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Mathematics for Social Justice: Thoughts? (todos-math.org)

andsuddenlywhoo が 投稿

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トップ新着論争中古い順Q&A

[–]andsuddenlywhoo[S] 2ポイント3ポイント  (11子コメント)

What I'm wondering is how might we, the mathematics education community, make a difference in the teaching and learning of mathematics "that promote rich, rigorous, and relevant mathematical experiences" for all students? What key actions should we consider?

[–]Eugene_Henderson 7ポイント8ポイント  (5子コメント)

I'm of the firm belief that 90% of us are already providing rich, rigorous, and relevant mathematical experiences, and I bet the authors of this statement believe so, too. I think the purpose of the statement is ensuring that these experiences are available to all students. That doesn't lie with the content. That lies with us, and the systems in which we teach.

Gender imbalance is a real issue. Minority students are under-represented. Students in poor or rural districts often do not have access to higher levels of math. Those are the issues being written about here.

How do we fix that? Being aware of it is a start. Promoting programs serving these students and encouraging them beyond what is typical would help. Finding a more authentic way to teach higher math in an online or distance setting should be a goal. We can effect a change, but we need to start by believing our actions affect students' achievements.

[–]DJDizhna -1ポイント0ポイント  (4子コメント)

Gender imbalance is a real issue.

No no no no no. Gender imbalance is there because many women are not as capable as men at systematizing & intuiting based on logic and facts; it's just a basic fact of gender biology. If women want to pursue a math degree out of self-interest, by all means do so, but we cannot force more women to participate if they want to do other things. Let nature run its course.

Minority students are underrepresented. Students in poor or rural districts often do not have access to higher levels of math.

I refer to my above argument: As long as they are capable, I have no problems whatsoever; I do not discriminate on what they are, but rather their capabilities. However, we cannot force equal representation if it's not meant to be; if we do, we are pricing out capable talent

Finding a more authentic way to teach higher math in an online or distance setting should be a goal.

I think YouTube is the perfect setting for this! Minimal to no overheads to user and creator, that's the big plus. Whether it is more authentic is a question to be debated (not sure about online one-on-one learning), but we need students to be self-reliant through independent learning. YouTube is, in my knowledge, the best setting for that.

[–]japeso 0ポイント1ポイント  (3子コメント)

it's just a basic fact of gender biology

You got any evidence for this 'fact'?

[–]DJDizhna -1ポイント0ポイント  (2子コメント)

Here's a link if you want: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200803/male-brain-vs-female-brain-i

The mere thought that you may think that male & female brains are wired the same way (based on assuming the context of your reply) is totally stupid, in my opinion. This one, among many others, refutes that thought.

[–]Gwinbar 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

What a load of bullshit. This dude is an evolutionary psychologist but doesn't cite any sources for what he's saying, he simply asserts that men are better at doing things and women are better at dealing with people because evolution means that women are supposed to be mothers.

This quote in particular is gold:

Similarly, women often talk to their cars and copy machines, as if they had minds and feelings. They don’t realize that they cannot really relate to their cars and copy machines, because they have no feelings or emotions; they have no “minds” they can read.

Please, keep your sexist pseudo science out of here. Out of everywhere, if possible.

[–]DJDizhna -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Just another leftist who can't deal with facts. Bye.

[–]rlarochelle 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

As far as key actions, I think the main one for a teacher would be to set "creating a classroom that promotes rich, rigorous, and relevant mathematical experiences" as a goal and to seek professional support that helps you attain that goal. There's no simple solution to this - all the ideas I've seen are quite complex and take a lot of professional support. Also, I don't know of any curriculum resources with social justice problems. And let's be realistic, teachers are already over worked and over burdened. But, setting this goal, and slowly working toward it, trying to find resources and support, maybe finding one or two other teachers that would like to pursue this with you, that's a good start.

[–]WhackAMoleE 0ポイント1ポイント  (3子コメント)

Ignore all politically correct nonsense. Teach the kids math. That's the best thing you can possibly do as a math teacher.

[–]nonlocalityone 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

I think that's part of the issue. In the majority of high schools in America there are tracking programs that limit math class options to students, denying them opportunity to take higher math classes and in turn keep them from being college ready. That's one aspect of the structural nature of the public education system that restricts (in their words oppresses) students from being taught math. I'm not so sure it's all about political correctness.

[–]DJDizhna -1ポイント0ポイント  (1子コメント)

THIS. Meritocracy is the natural order.

[–]Gwinbar 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't really think this was /u/WhackAMoleE's point.

[–]kurlythemonkey 4ポイント5ポイント  (4子コメント)

This is the point where I knew this has a wrong feel to it :”roles power, privilege, and oppression play in the current unjust system of mathematics education”. I can understand this happening in ELA and History. But math? I can't wait to hear this one: “The way my math teacher teaches me to think critically is oppressing”. Who wrote this?

“...the current mathematics education system is unjust and grounded in a legacy of institutional discrimination based on race, ethnicity, class, and gender.” What? How?

I could replace the word math for history or reading and this document would make 1,000% more sense. This frustrates and angers me.

[–]dupelize 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

Oppression might be a bit of a strong word, but there are a lot of word problems that expect a certain level of cultural knowledge. I think a lot of teacher are careful to fill this knowledge in if necessary.

[–]rlarochelle -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

I can see why you're frustrated, and I wish the authors would have provided examples. I agree with the person above, and i'm going to spin it a little. As teachers, drawing on the diverse cultures in our classrooms, creating problems that are relevant to the students' lives, these are important actions for helping students see mathematics as worthwhile and useful, and see themselves in the mathematics curriculum. A small fix - if all the word problems that you use have white names, change some of them to reflect the diversity of your classroom.

I'll add one more thing. The authors are also referring to the system as a whole, in which schools that serve primarily black or latino students have historically provided a less than adequate education to these students. In that sense, the current math education system is very oppressive. I believe the authors would argue that these schools need more resources and professional support than other schools, and as a country (or state, or district) we should allocate more resources to said schools. As teachers, then, we might help by being advocates for these students, and influence the system that way.

[–]nonlocalityone 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

There's the other side of social justice in mathematics education, and that's teaching to use math as a tool to understand social injustices. Like in ELA, a book like To Kill a Mockingbird might be used to teach not only reading but (whatever is important about race in that book, never read it lol). In math we can do the same and use functions to compare rates of incarceration/poverty/etc. Or using things like area to investigate how many liquor stores are in a 2 miles radius (and how to calculate areas of non-uniform shapes) and what the implications are of business like that in neighborhoods.

I've tried to incorporate lessons like this in my teaching and in all honesty there's no time. The students love it and get really involved in the process but more time is inevitably devoted to non-math discussions than to practicing procedures and understanding concepts. If I worked in isolation I probably would do more teaching through a social justice lens, but I don't think my team is ready to take the plunge quite yet.

[–]DJDizhna 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Same. I don't care about what a student identifies as (very leftist view IMO), but rather a student's capabilities of doing math at a high level.