AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE STUDENTS AND ACHIEVEMENT IN SCHOOL MATHEMATICS: A CRITICAL POSTMODERN ANALYSIS OF AGENCY by DAVID WAYNE STINSON (Under the direction of Dr. Denise S. Mewborn) ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to shed light on the schooling experiences of African American male students who embraced school, academics, and mathematics. In particular, the study examined the influence of sociocultural discourses on the agency of 4 African American men in their early 20s who demonstrated achievement and persistence in school mathematics. Agency in this context was defined as the participants’ ability to accommodate, resist, or reconfigure the available sociocultural discourses that surround African American males in order for them to effectively negotiate these discourses in their pursuit of success. The study used qualitative action research methodology (Kemmis & Wilkinson, 1998) located within a critical postmodern theoretical frame (Kincheloe & McLaren, 1994). More specifically, the participants of the study were asked to read, reflect on, and respond to current research literature regarding the schooling experiences of African American male students. Their responses were analyzed using an eclectic theoretical framework that included poststructural theory, critical race theory, and critical (postmodern) theory. Poststructural theory provided a frame for rethinking and redefining key concepts such as person, agency, and power, among others. Critical race theory provided a frame for understanding how the discourse of race and racism operates within U.S. social structures. And critical (postmodern) theory provided a frame for discussing the purposes of education research. The reporting and analysis of the data revealed that the participants had acquired robust mathematics identities (Martin, 2000), identities that positively impacted their sense of agency. How the participants acquired such uncharacteristic mathematics identities for African American male students was to be found, in part, in how they understood the sociocultural structures and discourses of U.S. society and how they accommodated, resisted, or reconfigured the specific discourses that surround African American males. Although at times the responses from the participants were similar, their responses were never monolithic—not across participants, and not even within participants. Present throughout the responses from each participant, however, was recognition of himself as a discursive formation (Foucault, 1969/1972) who could actively accommodate, resist, or reconfigure sociocultural discourses as a means to subversively repeat (Butler, 1990) his constituted “raced” self. INDEX WORDS: Academic Success, Action Research, African American Male Students, Critical Postmodern Theory, Mathematics Success, School Success, Student Agency AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE STUDENTS AND ACHIEVEMENT IN SCHOOL MATHEMATICS: A CRITICAL POSTMODERN ANALYSIS OF AGENCY by DAVID WAYNE STINSON B.B.A., Georgia State University, 1985 M.Ed., Georgia State University, 1999 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 David Wayne Stinson All Rights Reserved AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE STUDENTS AND ACHIEVEMENT IN SCHOOL MATHEMATICS: A CRITICAL POSTMODERN ANALYSIS OF AGENCY by DAVID WAYNE STINSON Major Professor: Denise S. Mewborn Committee: Jerome E. Morris George M. A. Stanic Paulo Sztajn Dorothy Y. White Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2004 iv DEDICATION To all the students of Keeling High School who I taught and in return taught me—thank you for transforming my world. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process of doctoral studies and this resulting dissertation has been a life-changing experience. The successful completion of the process was not done alone, however; but with the enthusiastic assistance and encouragement, and supportive friendship and love, from my family, and the friends, colleagues, and teachers who I’ve acquired and encountered throughout my multiple lives. I’m fortunate and truly grateful for having such a fabulous constant source of assistance, encouragement, friendship, and love. I’m also grateful for Ethan, Keegan, Nathaniel, and Spencer, the four young men who shared their schooling and life experiences for this study. I learned a great deal from them when they were my students; likewise, as participants for this study. My life continues to be enriched by the hundreds of outstanding African American students that I taught and learned from at Keeling High School. I wish to thank the members of my doctoral committee, Denise Mewborn, Jerome Morris, George Stanic, Paulo Sztajn, and Dorothy White for their scholarship, encouragement, and support. Furthermore, their critical readings and suggestions made this dissertation, I believe, a sound and ethical product of scholarship. More specifically, I wish to thank Denise Mewborn, my committee chair, for providing me the space to learn and grow as a human and as a novice education scholar. It was her solid commitment to and unique understanding of teaching that allowed me to learn during my doctoral studies and through the research process. The supportive, directive, yet nonrestrictive learning space she provided allowed me to become “smarter” in articulating my passions vi regarding education, and society generally. Dr. Mewborn is an accomplished education scholar with the heart and soul of a teacher—I’m forever grateful to her for being my teacher. I also wish to thank another teacher, Dr. Elizabeth (Bettie) St. Pierre. As Denise provided me the space for learning, it was Bettie’s scholarship, teaching, and direction that provided me the means of acquiring different understandings of my life “experiences.” Bettie’s scholarship, teaching, and direction have forever changed my life. And lastly, I’m grateful for my colleagues from The University of Georgia; they, too, were a constant source of encouragement and support. In particular, I wish to thank Amy, whose assistance with my writing throughout my doctoral studies was a major factor in my successful completion, and Andy, Brian, Dennis, Jake, Judith, Natasha, Sharon, and others who listened—and responded, when I would let them get a word in edgewise—to my thinking out loud. The space they provided me for thinking out loud directly impacted my ability to articulate my thinking in writing. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................xi FORWARD..............................................................................................................................xii CHAPTER 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND ...........................................................1 The Study and Its Participants ..............................................................................1 Background...........................................................................................................2 Rationale...............................................................................................................6 Problem Statement and Research Questions ........................................................11 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................18 Framing the Review ............................................................................................18 Organizing the Review........................................................................................20 Discourse of Deficiency ......................................................................................21 Discourse of Rejection ........................................................................................28 Discourse of Achievement...................................................................................42 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...........................................................................47 Selecting Theoretical Frameworks.......................................................................47 Why an Eclectic Theoretical Framework .............................................................48 viii Poststructural Theory ..........................................................................................49 Critical Race Theory ...........................................................................................62 Critical Theory....................................................................................................66 Why Critical Postmodern Theory ........................................................................70 4 METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................73 Selecting Methodological Procedures..................................................................73 Researcher Subjectivity.......................................................................................77 Research Site.......................................................................................................85 Participant Selection............................................................................................86