July 2008, Vol. 39, Issue 4
Research Commentary: A Gap-Gazing Fetish in Mathematics Education? Problematizing Research on the Achievement Gap
Rochelle Gutierrez
A substantial amount of research in mathematics education seeks to document disparities in achievement between middle-class White students and students who are Black, Latina/Latino, First Nations, English language learners, or working class. I outline the dangers in maintaining an achievement-gap focus. These dangers include offering little more than a static picture of inequities, supporting deficit thinking and negative narratives about students of color and working-class students, perpetuating the myth that the problem (and therefore solution) is a technical one, and promoting a narrow definition of learning and equity
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