Webinar Series
Detailing Racialized and Gendered Mechanisms of Mathematics Instruction
Date+Time
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The MƒA Equity Webinars Series invites nationally recognized educators to share ideas that support equity within STEM. Following an interactive presentation by the speaker, Master Teachers have the opportunity to discuss how these ideas might be applied in their own school environments in small groups. Teachers from MƒA, other Master Teacher programs, and people interested in learning more about MƒA are invited to attend.
Calculus courses, in particular, operate as gatekeepers that contribute to racialized and gendered attrition in persistence with mathematics coursework and pursuits in STEM. In this talk, Dr. Luis A. Leyva unpacks instructional mechanisms of inequality as he presents findings from a study of historically marginalized students and their perceptions of racialized and gendered features of calculus instruction. These students reported experiencing stereotyping and a lack of representation in their calculus classrooms and in STEM fields. Together, these experiences shaped students’ reports of instructional mechanisms of inequality or teacher moves that appear to be neutral but actually reinforce racial and gendered inequities. These reported mechanisms marginalize students’ opportunities for 1) participation and instructor support, 2) same-race, same-gender peer support, and 3) feeling a sense of belongingness in STEM. Dr. Leyva also discusses the implications on teacher practice and provides insights on working towards instructional moves that disrupt racialized and gendered mechanisms.
Dr. Luis A. Leyva is an assistant professor of mathematics education at Vanderbilt University - Peabody College and was recently distinguished with a 2020 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research explores how interlocking systems of racism, white supremacy, and cis-heteropatriarchy shape historically marginalized students’ experiences of undergraduate STEM instructional and support practices. He was a certified K-12 mathematics teacher in New Jersey and holds six years of professional experience in STEM co-curricular programs for historically marginalized college students, including the Upward Bound Math-Science Summer Bridge Program and STEM Talent Expansion Program (National Science Foundation).