1. POSTER TEMPLATE BY: www.PosterPresentations.com An Investigation of African American Girls’ Positionality in Science and Mathematics Rose M. Pringle, Thomasenia Lott Adams, & Cirecie West-Olatunji Award Number: 0734028 The Issue Research Questions Although research has been conducted on African American student achievement (Foster & Peele, 1999; Murrell, 2002), girls and mathematics education (Kerr & Robinson Kurpius, 2004), and the impact of socioeconomic status on student learning, little is known about the relationship between teacher expectations and African American girls self-perception as science and mathematics learners. Research is therefore needed to explore how the positionalities of teachers, counselors, and parents impact African American girls’ positionalities in relation to mathematics and science learning. Graphical Model. Key Findings The interactions of the roles of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status create the overall perception others have of African American girls in poverty, and these perceptions affect expectations and actions. All adult stakeholders do not consistently express positive perceptions regarding African American girls in poverty having success in mathematics and science fields. Disconnect between expectations of parents and school personnel on the roles of school. Parents offer support within their means, but they expect the schools to be responsible for their daughters’ formal education. However, they lack confidence in educators’ sincerity regarding educating their daughters. The researchers theorized that this may be due to the parents’ own prior experiences with the school system. School personnel (teachers and counselor) see parents as lacking involvement and interest in their daughters’ education because educators’ measure parent involvement using Eurocentric normative values of parent involvement. The researchers theorize that parents’ and educators’ expectations are not congruent and may impact the girls’ self-positioning as mathematics and science learners. The actions and advocacy of all adult stakeholders are affected by three key “positional factors”: Mathematics and science competency, which includes content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge; Cultural competency; and Expectations for future student success in math and science. For teachers - this affects their math and science instruction. For counselors - this affects how they view their role as school counselors. For parents – this affects: a) their level and type of involvement with the school and b) their level of participation in their children’s’ schooling experiences. Context & Participants Data Sources: Classroom observations of science and mathematics lessons Individual interviews with counselors, science and mathematics teachers, and parents Focus group interviews with girls Fieldnotes from a Summer 2008 PD retreat. Data Collection Who We Are 1.How do low-income African-American schoolgirls position themselves as mathematics and science learners in relation to their gender, class, and ethnic identities? 2.How do parents, teachers, and counselors, position themselves in relation to low-income African-American schoolgirls’ mathematics and science learning? 3.How do mathematics and science teachers’ positionality influence their teaching practices in relation to low- income African-American schoolgirls? 4.How do counselors’ positionality in relation to low-income African-American schoolgirls’ mathematics and science achievement influence their gate keeping activities? An ancillary finding is related to the methodological paradigm in which positionality becomes salient for the research participants as well as the researchers. Notably, the reflexive process of knowledge construction occurring between the researchers and the research investigation. The concept of insider/outsider researcher contributes to the creation of meta-knowledge or new knowledge emanating from the synergistic discourse among the collective team. Reflexivity Participants were selected from three predominantly low- income, African American elementary schools. 30 Rising Sixth Grade Girls 10 Teachers 3 School Counselors 17 Parents All three schools,according to the state’s accountability system for the past five years, ranked as either “C” or “D”. Principal Investigators: Dr. Rose Pringle Science Education Dr. Cirecie West-OlatunjiCounselor Education Dr. Thomasenia Adams Mathematics Education Research Team Members: Dr. Diane Archer-Banks Alliance Center Dr. Dimple Flesner UF Teach Program Joanne LaFramentaPhD Student Mathematics Education Dadria Lewis PhD Student Counselor Education Katie Milton PhD Student Science Education Lauren Shure PhD Student Counselor Education Maureen Cuff Undergraduate Student Elementary Education