Today, few African Americans pursue careers in mathematics and engineering-related fields. Most of the research on achievement and persistence in engineering evolves out of the mathematics education field due to the significant number of mathematics courses required to declare engineering as a college major and to obtain an engineering degree (Bailey, 1990; Hart, 2003). Furthermore, most educators agree that mathematics often serves as the foundation for engineering, science, and technology (Lubenski, 2001). Therefore mathematics achievement has a privileged role as a critical filter or "gatekeeper" controlling entry into both mathematics and engineering (Lubienski, 2001, 2001a, 2002; NRC, 1989; Reyes & Stanic, 1988; Schoenfeld, 2002; Usiskin, 1993). Those who demonstrate mathematical competency are better positioned to reduce structural barriers that often lead to economic dependence (Secada, 1995, 1997) and thereby have more opportunities to increase autonomy and self-determination (Moses, 2001; Moody, 2003).

For the past two decades several reports have documented underachievement and limited persistence of African Americans in mathematics (Anick, Caprenter & Smith, 1981; Entwistle, & Alexander, 1992; Fullilove & Treisman, 1990; Oakes, 1990, 2001; Secada, 1992; Stiff & Harvey, 1988; Tate, 1997). Remedial math classrooms at both the high school and collegiate levels contain disproportionate numbers of African American students, while advanced mathematics classes mainly serve White and Asian American students (Moses & Cobb, 2001; Oakes, 1990; Secada, 1992, 1995; Stiff, 1988; Tate, 1995). The disturbingly low rates of math achievement by students of color (African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans), women, and low-income students have gained increasing attention in the education community (Apple, 1995a; Gutstein et. .al, 1997; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Oakes, 1990, 2001; Secada, 1992, 1995; Tate 1997; Usiskin, 1993). Although African Americans, Latino/as, and Native Americans made up 28 percent of the college-age population in 1995, they received only 9 percent of the bachelor's degrees and 2 percent of the doctorates in engineering. On the other hand in that same year, 50 percent of high school Asian graduate students took advanced mathematics, while 31 percent of African-American and 24 percent of Hispanic graduates took remedial mathematics courses compared to 15 percent of white and Asian students (National Science Foundation, 2000). In 1998 according to the National Science Board (2000), African Americans and Hispanics each accounted for only 3% of the nation’s mathematicians and engineers. In terms of academic employment, African Americans constitute only 2.4% of the nation’s full-time ranked doctoral mathematics and engineering faculty. Although there has been an increased effort to improve the retention of students of color in undergraduate and graduate programs related to mathematics and engineering, progress has been slow. The Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development (2000) identified three factors that negatively affect the persistence and success of students of color in science, engineering and mathematics: greater need for financial assistance, lack of peer support, and lack of faulty of color. The continued homogeneity of mathematics and engineering fields with respect to race is disconcerting, particularly when our educational system, and society, is currently downplaying the power relations of race and racism and its influence in academic success (U.S. Department of Education, 2001).

Since students experience mathematics and engineering within the social context of the school, educational theorists who are trying to understand achievement and persistence differences, (e.g. Apple, 1992, 1995; Secada, 1995, Tate, 1997) have begun to highlight the importance of framing mathematics and engineering learning experiences with respect to the larger societal context. These theorists argue that schools are not immune to the stress, prejudices, inequalities, and inequities that exist in the larger society (Apple, 1992, 1995; Secada, 1995). These theorists believe that schools play an active role in reproducing and maintaining a stratified society by socializing students differently along the lines of race and class. For example, Watkins (2001) argued that the relationship of African American students to the schooling process is marked by a high degree of certainty, control, and student subordinacy to authority, whereas the relationship of White students to the schooling process involves students' independence and participation in the decision-making process. Therefore, schools may even participate in maintaining or perpetuating differential racial, economic, political, and cultural power (Apple, 1992, 1995; Spring, 1988; Watkins, 2001) for African American students.

