"I don't know anybody else": an oral history of Latine mathematics teachers in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area from 1980 to 2020

This dissertation offers an oral history of Latine mathematics educators in the Greater Kansas City area between 1980 and 2020. Despite rapid Latine population growth, Latine educators remain disproportionately underrepresented in the teaching workforce, particularly in Greater Kansas City. This disparity has historically hindered student academic achievement and identity development. To document the potential various causes of this disparity, within the history of this time period in the Greater Kansas City area, this study provides a historical account of the period through extensive archival research, utilizing newspaper records, court documents, government reports, and journal articles, all alongside four volunteers sharing their memories as Latine mathematics educators in Kansas City. This history reveals the various national reforms, stemming as far back as the Cold War, with the New Math movement to the initiatives of the Common Core State Standards, along with the various impacts, criticisms, alterations, and influences, through professional mathematics organizations, government organizations, and grassroots efforts. These shifts manifested through unique regional efforts, such as the participation of various school districts in the Mathematics and Physics Institute, as well as state-level legislative battles over school funding and assessment standards on both sides Kansas-Missouri state line. Sharing the history of the area’s racial, political, and social landscape further highlights how Latine communities were frequently marginalized in desegregation debates centered on a Black-white binary. Latine communities also engaged in resistance. The 1969 West High School walkouts, for example, demanded bilingual education and community representation in a neighborhood that continued to face gentrification, language suppression, and ongoing legal and curricular battles. The individual memories shared by the volunteers offered more than sole archival research, which is partial and narrow in scope. The volunteers highlight a profound sense of professional isolation and the complexities of navigating systemic bias, alongside sophisticated unique identities within a field often characterized as a white, male domain. These educators have unique strategies for providing mathematics learning to Latine students in order to transcend linguist barriers and foster an appreciation of mathematics through relationship-driven pedagogy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Castro, Leonel Hernan, Jr.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• McCarther, S. Marie

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/112336

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/112336