You don't think that there is a history of numbers and god does not exist, so where did numbers come from. — Sir2u
There are excellent black physicist or mathematicians, but they are by far in the minority. — Hillary
Here is an article that is disturbing, at least for me, an old retired prof. What do you think? — jgill
Too often students are tracked based on the notion that adults know what the right thing is for them, which does not allow room for student agency, reinforcing paternalism and powerhoarding. Often, placement into different tracks reflect subjective metrics of innate ability without acknowledging prior opportunities or experiences. Following the same vein, leadership often decides which teacher is right for which course without allowing input from the teachers, students, or parents.
While access to grade-level content for every student is the responsibility of schools and essential for equity, a focus on content alone is insufficient for achieving meaningful mathematical power for all students. When only focusing on content without applying a culturally responsive lens or strategic scaffolding, there is a risk of perpetuating white supremacy culture and inequities. A hyperfocus on individual standards requires teachers to function under a system of urgency to “cover” all the material that will be on the test and not focus on actual learning of the big ideas. This approach is not only disengaging, it also limits opportunities for teachers to connect the content to students’ lives in meaningful, relevant ways.
"Best practices" for math pedagogy often exclude the unique needs of Black, Latinx and multilingual or migrant students. This reinforces either/or thinking by reinforcing stereotypes about the type of mathematical education that certain groups of students receive. It allows the defensiveness of Western mathematics to prevail, without addressing underlying causes of why certain groups of students are “underperforming,” a characterization that should also be interrogated. It also presupposes that “good” math teaching is about a Eurocentric type of mathematics, devoid of cultural ways of being.
Provide students with opportunities to give feedback to teachers about the classroom and instruction.
• Verbal Example: Fist to five, How well do you understand what we talked about today? Fist to five, How well did I teach this today?
• Classroom Activity: Exit tickets or surveys that ask students to identify how well teachers taught, what helped them learn, what got in the way of their learning, etc.
• Professional Development: Conduct regular surveys and disaggregate data on teacher practices.
Incorporate the history of mathematics into lessons.
• Verbal Example: Why do you think we call it Pythagorean’s theorem, when it was used before he was even born? What should we call it instead?
• Classroom Activity: Learn about different bases and numerical ideas: Base 2, binary and connections to computer programming, how the Yoruba of Nigeria used base 20, and how the Mayans conceptualized the number 0 before the first recording of it.
• Professional Development: Learn the history of mathematics. Take a course, go to a conference, read historically and culturally accurate books, and use the resources in this workbook. Focus on different approaches to learning concepts.
Consider what grades really mean to you, and articulate a plan that is consistent with those values.
• Professional Development: As a department, consider how you would proceed with teaching if no letter grades were to be given. Review alternative ways of grading (standards based, mastery based, A/B no pass, etc.). Emphasize formative assessment.
• Professional Development: As a department, review current assessment and grading practices to determine what values are reinforced for the purpose of making grades more purposeful.
• Professional Development: Develop formative assessments that highlight student knowledge rather than deficit knowledge. Consider bringing in experts to help design this.
Topics introduced in the New Math include set theory, modular arithmetic, algebraic inequalities, bases other than 10, matrices, symbolic logic, Boolean algebra, and abstract algebra.[2] All of the New Math projects emphasized some form of discovery learning.[3] Students worked in groups to invent theories about problems posed in the textbooks. Materials for teachers described the classroom as "noisy." Part of the job of the teacher was to move from table to table assessing the theory that each group of students had developed and "torpedoing" wrong theories by providing counterexamples.
Power and oppression, as defined by
ethnic studies, are the ways in which
individuals and groups define
mathematical knowledge so as to see
“Western” mathematics as the only
legitimate expression of mathematical
identity and intelligence. This definition
of legitimacy is then used to
disenfranchise people and
communities of color. This erases the
historical contributions of people and
communities of color.
I taught at the college level for many years and never thought of the subject or my teaching strategies as racist, but I know only a little of how math is taught K-9. Here is an article that is disturbing, at least for me, an old retired prof. What do you think? — jgill
A key CRT concept is intersectionality—the way in which different forms of inequality and identity are affected by interconnections of race, class, gender and disability.[6] Scholars of CRT view race as a social construct with no biological basis. One tenet of CRT is that racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex, changing, and often subtle social and institutional dynamics, rather than explicit and intentional prejudices of individuals.
As a visual indicator, we italicize the terms used to identify white supremacy characteristics as defined by Jones and Okun (2001). They are as follows:
• Perfectionism
• Sense of Urgency
• Defensiveness
• Quantity Over Quality
• Worship of the Written Word • Paternalism
• Either/Or Thinking
• Power Hoarding
• Fear of Open Conflict
• Individualism
• Only One Right Way
• Progress is Bigger, More
• Objectivity
• Right to Comfort
capitalism that grew out of slavery. — unenlightened
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