The role of race—that is, the extent to which race influences a person’s self-concept and consequent behavior (Cross, 1991; Sellars, 1998)—in the lives of African American students is an understudied and under-theorized phenomenon, particularly in mathematics and engineering education (e.g., Martin, in-press a, in-press b, 2005; Powell, 2002; Rousseau & Tate, 2001). Outside of mathematics education, most models that analyze African Americans’ beliefs and attitudes about race assume that race has a significant impact on how African Americans define themselves and experience schooling (Asante, 1991; Boykin, 1986; Cross, 1991; hooks, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 1997; Lynn, 2004; Marks et. al., 2004; Phinney & Alipuria, 1990; Tate, 1995; Woodson, 1990). Moreover, extant theoretical and empirical work in psychology, sociology, and social psychology has demonstrated links between racial self-concept and positive psychosocial adaptation (Banks & Banks, 1993; Cross, 1991; DuBois, 1973; Sellars et. al., 1998a, 1998b; Steele, 1992, 1997). In general, researchers have found that African American students with positive yet realistic perceptions of their race are better adjusted in terms of overall self concept and ability to cope with race-based barriers in their lives. The general literature on identity development in African American students suggests that realistic beliefs about race play a protective role in their lives. Students who identify strongly with their racial group are better able to negotiate potentially negative environments, deal with discrimination and prejudice, and to have high self-esteem.

The discussion above provides a rationale for evaluating the roles race, and racism, play in African American experiences of the educational system, a predominately White American institution. This is particularly true with respect to mathematics and engineering education, where there is a limited African American presence and where research, policy, and practice have continued to support beliefs of a racial hierarchy of mathematical ability (Martin, 2005). Some quantitative studies in education have looked at race in relations to gaps in achievement or disparities in test scores but "these numbers do not capture the reality of race as a product of schooling, as part of the process of schooling (Lewis, 2003, p. 3)." Corbin & Strauss (1990) and others (Denzin, 1994; Glense, 1998) have provided greater attention to the potential limitations of information collected by quantitative assessment measures (i.e. surveys and standardized instruments), which prevail in mathematics education as the measurement of choice to research differences in academic achievement (Martin, 2005). Researchers commonly have represented Black academic achievement through comparative quantitative data collected mostly from Whites. Thus, Blackness or the experiences of Blacks was defined in terms of difference from Whiteness (McAdoo, 1991). Alternatively, there is a trend toward greater reliance on qualitative methods in mathematics education research (Gutstein, 2003; Gutierrez, 2000; Martin 2000, in-press a, in-press b, Moody, 2003, Powell, 2002; Tate, 1995) --such as face-to-face interviews, case studies and focus groups (Denzin, 1994) --to more fully examine questions about the developmental and adjustment questions of nontraditional groups. I utilized qualitative methods to explore the realities of these 14 high-achieving African American students’ constructions about self, mathematics learning and participation, and the role that their African American status played within this process.

It could be argued that a great deal of extant research, practice, and policy in mathematics and engineering education has constructed failure and limited persistence among African American students as normative (Martin, 2000, 2005). Moreover, most studies on mathematics and engineering achievement in African Americans have failed to address within-group variations of African American students, ignoring the fact that, despite challenging experiences, many African American students exhibit positive agency and achievement outcomes (Martin, 2000, in-press a, in-press b, 2004; Moody, 2003). However, a growing number of scholars in mathematics education take these achievement and persistence disparities as evidence of deep structural injustices in how the American schooling system distributes opportunities to learn mathematics (Apple, 1992, 1995; Fullilove & Treisman, 1990; Gutstein et. al., 1997, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 1997; Martin, 2000, 2003b, 2004, in-press a, in-press b, 2005; Oakes, 1985, 1990; Oakes et. al., 2001; Schoenfeld, 2002; Secada, 1992, 1995; Tate, 1995; Tate & Rousseau, 2002). This recent research suggests that there are supplementary race-conscious, self-motivated stories of African American students who achieve success in mathematics based fields. Within mathematics education, a few scholars have begun to theorize about race and racism and their relationships to mathematics learning and participation, identity formation, and African American student success and failure. Martin (in-press b), for example, stated race as a social construct as opposed to a determining variable matters because mathematics learning and participation can be characterized as racialized experiences. Even among these studies, efforts to examine the ways in which theories of race and racism can and should be linked to high mathematics and engineering achievement outcomes are only beginning to emerge (Martin, 2000, in-press a, 2005; Moody, 2003; Moses & Cobb, 2001; Oakes, 1990, 2001; Secada, 1989, 1992; Solorzano & Ornelas, 2002, 2004; Tate, 1995, 1997).

