Mathematics For Social Justice

Mathematics for Social Justice offers a collection of resources for mathematics faculty interested in incorporating questions of social justice into their classrooms. The book begins with a series of essays from instructors experienced in integrating social justice themes into their pedagogy; these essays contain political and pedagogical motivations as well as nuts-and-bolts teaching advice. The heart of the book is a collection of fourteen classroom-tested modules featuring ready-to-use activities and investigations for the college mathematics classroom. The mathematical tools and techniques used are relevant to a wide variety of courses including college algebra, math for the liberal arts, calculus, differential equations, discrete mathematics, geometry, financial mathematics, and combinatorics. The social justice themes include human trafficking, income inequality, environmental justice, gerrymandering, voting methods, and access to education. The volume editors are leaders of the national movement to include social justice material into mathematics teaching. Gizem Karaali is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Pomona College. She is one of the founding editors of The Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, and an associate editor for The Mathematical Intelligencer and Numeracy ; she also serves on the editorial board of the MAA's Carus Mathematical Monographs. Lily Khadjavi is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Loyola Marymount University and is a past co-chair of the Infinite Possibilities Conference. She has served on the boards of Building Diversity in Science, the Barbara Jordan-Bayard Rustin Coalition, and the Harvard Gender and Sexuality Caucus.

Empower students to be the change—join the teaching mathematics for social justice movement! We live in an era in which students have —through various media and their lived experiences— a more visceral experience of social, economic, and environmental injustices. However, when people think of social justice, mathematics is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. Through model lessons developed by over 30 diverse contributors, this book brings seemingly abstract high school mathematics content to life by connecting it to the issues students see and want to change in the world. Along with expert guidance from the lead authors, the lessons in this book explain how to teach mathematics for self- and community-empowerment. It walks teachers step-by-step through the process of using mathematics—across all high school content domains—as a tool to explore, understand, and respond to issues of social injustice including: environmental injustice; wealth inequality; food insecurity; and gender, LGBTQ, and racial discrimination. This book features: Content cross-referenced by mathematical concept and social issues Downloadable instructional materials for student use User-friendly and logical interior design for daily use Guidance for designing and implementing social justice lessons driven by your own students’ unique passions and challenges Timelier than ever, teaching mathematics through the lens of social justice will connect content to students’ daily lives, fortify their mathematical understanding, and expose them to issues that will make them responsive citizens and leaders in the future.

This critical volume responds to the enduring challenge in mathematics education of addressing the needs of marginalized students in school mathematics, and stems from the 2015 Annual Meeting of the North American Group of the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME-NA). This timely analysis brings greater clarity and support to such challenges by narrowing in on four foci: theoretical and political perspectives toward equity and justice in mathematics education, identifying and connecting to family and community funds of knowledge, student learning and engagement in preK-12 mathematics classrooms, and supporting teachers in addressing the needs of marginalized learners. Each of these areas examines how race, class, culture, power, justice and mathematics teaching and learning intersect in mathematics education to sustain or disrupt inequities, and include contributions from scholars writing about mathematics education in diverse contexts. Included in the coverage: Disrupting policies and reforms to address the needs of marginalized learners A socio-spatial framework for urban mathematics education Linking literature on allywork to the work of mathematics teacher educators Transnational families’ mathematical funds of knowledge Multilingual and technological contexts for supporting learners’ mathematical discourse Preservice teachers’ strategies for teaching mathematics with English learners Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education is of significant interest to mathematics teacher educators and mathematics education researchers currently addressing the needs of marginalized students in school mathematics. It is also relevant to teachers of related disciplines, administrators, and instructional designers interested in pushing our thinking and work toward equity and justice in mathematics education.

In this unique collection, more than 30 articles show how to weave social justice issues throughout the mathematics curriculum, as well as how to integrate mathematics into other curricular areas. Rethinking Mathematics offers teaching ideas, lesson plans, and reflections by practitioners and mathematics educators. This is real-world math-math that helps students analyze problems as they gain essential academic skills. This book offers hope and guidance for teachers to enliven and strengthen their math teaching. It will deepen students' understanding of society and help prepare them to be critical, active participants in a democracy. Blending theory and practice, this is the only resource of its kind.

