Effective teachers of Black children employ culturally relevant pedagogies (Martin, 2007); pedagogies centered on students’ cultural capital and community contexts (Irvine & Irvine, 1983; Ladson-Billings, 1994). Teachers need to understand how students’ funds of knowledge – the knowledge, skills and experiences found in students’ homes and communities - can support their learning (Leonard, 2007; Moll, Amanti, Neff & Gonzalez, 1992). The field of mathematics education currently lacks a deep understanding of how mathematics instruction might elicit and build upon the multiple mathematical knowledge bases (e.g., mathematical, community-based) that children bring to the classroom in ways that support learning.

We contend that experiences that help new teachers understand the mathematical knowledge and practices of students’ communities can enhance their ability to provide effective mathematics instruction for Black children. We report on data gathered from two activities conducted by preservice teachers (PSTs) in their elementary mathematics methods course: (a) an individual interview with a child and (b) a community math exploration. These activities were intended to (re)orient PSTs from talking about what Black children cannot do to instead consider what Black children can do by attending to the competencies, knowledge, and skills children bring to the mathematics classroom. In looking at these activities, we address the question of how these activities support the preparation of highly qualified teachers of Black children.

In this case, for the individual interview, PSTs chose a Black student. Interview questions explored student interests, home/community activities, and dispositions related to learning mathematics. To (re)orient thinking, PSTs must explicitly identify the resources and knowledge children bring to the mathematics classroom. The focus on resources is a direct challenge to the difference-as-deficit view of Black children and communities (Ryan, 1976; Martin & McGee, 2009; Valencia, 1997).

For the Community Math Exploration activity, the goal was for PSTs to identify mathematical practices and funds of knowledge in students’ communities and create a standards-based mathematics lesson. Community Math Explorations can be guided tours by parents or visits to specific locations of communities such as parks, stores, businesses, construction sites, police, or fire stations. PSTs were instructed to document evidence of mathematical practice through observation and conversation with individuals who work/play/shop in the setting and formulate a series of questions about the context that could be mathematized. The goal of the community visits was to see the community itself as a mathematical resource, and potentially confront stereotypes and assumptions PSTs might hold. PSTs then designed a mathematics lesson that both deepened students’ mathematical understanding of a particular concept and connected to the community context that they learned about in their community walk.

For this paper, data collected from 18 PSTs included written reflections on both the individual interview and the community exploration involving Black students and communities. Data were analyzed by two researchers using open coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) and analytic induction (Bogdan & Biklin, 1992) to identify patterns of similarities and/or differences as well as emerging themes. Differences in interpretation were discussed until consensus was reached (Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Our results suggest that these activities support PSTs in seeing Black children in a “new light,” not only supporting PSTs in learning more about the students’ interests, but also in identifying students’ strengths and competencies that can be built upon during mathematics instruction. For many PSTs, close interactions with a student supported them in reframing their interpretations of the student. In one instance, a PST recognized what was interpreted as inattention and inability was actually lack of appropriate intellectual challenge: “Through this observation I realized that students aren’t always quiet because they don’t understand, they might be bored like Kat and may need a challenge to do something more.” In other cases, these activities supported PSTs in confronting their assumptions about children’s communities, learning “the community is not a place to be afraid of,” or that the myth that parents of Black children are not around to help their children was false as the child “spoke of how her parents help her with her math homework whenever she needs it.  She said that her mom points out prices at the supermarket and has showed her how to check the bill to make sure you are not getting ripped off.” Additionally, these activities support the emergence of assumptions, including at times explicit deficit perspectives about a child or a child’s family, such as that of one PST, “If my student had come from a one parent home or was busy with a lot of extracurricular activities I may have thought that would [be the reason for] his struggle.” Upon emerging, these perspectives are addressed and challenged within the mathematics methods course. Finally, PSTs viewed these activities positively and noted that they reaffirmed the importance of knowing students well and connecting mathematics to students’ lives. As one PST noted, “I learned the importance of getting to know your students as well as the importance of using students’ actions to inform my instruction.”

Engaging PSTs in activities that support them in learning about individual Black children and their communities can support PSTs in moving away from a deficit perspective of Black children to a resource perspective that identifies mathematical strengths and competencies of Black children „Ÿor in other words that recognizes the multiple mathematical knowledge bases of children„Ÿ that can enhance mathematics instruction, confront negative assumptions about children and their communities, and support mathematical learning and advancement.

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