Mathematics Success & Failure:  A Book Review

Rick Anderson, Portland State University

 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:  Lawrence Erlbaum.

        Danny Martin’s book makes two potential contributions for researchers studying mathematics education in the rural context.  First, Martin takes a “context-based perspective” (p. 8) and provides a framework for understanding mathematics learning that takes into account both the out-of-school context and in-school factors that influence mathematics learning.  Second, he shows the framework’s usefulness with an analysis of data gathered for his dissertation study in an urban, African American community.

       The framework has four components:  sociohistorical, community, school, and individual students.  Martin makes clear that each component is not embedded within the previous ones, since this would imply that “larger contextual variables determine the fate of the individual” (p. 32).  Instead, he posits that there is a relationship between each, and he assumes that students are agents in their mathematics socialization, “both reactive and proactive – resisting, conforming, making decisions, forming beliefs and dispositions, and constructing mathematical knowledge and identities” (pp. 33–34).  (In graph-theoretical terms, each component of the framework can be thought of as a vertex in a complete graph on four vertices.)

       One component Martin considers is the sociohistorical character of mathematics achievement among African Americans.  Historically, education – and mathematics education specifically – has not been available to African Americans in the same way as it has been to other groups in American society.  This is compounded by the social and economic place African Americans have occupied within the social structure of the United States.  Martin claims these factors do not determine today’s African American students’ mathematics achievement, but they do contribute to the context of mathematics learning today.

       Turning to a more contemporary view of African American life, Martin highlights three other components:  community, school, and individual.  Community beliefs include those about mathematics abilities, the importance of mathematics knowledge, math-dependent socioeconomic and educational goals, and expectations for students (p. 172).  As for the school component, Martin considered teachers’ beliefs about students, parents, and communities; teachers’ curricular goals; and student culture and achievement norms.  In the fourth component, he describes themes of students’ personal identities, goals, and beliefs about the relationship between mathematics and themselves.

       Following the presentation of the framework, Martin introduces the reader to African American community members, teachers, and students.  With analysis and interpretation of interview data, he fills in the framework with details from his research context, African American communities in California’s East Bay area.  He also speaks to mathematics socialization and to the agency and identity formation of individuals.

       The usefulness of this framework for understanding the complexity of African American students’ mathematics success and failure becomes evident in the empirical reports.  It also becomes evident that additional theoretical work needs to be done to clarify concepts such as mathematics socialization and identity.  While providing a basis for understanding the events, these ideas are left largely undefined.

       Martin’s framework raises questions about mathematics education in the rural context.  How do the social and historical elements of a rural community interact with the beliefs and purposes of mathematics education?  How do rural students’ goals and expectations relate to their mathematics achievement?  What leads to mathematics success or failure among rural students?  The framework and accompanying empirical example hold promise for research into understanding mathematics education in context, including the rural context.

       There may be a tendency to think the African American experience is monolithic; however, like rural contexts, it should be viewed with respect to the diversity present.  That is, the African American experience in rural places may well be different from that in urban places, much as the rural experience in Appalachia differs from that in the Great Plains.  Nonetheless, the framework can help inform the work of scholars interested in placing the experience of rural mathematics students in context.