The Experiences of African American Students Engaging in Culturally Relevant Cognitively Demanding Mathematical Tasks

This study investigated the experiences of African Americans students engaging in culturally relevant cognitively demanding mathematical tasks. Culturally relevant cognitively demanding (CRCD) mathematical tasks are high-level demanding tasks that explore mathematical concepts embedded with culture related to phenomena in their current lives (Mathews & Parker, 2013). The purpose of this study was to capture the students\u27 experiences and to engage students in mathematical tasks that constitute doing mathematics or procedures with connections (Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver, 2009). This qualitative case study is situated in critical race theory and constructivist theory of learning. In the study, I observed, recorded classes, and completed a content analysis about cognitively demanding mathematical tasks (Merriam, 2009; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Yin, 2014). The African American students completed the culturally relevant cognitively demanding mathematical tasks in a virtual environment. It is expected that this study will contribute to the research surrounding the teaching and learning of mathematics for African American students. Additionally, the study will contribute to research about the usefulness of culturally focused lessons. Furthermore, this study is a counter-narrative surrounding African American students and mathematics