Considering the vast amount of educational research highlighting African-American academic failures, there is a significant gap in understanding the successful experiences of African American students in the academically competitive, and socially valued, areas of mathematics and engineering. This study focused on African American students’ self-reflections on and self-constructions of their experiences inside and outside of school, particularly their experiences as African Americans and as learners of mathematics. This study also focused on the importance of resiliency—defined here as the ability to form a successful adaptation in the face of obstacles and adversity (Arroyo & Zigler, 1995), as very little of the existing scholarly literature in mathematics education has investigated this phenomenon among African American students.

My study was designed to understand how high-achieving African American mathematics and engineering college students achieve and maintain their success. More specifically, the goal was to better understand how these successful African American students interpret and frame their academic achievement within an educational arena where African American presence is scarce (Bailey, 1990). This research focus was inspired by my interest in the academic success of African American college students pursuing mathematics and engineering degrees as opposed to studies that continue to focus on negative experiences and failure in those areas. I believe that issues of race have been marginalized in mathematics education and I question the conventional explanations of African American students’ experiences in mathematics learning and participation. Having graduated summa cum laude from a rigorous electrical engineering program at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) which promotes the development of a positive sense of self (Asante, 1991; Woodson, 1990), the current research on African American students and mathematics is not reflective of my own experiences or those of my fellow classmates who excelled in math-based majors. Rich descriptions and personalized accounts from successful Black math, and engineering students offer a different perspective for the mathematics education literature.

The criteria that I used for inclusion in this study were excellent grade point averages within the major and total number of mathematics and engineering courses completed. Participants were self-identified as African American college junior or seniors, who have maintained at least a 3.0 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale), are pursuing a mathematics or engineering related degree, and have successfully completed at least 7 math and/or engineering courses and received an A or B in at least five of those classes. These criteria emphasize the conventional, quantitative measures of academic achievement and persistence outcomes (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). However, analysis of the data will reveal a number of other psychosocial factors that expand the notion of success for African American students in these disciplines. Although part of my definition of academic success reinforces the dominant power structure, the students in this study have successfully negotiated this structure in terms of their academic achievement. In fact, their success in mathematics and engineering is a direct challenge the power dynamics that exist within this structure.

This study contrasts with previous studies in mathematics education which rarely include explicit discussions of race, thereby disguising the systemic structures that maintain the power relations that put African Americans at a disadvantage (Apple, 1995b; Secada, 1992, 1995). The narrow perspectives on race found in the extant mathematics education literature often distort the realities of race and racism for African Americans, even while African Americans students continue to cite racism and differential treatment as primary concerns in their mathematical educations (Guttierrez, 2000; Gutstein, 2003; Martin, 2000, in-press a, in-press b, 2005; Secada, 1992, 1995). Given the ways in which race and racism operate, I argue that it is imperative that math education researchers explore the role of race when examining educational experiences of African American students.

My study was performed by unpacking interview transcripts of student narratives for important themes relating to (a) opportunities and constraints in various mathematical and engineering based contexts, at diverse stages of life, (b) strategies they used to negotiate successful participation in mathematics, and (c) the salience of race and racism in their mathematical experiences (Cross, 1991; Martin, 2000 in-press a, in-press b; Sellars et. al., 1998a, 1998b). This study aids in establishing data that begins to fill the gap for understanding all academic levels of African American students and to focus attention on African American agency, empowerment, and resiliency.

To better understand the role of race and racism in the mathematics learning and participation experiences of these students, I have chosen to use Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an interpretive framework. Critical race theory is a thought-provoking perspective that allows the centering of race (together with social class, gender, sexual orientation and other areas of difference) in the lives of people of color (Darder, 1995).

