Despite calls for more equity and justice-oriented mathematics teaching and learning practices, certain groups have received more attention than others. Though there have been strides made in areas regarding how race and gender separately mediate mathematics learning, there have been few investigating the intersection of race and gender for mathematics learners. This dissertation served to advance such studies by utilizing Black girls' stories to investigate the nature of their mathematics learning experiences at the university level. Controlling images of Black girls and women impact almost every aspect of their lives and I wondered what the role of these controlling images is for mathematics learning. Using a Poststructural Race Theory analysis informed by Black Feminist Thought, I asked the following: 1) What controlling images are implicated in the personal narratives that Black girls tell about their undergraduate mathematics learning experiences? And 2) How do these personal narratives about the mathematics learning experiences help us understand the interactions between the controlling images and narratives of mathematics learning for Black girls?Data collection took place over the course of one semester of mathematics learning with seven Black girls in their first year attending a large, public university. Both individual interviews (n = 14) and focus group interviews (n = 3) were conducted. WhatsApp voice notes were also collected throughout the semester as a means of accessing the girls' mathematics learning stories. Data were analyzed to explore which controlling images were invoked in the girls' stories and their interactions with those controlling images and narratives of mathematics learning. My analysis reveals specific linkages between the narratives of mathematics learning and the controlling images and narratives that influence the daily lives of Black girls and women. Findings indicate that there is a mismatch between the controlling images that are prevalent in the girls' daily lives and those prevalent in their mathematics learning spaces. While the girls often drew inspiration from counter images such as the strong Black woman and Black Girl Magic, those images were not present in their stories of mathematics learning. Furthermore, narratives of mathematics learning such as being right or wrong, the notion of the struggling mathematics learner, and other mathematics learning practices such as group work interacted prominently with controlling images creating spaces of mathematics learning that further marginalized Black girls.
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