Exploring the Role of Mathematics Content and Epistemology in Reproductions and Disruptions of Whiteness within Postsecondary Mathematics Departments

Abstract

Pervasive beliefs that mathematics is race-neutral inhibit faculty awareness of and responsiveness to racial issues in postsecondary mathematics departments. However, research inquiries exploring mathematics content and epistemology as a contributor to inequity have largely been limited to k-12 schooling contexts. Given the unique role of postsecondary education in enculturating students into academic disciplines, it is necessary to further our understanding of how mathematics may reproduce inequity at the postsecondary level. This dissertation explores how the discipline of mathematics shapes faculty conceptualizations of race in postsecondary mathematics contexts and illustrates how such conceptualizations may ideologically justify or challenge inequitable departmental structures. I apply a critical whiteness studies lens to examine these issues to interrogate the racial status quo implicit in the mathematics discipline and to conceptualize a more liberatory mathematics discipline at the postsecondary level.