The Effect of African Culture on African American Students' Achievement on Selected Geometry Topics in the Elementary Mathematics Classroom.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent studying topics in a cultural context affected African American students' achievement. Mathematics achievement was measured by a pre-assessment and post-assessment. The literature addresses the fact that all students can benefit from learning about culture and mathematics. Several educators (Hilliard, 1992; Ladson-Billings, 1997; Snipes, 1997; Strutchens, 1994; Tate, 1995, 1997; Zaslavsky, 1988) have specifically addressed the fact that African American students are struggling to find success in the mathematics classroom. This study implemented ethnomathematics and multicultural mathematcis activities in an effort to enhance African American students' interest in mathematics and improve their achievement in mathematics. Introduction Davidson and Kramer (1997) stated, "the gift of diversity is one of a classroom's most powerful assets no matter what the age level" (p. 131). Everyone's heritage is precious and worthy of discussion. No one is too young or too old to learn about other peoples' culture. Public school classrooms are made up of diverse people and provide environments in which to promote cultural awareness. The notion of exploring diversity in the field of mathematics is the motivation for conducting this study. This investigation examined how young African American students' achievement in mathematics is affected by engaging in selected geometry concepts presented within a cultural context. The role of culture is becoming more prevalent in the learning of mathematics due to the similarity of a great deal of the mathematics content across cultures (Geddes & Fortunate, 1993). As students learn about particular mathematics concepts, they should also learn about the people who used the concepts because numerous peoples made contributions to the field of mathematics. Peoples with diverse cultures also had diverse methods of using mathematics in their daily lives, which relates to their attitudes, traditions, and tools. These peoples include people with African, Asian, European, Latino, and Native American backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent studying topics in a cultural context affected African American students' achievement. There is a growing interest in the use of multicultural activities in the mathematics classroom as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM, 2000) promotion of equity and strong support for all students. Equity, identified as one of the principles of the NCTM (2000) Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, demands that appropriate and reasonable accommodations be made in order to promote access and attainment for all students regardless of their backgrounds, physical challenges, or personal characteristics. Students must have support to learn and opportunities to study mathematics. The study discussed in this article examined African American fifth grade students' mathematics achievement at a public elementary school in a southeastern city. This study is an excerpt from a larger study that investigated how the implementation of African cultural activities related to geometry affected African American students' achievement in geometry and perceptions of mathematics in general. Although the larger study's results focused specifically on African American students, a diverse group of students completed the activities. African American student achievement will be the focus of this article as well and the achievement discussion in this article was based on pre-assessment and post-assessment results. African American Student Achievement "Achievement in mathematics is often used as an indicator of 'how much' mathematics someone knows or possesses" (secada, 1992, p. 627). The mathematics achievement of African American students is a serious concern in mathematics education (Anderson, 1990; Clark, 1991; Johnson, 1984; Jones, Burton, & Davenport, 1984; Moore & Smith, 1987; Patterson, 1989; Reyes & Stanic, 1988; secada,1992; Silver, Smith, & Nelson, 1995; Silver, Strutchens, & Zawojewski, 1997; Strutchens, 1994; Strutchens & Silver, 2000; Tate, 1997; Zaslavsky, 1988). …