ECR Projects

Explore past and current fundamental STEM education research projects across the three research areas that NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program funds, as well as across ECR funding types. Other search filters draw from both NSF's data and the ECR Hub's hand coding of award abstracts.

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Examining the Trajectories of Black Mathematics Teachers: Learning from the Past, Drawing on the Present, and Defining Goals for the Future

Effective Years: 2017-2021

The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that will generate foundational knowledge in the field. To that end, this research project will collect data about the experiences, beliefs, and praxis of Black mathematics teachers from historical and contemporary perspectives to: (a) inform recruitment and retention efforts; and (b) contribute to theory building. This study is highly important since the number of Black mathematics educators choosing to teach mathematics at the secondary are either choosing not to select mathematics as a career or leaving the profession due to racial/ethnic biases and stereotype threats that often question their ability to teach the subject. To help encourage more Black educators to choose teaching mathematics as a career, this study will document the oral histories and experiences of Black mathematics teachers pre- and post-de jure school desegregation as a means of informing contemporary recruitment and retention procedures and processes. It will also examine the experiences of practicing Black secondary mathematics teachers about their beliefs about mathematics content, recruitment, retention, racialized experiences in education, and perceptions and beliefs about current pedagogical practices. This information will be used to inform educational policy and provide implications for recruiting and maintaining a more diverse mathematics education teaching force.

A mixed methods research design will be used to collect data through oral history interviews with retired Black mathematics teachers and focus group sessions with current mathematics teachers. A large-scale survey will also be adapted and administered to capture the experiences of current Black secondary mathematics teachers from a sociocultural perspective. Through these data sources, this research will advance knowledge of the historical and sociocultural influences that impede recruitment and retention of a diverse teaching force by focusing efforts on understanding these issues in relation to Black mathematics teachers. It will also inform research methodology in STEM by integrating untapped, yet appropriate methodologies suitable for challenging issues of recruitment, retention, and praxis of other underrepresented racial and ethnic groups across time periods and school contexts. Further, this project will contribute to theories about the development of mathematics identity and mathematics teaching. This outcome, in turn, will help broaden participation of underrepresented teachers and students in STEM while improving mathematics achievement and performance overall. Through these avenues, findings from this research will reach a variety of academic and general public audiences through online digital portal and website that will provide informational and educational tools for the larger education community.