Mathematics For Social Justice Research Articles

Ubuntulisation of mathematics classroom for the enhancement of learner’s interest and achievement

Background: One of the primary challenges confronting African mathematics educators and students is the wholesale adoption of external methods, approaches, and ideas in the teaching and learning of mathematics. In response to this challenge, the concept of ethnomathematics has emerged, although it remains largely unadopted across many African countries. Recently, Social Justice Mathematics has been developed, a concept closely aligned with the principles of Ubuntu, which emphasizes equality and justice in all aspects of human life. Aim: This paper aims to highlight the ubuntulisation of mathematics classrooms. Instead of fully adopting Social Justice Mathematics as a contemporary solution to enhance students' interest and achievement in mathematics, this paper proposes an Africanized approach by integrating Ubuntu as a foundational element of ethnomathematics. This approach is posited to achieve greater success among learners. Methods: The study involves a comprehensive review of existing literature on ethnomathematics, Social Justice Mathematics, the benefits of Social Justice Mathematics in learning, Ubuntu pedagogy, and the ubuntulisation of mathematics classrooms.Results: The paper presents relevant examples that emphasize the need for mathematics educators to incorporate African cultural contexts in the planning and teaching of mathematics.Conclusion: The study concludes by recommending the ubuntulisation of mathematics classrooms as an effective alternative to Social Justice Mathematics for enhancing students' interest and achievement in mathematics.

The sociopolitical turn in mathematics education and decolonial theory

This literature review examines how the theoretical perspectives aligned to the sociopolitical turn in mathematics inform social justice mathematics education. While existing literature has established the importance of social justice frameworks informed by critical theory, there has been limited exploration of critical race theory, poststructuralism and feminist theory, perspectives that offer a broader and more complex understanding of the social and political. After examining how these perspectives contribute to social justice mathematics, we explore the potential contributions of decolonial theory, particularly the way it unsettles accepted notions of social justice. By drawing and building on the sociopolitical turn in mathematics education, this article argues that decolonial thought can also assist in reimagining social justice mathematics education theoretically, methodologically and pedagogically. Ultimately, the article argues that there is no social justice without cognitive/epistemic and ontological justice, meaning that social justice loses ethical and political weight when modernity’s violent epistemic and ontological foundations are not questioned by social justice mathematics education research.

Preparing preservice mathematics teachers to teach for social justice

AbstractThis study describes preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching mathematics for social justice (TMSJ) after experiencing a two‐part professional development (PD) workshop on the subject. The research question is: To what degree does a PD experience, designed by a preservice teacher, influence preservice teachers' beliefs about TMSJ? The lead author is a preservice teacher who designed and enacted two workshops for education majors at Midwest University. Results indicated that preservice teachers' beliefs were statistically significantly different, with their beliefs trending toward “more strongly agree” about TMSJ after the two‐part PD. There was also less variance in their responses to the survey after the PD compared to before it. This research offers (a) a narrative of preservice teacher‐driven PD and (b) a rich description of a PD for preservice teachers, thus adding to prior literature about in‐service teachers' outcomes.

No Simple Formula: Navigating Tensions in Teaching Postsecondary Social Justice Mathematics

No Simple Formula: Navigating Tensions in Teaching Postsecondary Social Justice Mathematics

Teaching mathematics for social justice beliefs scale: psychometrics and practices in teacher education

This paper reports on the development of the Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice beliefs (TMfSJ-B) scale and its psychometric properties. Preservice elementary education teachers enrolled in teacher education programmes at seven universities completed multiple surveys designed to understand the evolution of attitudes and beliefs about teaching mathematics. To our knowledge, the TMfSJ-B scale is the only survey specifically designed to measure pre- and in-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching mathematics for social justice. Confirmatory factor analyses (n = 655) provided here indicate that the TMfSJ-B scale is a valid and reliable assessment of beliefs about social justice in mathematics teacher education, with three factors: (1) value of mathematics for all students; (2) integration of social justice into mathematics instruction; and (3) mathematics and its relation to inclusiveness. The purpose of this study was to validate measures produced by the TMfSJ-beliefs scale and discuss its potential use in teacher education programmes and research.

