Mathematical Inqu[ee]ry: beyond ‘Add-Queers-and-Stir’ elementary mathematics education

Abstract

While elementary educators have developed queer pedagogies and perspectives in many subjects from reading to music, science to English as a second language, queer perspectives on elementary mathematics education are remarkably absent. This article differentiates between two common uses of the term ‘queer’ and delineates two sets of approaches based upon them: approaches shaped by ‘queer liberalism’ with a focus on inclusion, which result in what might be called ‘Add-Queers-and-Stir’ elementary mathematics education; and ‘Mathematical Inqu[ee]ry’, a queer theoretical approach, in which students and teachers might queer ‘family,’ ‘rhetoric,’ and ‘time’ in an elementary classroom. Mathematical Inqu[ee]ry goes beyond mere inclusion of queer students and issues into extant frameworks and allows elementary teachers and students to deconstruct and disrupt educational norms as well as imagine new possibilities in mathematics and in the world.