"This collection of original articles is the start of a compelling conversation among some of the leading figures in critical and social justice mathematics, a number of teachers and educators who have been inspired by them-and who have inspiring stories of their own to tell - and any reader interested in the intersection of education and social justice. An important read for every educator, this book shows how to teach mathematics so that all students are given the tools they need to confront issues of social justice today and in the years ahead"--page [4] of cover.

"Mathematics for Social Justice: Focusing on Quantitative Reasoning and Statistics offers a collection of resources for mathematics faculty interested in incorporating questions of social justice into their classrooms. The book comprises seventeen classroom-tested modules featuring ready-to-use activities and investigations for college mathematics and statistics courses. The modules empower students to study issues of social justice and to see the power and limitations of mathematics in real-world contexts of deep concern. The primary focus is on classroom activities where students can ask their own questions, find and analyze real data, apply mathematical ideas themselves, and draw their own conclusions"--Provided by publisher.

Mathematics education in the United States can reproduce social inequalities whether schools use either "basic-skills" curricula to prepare mainly low-income students of color for low-skilled service jobs or "standards-based" curricula to ready students for knowledge-intensive positions. And working for fundamental social change and rectifying injustice are rarely included in any mathematics curriculum. Reading and Writing the World with Mathematics argues that mathematics education should prepare students to investigate and critique injustice, and to challenge, in words and actions, oppressive structures and acts. Based on teacher-research, the book provides a theoretical framework and practical examples for how mathematics educators can connect schooling to a larger sociopolitical context and concretely teach mathematics for social justice.

International Perspectives and Research on Social Justice in Mathematics Education is the highly acclaimed inaugural monograph of The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast now available through IAP. The book covers prescient social, political and ethical issues for the domain of education in general and mathematics education in particular from the perspectives of critical theory, feminist theory and social justice research. The major themes in the book are (1) relevant mathematics, teaching and learning practices for minority and marginalized students in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Israel, Palestine, and the United States., (2) closing the achievement gap in the U.K, U.S and Iceland across classes, ethnicities and gender, and (3) the political dimensions of mathematics. The fourteen chapters are written by leading researchers in the international community interested and active in research issues of equity and social justice.

Mathematics teacher education has a critical role to play in preparing teachers to put at center stage goals to support equity in mathematics education and to diversify student interest and participation in mathematics. These goals must also resonate with broader public interest goals to improve educational and social conditions both in the U.S. and abroad. The Mathematics Teacher Education in the Public Interest book aims to support mathematics teacher educators to prepare teachers with new knowledge and skills to support all students to learn mathematics and to become informed, engaged, and critical citizens within their community, nation, and world. While internationally there is considerable interest among mathematics educators in issues of equity and social justice, the literature on mathematics teacher education for equity and social justice thus far has been very limited.The book provides theoretical discussions on the need for equity and social justice emphases in mathematics teacher education, as well as practical examples from mathematics teacher educators, documenting their own professional efforts to center practices on equity and social justice. Section emphases include critical perspectives on mathematics teacher education, the use of equity and social justice-themed activities in mathematics teacher preparation courses, and issues of identity and community and cultural contexts in mathematics teacher education. In addition syntheses of major ideas of the book are offered by experienced researchers.

Following in the steps of the socio-political turn of the discipline, Equity in Mathematics Education: Addressing a Changing World emerged as a response of the editor and the chapter authors to the enormous changes that have in the last years occurred at a global level (for example, the ongoing war in Syria, the political [in]actions of powerful nations to fight climate change, the rise of far-right parties in many countries around the world, and so on). In recent years, massive migration waves from the Middle East have caused significant demographic changes to many European countries, Canada and the US, that are reflected in schools and classrooms. These observations have led this book’s contributors to reconsider the concept and/or practice of equity, and its related concept, social justice, and the role of mathematics education research in addressing and promoting a fairer world. Contrary to other, perhaps highly specialized books concerned with similar topics, this book aims to provide a smooth, yet deep introduction to those who are new to this research area. Equity in Mathematics Education: Addressing a Changing World contributes to the understanding of equity and its complex relations to mathematics education. It is anticipated that it will support individuals in teaching, educational research, policy making and planning, and teacher education, in becoming more aware of the interplay between school mathematics and socio-political issues that, ultimately, impacts the lives of learners and their communities, teachers as practitioners and as citizens, the wider society, and the world as a whole. Even though each chapter can be read independently of others, an engagement with all chapters in this volume will provide readers with a solid holistic understanding of the research territory of equity and mathematics education.