Critical Race Theory is grounded in the recognition that African Americans have a unique history of oppression and discrimination in this country (Boykin, 1984). African Americans are one of the few ethnic/racial minority groups in the United States that were brought to this country as slaves. This distinct historical background contributes to a racialized minority experience and cultural identity in America for African Americans. This history of oppression and racism still impacts the lives of African Americans in this country (Bowman, 1991; Cross, 1991; Darder, 1995; Delpit, 1995; Feagin, 1992; Ladson-Billings, 2000; Lewis, 2003; Parker & Stovall, 2004). Critical Race Theory asserts that racism is a normal, every day occurrence in the lives of many people of color and asserts that change will not come with the color-blind perception or "formal" ideas of equality (Bonilla-Silva, 2003; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Lawrence, 1995; Lewis, 2003; Lopez, 2003; Lynn et. al., 2002; Parker; 1998; Solorzano, 1997; Solorzano & Yosso, 2001, 2002a, 2002b; Tate, 1997). Critical race theorists have also espoused the idea that race is socially constructed (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). In other words, the categories of race were created by the dominant society to manipulate the racial categories to its own advantage. Despite this, according to Lopez (2003) and hooks (1994), people prefer to discuss ethnicity rather than race, which inhibits the ability to address racism.

Recently, a number of scholars in the field of education have applied CRT to educational issues (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Lynn, 2004; Parker & Stovall, 2001; Solorzano, 1997; Solorzano & Yosso, 2002a; Tate, 1997, 1998). Most scholars who use critical race theory in the field of education agree that five tenants that guide their work. These tenets are as follows: (1) the legal system in the US is inherently unfair with regard to people of color and it must be constantly and systematically critiqued for its failure to address racism, (2) race and racism are deeply rooted in American cultural, social, and educational practices, (3) rejection of the positive paradigm in western social science which claims neutrality, objectivity, rationality, and universality and fails to address subjectivity, (4) theories of liberation that are grounded in the experiences of the oppressed can be constructed, and (5) CRT is interdisciplinary with other critical discourses.

Critical Race Theory can help in deepening our understanding of the role of race and racism in both early as well as current academic experiences. With regard to the students in this study, there was recognition that recognition that race and racism are deeply rooted in American cultural, social and their educational practices. In response, students developed a range of educational and coping strategies to reinforce their academic resilience. Although this study focuses on the role of race in mathematics achievement for Blacks, it also acknowledges other factors such as gender and class in order to craft a more holistic explanation of the ways that Black college students manage to achieve and maintain their success.

Overall, schools and universities, and thus researchers that emerge from these institutions, tend to ignore the most prominent matters related to race and culture. Borrowing from Delgado (1989), CRT serves an important role through its use of storytelling and narratives of racially marginalized students on predominately white or urban campuses. Proponents of counter- storytelling assert that there is a tradition of storytelling within African American culture, although their stories have not been told properly, if at all, in the literature of law, education, or any other discipline (Lawerence, 1995). Delgado and Stefanic (2001) define counter-storytelling as a method of telling a story that "aims to cast doubt on the validity of accepted premises or myths, especially ones held by the majority" (p. 144). In other words, counter-storytelling "help[s] us understand what life is like for others, and invite[s] the reader into new and unfamiliar world" (Delgado & Stefancic, p.41). In education, Solorzano and Yosso (2002) suggest that counter stories can be found in various forms, including personal stories/narratives, and composite stories/narratives. This method was utilized to gain a better understanding of the meanings, beliefs, and ideologies embedded within these African American college students’ experiences, particularly the interpretation individuals give to their own actions and thoughts (Solorzano & Yosso, 2000; Solorzano & Yosso, 2001). By utilizing counter-storytelling, this study analyzed the racialized experiences of high achieving African American college junior and senior majoring in mathematics and engineering majors. More specifically, their counter narratives gave them the opportunity to critically reflect upon their precarious positions of being one of few students of color succeeding in mathematics and engineering. These counter narratives challenged the master narratives that construct "being African American" as socially and academically inferior. If African Americans interpret their experiences through the dominant narrative, it actually reinforces their own subordination. The ability to claim identities outside of the dominant culture will allow these African Americans students to counter racism (Moses & Cobb, 2001).

