IDENTITIES OF RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE MATH CLASSROOM: A GIRLS' MATH CLUB AS A HYBRID POSSIBILITY

by Stephanie Jones

Patti is an African American girl in third grade. She lives in a midwestern city and attends a newly opened charter school serving students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. If you took a look inside Patti's combination second-/third-grade classroom, you would notice that she is the largest student in the room. Patti has black wiry hair, uses a tone of voice that is typically louder than that of her two teachers (though similar to her mother's), and usually dresses in clothing that does not fit stereotypical images of femininity. Against the odds, Patti is an individual who has progressed significantly in strengthening her identity within the realm of mathematics. Much of this progress has been made through the relationship she has developed with me, an action researcher, within the practices of an after-school math club for girls. This has certainly been productive for Patti, and it would seem to be a "success story" for me-but it is not.