Opportunities to improve student mathematics achievement and outcomes: Building student–teacher relationships and the integration of inclusive and equity‐minded teaching practices

Opportunities to improve student mathematics achievement and outcomes: Building student–teacher relationships and the integration of inclusive and equity‐minded teaching practices

Teaching mathematics for social justice: The challenges and the prospects in the Ghanaian senior high schools

The<b> </b>study aimed to explore the prospects and challenges of teaching mathematics for social justice at Ghanaian senior high schools (SHSs). A non-random sample of seven respondents, including two experienced mathematics educators and five SHS students, were interviewed and analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed seven themes: individual differences, students’ mathematics interests, participatory lessons, extracurriculars, non-interactive teaching, technology use, and cultural diversity. These thematic findings are related to technical, practical, and emancipatory knowledge constituent interests in schools and Ghanaian social, cultural, and historical settings. A teacher should utilize egalitarian pedagogy so that the students will gain practical and emancipatory skills.

Using Field Trips to Create Relevant Social Justice Informed Mathematics Lessons in an Elementary Teacher Education Program: An Action Research Study

ABSTRACT Teaching mathematics for social justice is a rich research area in which field trips have been under examined. The paucity of literature on math-based field trips for social justice, specifically, warrants further investigation. This action research study aims to improve our practice of empowering elementary preservice teachers to design math-based field trips to enhance student awareness of social justice issues. Two research questions (RQ) guided this project: (RQ1) How can teacher educators inspire social change within math education via the preparation of future elementary teachers using math-based field trips? (RQ2) What are preservice teachers’ perceptions of designing socially just math lessons using fieldtrips? We provide an overview of previous literature, describe the project we designed, and provide an analysis of preservice teachers’ experiences and perceptions of this project. Thematic analysis of student journals and final assignments generated eight overarching themes and three subordinate themes organized by three phases. Organization by phases indicates a structural approach that teacher educators may use when introducing a similar activity. Further analysis revealed elementary preservice teachers emphasized the beneficial challenge of this assignment, suggesting that math-based social justice field trips are important additions to teacher education programs. Finally, we discuss what we learned from this study as teacher educators and researchers and provide recommendations to the field of teacher education.

Integrating Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Evidence-Based Practices to Support Students With Learning Disabilities in a Social Justice Mathematics Lesson

Integrating Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Evidence-Based Practices to Support Students With Learning Disabilities in a Social Justice Mathematics Lesson

Toward a Theory of Affective Pedagogical Goals for Social Justice Mathematics

Caring for student affect when teaching social justice mathematics (SJM) is important because discussions of social inequities may elicit emotional responses from students. This article extends previous conceptualizations of SJM, which typically encompass dual goals of teaching dominant and critical mathematics, by theorizing a third set of goals—affective pedagogical goals. Dominant, critical, and affective pedagogical goals are described within a framework of Three Dimensions of SJM. Two illustrative cases, one in a Title I public middle school and the other in an elite independent school, are presented to explore how affective pedagogical goals may be mediated by context. Affordances and tensions of affective pedagogical goals are discussed.

Teaching Is a Journey: Mathematics for Social Justice in ECE

This department provides a space for current and past PK–12 teachers of mathematics to connect with other teachers of mathematics through their stories that lend personal and professional support.

Participatory Action Research: Undergraduate Researchers Engaging Secondary Students in Social Justice Mathematics

Participatory Action Research: Undergraduate Researchers Engaging Secondary Students in Social Justice Mathematics

AMS Congressional Fellow AJ Stewart: From Baking Bread to Using Mathematics for Social Justice

AMS Congressional Fellow AJ Stewart: From Baking Bread to Using Mathematics for Social Justice

Reimagining the Sustainable and Social Justice Mathematics Classrooms in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

In this conceptual paper, we provide some ways to think about sustainability and a social justice approach to teaching of mathematics in Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) classrooms. We imagine the mathematics classrooms in 4IR not only to provide sustainable education, but also to promote core values and qualities of social justice. The teaching of mathematics for social justice is a pedagogy that seeks to expose students to issues concerning power between social groups. It is an approach to teaching that seeks to enable students not only to maintain the status quo, but also to acquire the necessary skills to challenge current practices and offer alternatives. While there is an increasing emphasis on incorporating technology into the teaching and learning of mathematics to produce educated citizenry that will be able to function in 4IR, it is equally important that one guards against unintended consequences brought about by 4IR and not deny access to learners from a low socio-economic environment. Using critical discourse analysis, the paper argues that, as we usher 4IR into the mathematics classroom, one should also be mindful of the social skills that constitute humankind. Social skills and human capital are good foundations for understanding mathematical concepts, and critical skills need to operate effectively and productively in 4IR. Moreover, social skills such as persuasion and emotional intelligence are in higher demand across industries and in education sectors than narrow technical skills, which include, among others, programming or equipment operation and control.

