ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author troubles success counternarratives as a methodological approach in mathematics education research and considers how they appeal to white benevolence and reify, albeit unintentionally, anti-blackness by limiting the possibilities for Black agency in schools. Much of success counternarrative research in mathematics education relies on the critical race methodology of counter-storytelling. Mathematics education researchers use success counternarratives to disrupt the majoritarian narrative that Black students are mathematically deficient and thus relegated to inferior performance. Counternarratives of Black students’ success in mathematics elevate Black students’ resilience amidst structures that are dedicated to impeding their progress. Success counternarratives in mathematics education research rely on the possibility of creating something new: a new way of seeing Black students as potentially exceptional rather than inherently incapable. Success counternarratives dehumanize successful students by holding them up as exceptions to dominant racial narratives while failing to fully acknowledge the consequences of their exceptionality and their continued susceptibility to those same narratives.
