Danny Bernard Martin

University of Illinois Chicago

Professor

Danny Bernard Martin is Professor of Education and Mathematics at the University of Illinois Chicago. He teaches mathematics content courses in the undergraduate elementary education program and doctoral courses in Mathematics and Science Education. He served as Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction from 2006–2011 and 2013–2016. Prior to joining UIC, Dr. Martin spent 14 years in the Department of Mathematics at Contra Costa College. He was a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow from 1998–2000 and was selected as a 2024 Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Dr. Martin's research focuses on the salience of race and identity in the mathematical experiences of Black learners. His empirical work spans middle school, high school, and postsecondary contexts and includes attention to Black parents and families. His scholarship rejects deficit-oriented frameworks and centers the ordinary brilliance of Black children as axiomatic, arguing that meaningful reform in mathematics education must confront its deep structural ties to white supremacy, antiblackness, and racial capitalism, and calls for new forms of mathematics education worthy of Black children. Martin is author of Mathematics Success and Failure Among African Youth (2000/2006, Erlbaum), editor of Mathematics Teaching, Learning, and Liberation in the Lives of Black Children (2009, Routledge), co-editor of The Brilliance of Black Children in Mathematics: Beyond the Numbers and Toward New Discourse (2013, Information Age), and co-author of The impact of identity in K–12 mathematics learning and teaching: Rethinking equity-based practices (2024, NCTM).