Whiteness as a Stumbling Block in Learning to Teach Mathematics for Social Justice

ABSTRACT Using mathematics as a tool to interrogate (in)justice and take action toward a more socially just world in PreK–12 mathematics shows promise for disrupting marginalization of Black and Brown students. Teachers, however, work within broader systems, structures, and discourses that shape their decisions and actions. Consequently, they likely feel imbalance, and attempts to manage tensions may inadvertently perpetuate whiteness – the ideologies that value the white racial group over others. To explore this phenomenon, we asked: How do white teachers learning to teach mathematics for social justice disrupt whiteness in mathematics education, and how do they perpetuate whiteness? We examined two newly practicing teachers’ social justice mathematics lesson planning, enactment, and reflection through a framework for the operation of whiteness in mathematics education. Findings provide insights into the perpetuation and disruption of whiteness in the institutional and labor dimensions of mathematics teaching and learning as teachers sought to balance mathematics and social justice goals and connect to Black and Brown students’ experiences. We discuss implications for the continued learning of social justice teaching and the development of resources to support disruption of whiteness in mathematics education.

Black Lives Matter in Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice

Prior to becoming a mathematics educator, I was a teacher in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Because of the success I experienced with culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), it became part of my research agenda along with teaching mathematics for social justice (TMfSJ). Databases like 23andme and Ancestry can be used as a context for CRP and TMfSJ. Data related to education, occupation, military service, and voting records can be accessed online. Our ancestors’ experiences can shape our identity and serve as powerful tools for contextualizing mathematics. The stories and counterstories of African Americans can be problematized to show Black lives matter.

Mathematics for Social Justice

Mathematics for Social Justice

Re/thinking mathematics for social justice: a transactional approach

ABSTRACT There is a well-established area of work in mathematics education focusing on mathematics for social justice. Much of the work, however, is concerned with individual students’ understanding the world symbolically – as evident in the notions of reading and writing the world using mathematics – while failing to address a transformative agenda that seeks to make a positive difference in a once-occurrent world that we inhabit together with others as part of our once-occurrent lives. In this conceptual essay, we describe and exemplify a transactional approach that inherently is a practical approach. In the transactional approach, the individual is not merely agent but importantly subject to and constituted by social processes that transform the world including the self.

ENSEÑANZA DE LA MATEMÁTICA PARA LA JUSTICIA SOCIAL EN LA FORMACIÓN DE PROFESORES EN URUGUAY

En este escrito presentamos una perspectiva filosófica de la Enseñanza de la Matemática para la Justicia Social y una serie de experiencias que hemos desarrollado en la formación inicial y continua de profesores desde esa mirada. Como docentes de grado hemos identificado la relevancia de la inclusión de esta perspectiva en la formación de profesores porque promueve una reflexión acerca de qué es la matemática y cómo se enseña. Presentamos evidencia de que los estudiantes de profesorado señalan que el diseño e implementación de actividades de enseñanza desde esta perspectiva les permitió apreciar la matemática como una construcción humana, y entender su enseñanza como un camino para que sus estudiantes puedan comprender el mundo a través del conocimiento matemático.

A Qualitative Metasynthesis of Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice in Action: Pitfalls and Promises of Practice

Mathematics classrooms are increasingly becoming sites for investigating social (in)justice, but research on teaching mathematics for social justice remains limited to individual case studies. This article reports on a metasynthesis of 35 qualitative reports of social justice mathematics enactments in diverse classroom contexts. Critical race theory serves as a guiding framework for analyzing possibilities and limitations of these enactments to address racial inequities in mathematics education. Findings from this metasynthesis reveal that addressing race in social justice mathematics explorations provided opportunities for centering the voices of people of Color and critiquing liberal views that camouflage subtle forms of racism and involved substantial and authentic mathematical work. Promising practices and implications for future research are identified based on this synthesis.