Danny Bernard Martin: Exploring what it means to learn math while Black

“I like to tell people that my research program is built on two questions,” UIC professor Danny Bernard Martin said. “The first question is: What does it mean to be a learner and doer of mathematics in the context of being Black? The second question is: What does it mean to be Black in the context of learning and doing mathematics?”

These questions are two sides of the same coin: understanding how Black students’ racial identities shape their experiences in mathematics and understanding how their experiences as math learners shape their racial identities.

While exploring those questions, Martin has created a nearly 35-year legacy of conducting research focused on Black students, their families and their communities.

“I’m interested not just in their outcomes in terms of achievement; I’m also interested in their experiences,” Martin said. “Because I foreground the fact that these are Black folks who live in the real world, I focus on issues of race, racial identity, socialization — in school and out of school — and how all that is related to their mathematics learning and development.”

When Martin first started doing his research in the early 1990s, he noticed that almost all existing research focused on how Black children differed from white children in their mathematical performance; white children’s achievement was the standard. The brilliance of Black children was frequently ignored in favor of focusing on low achievement as measured by narrow criteria.

Martin decided to study Black children and parents who were mathematically successful and situate those successes in the realities of Black life. Starting with the brilliance of Black learners remains a cornerstone of his research, and he believes it also should be the basis of teaching Black children. Research shows that many teachers, as well as the general public, develop stereotypes about the mathematical abilities of different racial groups.

Martin, who teaches curriculum and instruction in the College of Education and in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said Black students must frequently negotiate these stereotypes, even when they do well and reach higher-level math classes in college.

“For example, one of my doctoral students documented Black students who were in high-level math courses doing things like carrying their books so that the title faces outward, so they’re not questioned about their presence in this space,” Martin said.

Martin said he’s proud his continued research has helped reframe how Black children are researched in mathematics. He is also co-chair of Racial Justice in Early Mathematics, a collaboration between UIC and Erikson Institute, which works to identify and rectify racial disparities in children’s early math education. In March, the collaboration received a grant to continue its research and develop resources for parents, teachers and communities.

“We’re seeing many more studies and many more researchers who are taking up the stance: ‘We need a different conversation. We need a different narrative about Black learners,’” Martin said. “When we change the narrative, we change the framing. What does research look like now that we have reframed the issue? What does policy look like? What does teacher practice look like?”