An Anti-deficit Counter-story of a Black Girl’s Forms of Resilience in a Standards-based Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

Scholars have called for critical research that positions Black girls in a positive light while centering their constructed meanings and resistance against stereotypes and dominant discourses in mathematics spaces, particularly in reform-oriented instructional contexts. Black girls may have to resist deficit master narratives about the intellectual ability of Black women and girls (macro-level) in moment-to-moment classroom interactions (micro-level). In this article, we tell an anti-deficit counter-story (Adiredja, 2019) of how sense-making and silence became forms of resilience for a Black girl named Amari (pseudonym) during a standards-based whole-class mathematics discussion. Using theoretical perspectives rooted in critical race theory and positioning theory, we operationalized Black girls’ forms of resilience as repeated acts of resistance, evidenced by negotiated or rejected positions. Framing our positioning analysis using an anti-deficit counter-story method (Adiredja, 2019), Amari’s mathematical brilliance was centered while showcasing how forms of resilience emerged from repeated acts of resistance at a micro-interactional timescale. Implications of this work point to a need to specify micro-level responsibilities in classroom settings that challenge racism, sexism, and oppression in macro-level reform efforts.