement, identities, and socialization, and how experiences in

these spaces serve as counternarratives to the dominant discourse about high

mathematics achievement that ignores mathematics excellence among under-

served students. We had the opportunity to brainstorm about ways that schools,

communities, and neighborhoods could develop formal and informal spaces that

support mathematics learning, and discussed how more research in these settings

could facilitate better understanding of how to improve mathematics teaching and

learning for Black students in particular.

Acknowledgments

I am thankful to all of the mathematicians who are participating in this study for their generosity in

sharing their narratives with me. I thank Carol Malloy, Robyn Brady Ince, and Lalitha Vasudevan

for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

References

Anderson, J. (1988). The education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. Chapel Hill, NC: Universi-

ty of North Carolina Press.

Berry, R. Q., III (2008). Access to upper-level mathematics: The stories of successful African

American middle school boys. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 39, 464–

488.

Boaler, J., & Greeno, J. (2000). Identity, agency, and knowing in mathematical worlds. In J. Boal-

er (Ed.), Multiple perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 171–200). Stam-

ford, CT: Ablex.

Bonotto, C. (2005). How informal out-of-school mathematics can help students make sense of

formal in-school mathematics: The case of multiplying by decimal numbers. Mathematical

Thinking and Learning, 7, 313–344.

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

Burton, L. (2004). Mathematicians as enquirers: Learning about learning mathematics. Berlin,

Germany: Springer.

Cobb, P., & Hodge, L. L. (2002). A relational perspective on issues of cultural diversity and equity

as they play out in the mathematics classroom. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4

(2&3), 249–284.

Cole, A. G. (2009). Mapping students’ lives: Children’s geographies, teaching, and learning. The

Educational Forum, 73, 20–32.

Flores-Gonzalez, N. (1999). Puerto Rican high achievers: An example of ethnic and academic

identity compatibility. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 30, 343–362.
Fordham, S., & Ogbu, J. (1986). Black students’ school success: Coping with the burden of

“acting White.” Urban Review, 18, 176–206.

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the

concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59–109.

Gutierrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: individual traits or repertoires of

practice. Educational Researcher, 32 (5), 19–25.

Herzig, A. H. (2004). Becoming mathematicians: Women and students of color choosing and leav-

ing doctoral mathematics. Review of Educational Research, 74, 171–214.

Hill, M. L., & Vasudevan, L. (2007). Media, learning, and sites of possibility. New York, NY:

Peter Lang.

Hilliard, A. G. (2003). No mystery: Closing the achievement gap between Africans and excel-

lence. In T. Perry, C. Steele, & A. G. Hilliard III, Young, gifted, and black: Promoting high

achievement among African-American students (pp. 131–166). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Horvat, E. M., & Lewis, K. S. (2003). Reassessing the “burden of ‘acting White’”: The

importance of peer groups in managing academic success. Sociology of Education, 76(4),

265–280.

Kinloch, V. (2005). Poetry, literacy, and creativity: Fostering effective learning strategies in an

urban classroom. English Education, 37(2), 96–114.

Lefebvre, H. (1974). The production of space (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Oxford, United King-

dom: Blackwell.

Mahiri, J. (2004). What they don’t learn in school: Literacy in the lives of urban youth. New York,

NY: Peter Lang.

Martin, D. B. (2000). Mathematics success and failure among African American youth: The roles

of sociohistorical context, community forces, school influence, and individual agency.

Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Masingila, J. O., Davidenko, S., & Prus-Wisniowska, E. (1996). Mathematics learning and prac-

tice in and out of school: A framework for connecting these experiences. Educational Stud-

ies in Mathematics, 31, 175–200.
Moore, J. L. (2006). A qualitative investigation of African American males’ career trajectory in

engineering: Implications for teachers, school counselors, and parents. Teachers College

Record, 108, 246–266.

Morrell, E. (2007). Critical literacy and urban youth: Pedagogies of access, dissent, and libera-

tion. New York, NY: Routledge.

Morris, J. E. (2004). Can anything good come from Nazareth?: Race, class, and African American

schooling and community in the urban south and midwest. American Educational Research

Journal, 41, 69–112.

Moses, R. P. & Cobb, C. E. (2001). Radical equations: Math literacy and civil rights. Boston,

MA: Beacon Press.

Nasir, N. S. (2000). Points ain’t everything: Emergent goals and percent understandings in the

play of basketball among African American students. Anthropology and Education Quar-

terly, 31, 283–305.

Walker Cultivating Mathematical Identities

Bullock, E. C., Alexander, N. N, & Gholson, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2010

Philadelphia and 2011 Atlanta Benjamin Banneker Association Conferences – Beyond the

Numbers [Special issue]. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 5(2).

Nasir, N. S. & Saxe, G. B. (2003). Ethnic and academic identities: A cultural practice perspective

on emerging tensions and their management in the lives of minority students. Educational

Researcher, 32(5), 14–18.

Newll, V. K., Gipson, J. H., Rich, J. W., & Stubblefield, B. (Eds.) (1980). Black mathematicians

and their works. Ardmore, PA: Dorrance.

Perry, T. (2003). Up from the parched earth: Toward a theory of African-American achievement.

In T. Perry, C. Steele, & A. G. Hilliard III, Young, gifted, and black: Promoting high

achievement among African-American students (pp. 1–10). Boston: Beacon Press.

Resnick, L. B. (1987). The 1987 Presidential Address: Learning in school and out. Educational

Researcher, 16(9), 13–20.

Saxe, G. B. (1991). Culture and cognitive development: Studies in mathematical understanding.

Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum.

Schoenfeld, A. H. (1991). On mathematics as sense-making: An informal attack on the unfortu-

nate divorce of formal and informal mathematics. In J. F. Voss, D. N. Perkins, & J. Segal

(Eds.), Informal reasoning and education (pp. vii–xvii). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Siddle Walker, E. V. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American school community in

the segregated South. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Soja, E. W. (1989). Postmodern geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory.

New York, NY: Verso.

Walker, E. N. (2006). Urban students’ academic communities and their effects on mathematics

success. American Educational Research Journal, 43, 43–73.

Walker, E. N. (2007a). Developing a mathematics tutoring collaborative in an urban high school.

The High School Journal, 91(1), 57–67.

Walker, E. N. (2007b). Why aren’t more minorities taking advanced math? Educational Leader-

ship, 65(3), 48–53.

Walker, E. N. (2009). “A border state”: A historical exploration of the formative, educational, and

professional experiences of Black mathematicians in the United States. International Jour-

nal of History in Mathematics Education, 4(2), 53–78.

Walker, E. N. (2011). Supporting giftedness: Historical and contemporary contexts for mentoring

within Black mathematicians’ academic communities. Canadian Journal for Science,

Mathematics, and Technology Education, 11(1), 19–28.

Walker, E. N. (2012). Building mathematics learning communities: Improving outcomes in urban

high schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.