Dissertation Defense – Genella Matthews Spencer – October 9

Genella Matthews Spencer will defend her dissertation at 2:30 on Friday, October 9. Email Dr. Sheila Shannon sheila.shannon@ucdenver.edu for a zoom link.

 

AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY PRESENTED WITH A SELF-REFLECTIVE PERFORMANCE NARRATIVE OF PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES: CONTRIBUTING TO THE MATHEMATICAL SUCCESS OF STUDENTS OF COLOR IN URBAN INNER-CITY SCHOOLS

Abstract:

With this dissertation I present a self-narrative autoethnography to share the pedagogical practices that have been found to be successful in the academic achievement of mathematics with a specific sector of Students of Color, Black/African American students, in the urban inner-city schools. A combination of self-reflected teaching experiences in secondary schools across the United States, included with the experiences of other teachers, reveals a new approach in addressing the disparity between Black and White students in the academic achievement of mathematics. I present voices from both past and present students as well as teachers to support the mathematics achievement of Black/African American students in the urban inner-city schools. Each chapter communicates informative data encompassed in a story-telling format that shares educational experiences in the urban inner-city schools with embedded research investigations of teachers’ pedagogical practices in mathematics as well as students’ mathematical thinking pathways. The intention of presenting this autoethnography is to assist teacher candidates, present teachers, school administrators, and school districts in achieving the mathematical success of Black/African American students.