As a complement of CRT story-telling technique, I am also using an augmented form of McAdams & Bowman’s (2001) definition of life story: "A life story is an individual’s internalized narrative rendering of his or her life in time, entailing the reconstructed past, perceived present, and anticipated future" (p. 475). Life stories function to establish identity as opposed to establishing traits, motives, values, etc., in that a story is the best available structure that persons have for integrating and making sense of life in time (McAdams, 2001). This sense-making contributes to the construction of students’ mathematical identities (Martin 2000, in-press a, in-press b) in early childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood and can be seen as an important element of achieving and maintaining success. Life story theory also emphasizes that each student’s reality is different in both subjective and objective senses, yet it is likely that both hold some truth. Thus life stories reflect an individual’s narrative understanding of self in culture, an understanding by the individual him/herself and by the wide variety of cultural influences within which the individuals’ life is situated. Life-stories, told through extensive interviews with each student, allowed participants to locate their stories within a context that allowed fuller understanding of history preceding their college mathematics achievement (McAdams & Bowman, 2001). Convergence of counter stories across the participants’ life-histories allowed distinct patterns and reoccurring themes to emerge.

The interviewing process: I recruited 14 African American college juniors and seniors from the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Each was pursuing a mathematics or engineering bachelors of science degree. Twelve of the 14 students attended predominately White institutions and the remaining attended one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The Jackie Robinson Foundation is a public, not-for-profit, national organization that awards four-year college scholarships to academically gifted students of color with financial need, who also exemplify leadership and community services characteristics. The Foundations’ graduation rate is 92%--the highest among comparable programs in the country. In short, JRF attracts the type of candidates who were excellent for this study. Please see table 1.0 for a major, GPA, gender, and type of college breakdown of the 14 participants (pseudonyms were used to protect the privacy of the students). The junior and senior status of these upper level collegiate students serves as an indicator that they have successfully negotiated many of academic, political, and social obstacles to obtaining mathematics or engineering degree. These students have accumulated significant life experience as African Americans that allow them to articulate on and challenge conventional stereotypes about African Americans in mathematics and science. Interviewees were asked to give both a holistic review of their life and educational experiences as well as specific recollections of their mathematical experiences. For example I asked each respondent to provide an overview of the main "chapters" of his or her math story, providing a summary and title for each chapter, detailing the influential stages of their mathematical development. Then each respondent described in detail each of the "scenes" in their math story, including a high point, low point, and turning point. I especially focused on any significant happenings with mathematics, the thinking and feelings that were involved, their interpretation of any racialized experiences, and what the scene may mean in the context of the overall life story, and where the story might be going (future chapters). Following the accounts of important scenes, the respondents described one or two important life challenges in relation to the achievement of mathematical competency, positive and negative characters in the story and provide some details about his or her personal ideology, including self description, religious beliefs, political values, and tenets that guide their life. Interviews required two or three hours to complete and were transcribed verbatim through the use of audiotapes. I coded the transcripts in a fashion that permitted me to write the emerging concepts and categories on the transcripts. I coded the transcripts phrase-by-phrase, sentence-by-sentence, and paragraph-by-paragraph. The process of triangulation, which searches for convergence of, or consistency among, evidence from multiple and varied data sources (observations/interviews; one participant & another; interviews/documents, was used with my dissertation adviser who reviewed the transcripts and reviewed the categories to check for accuracy.

I summarize here the many factors that student’s attributed to the promotion of their mathematics and engineering achievement. These African American students’ accounts of their mathematical experiences inside and outside of school revealed these African American students situated mathematics learning and the struggle for mathematics and engineering literacy within the larger contexts of their experiences as African Americans. My findings indicate that these African American students not only demonstrated general characteristics of successful students (good study habits, attending all classes, getting sufficient sleep), they also developed success-oriented strategies and motivations that grew out of an awareness of their being African American in fields where African American presence is limited and success by African Americans is unexpected by the larger society.

These students offered experiences that were determined to shape positive racial identities (Perry, 2003, Tatum, 1997), including the understanding that educational achievement results in greater freedom and power (Perry, 2003) and that being educated and achieving in school is not "acting White," as some Blacks believe (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). These competent African American students effectively interacted in multiple social realms, including peer and classroom contexts. This adaptive skill of flexibility is known in the literature as biculturality or double-consciousness (Cross, 1991; Darder, 1995; DuBois, 1973).