Why Do Urban Mathematics Teachers Need Political Knowledge?

• In Event: 66.078 - Considering the Social, Spatial, and Political: Conceptualizations of Research and Practice in Urban Mathematics Education

Abstract

Teaching mathematics has always been a political enterprise (Frankenstein, 1990; Gutiérrez, 2009; Gutstein, 2006). However, recent developments have intensified the need for teachers to learn about much more than mathematics, pedagogy, and students (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). This trend is especially pronounced for educators of Latin@, black, American Indian, English learners, and low-income students––students who historically have been densely populated in urban centers, have poor quality mathematics instruction, and/or have been the focus of back-to-basics reforms. Such teachers are now expected to develop lessons that align with the Common Core State Standards (National Governor’s Association, 2010), to draw upon the linguistic and cultural resources of their students (Civil, 2007), to differentiate instruction for students with a range of mathematical proficiencies, to support their students to develop positive and robust identities around mathematics (Aguirre, Mayfield-Ingram, & Martin, 2013; McGee & Martin, 2011), and to prepare them to be lifelong learners in an increasingly technological and global society. At the same time, the push to raise standardized test scores––a narrow definition of learning––continues to escalate.
Regardless of teachers’ depth of mathematical knowledge, their ability to relate to students, or their propensity to develop inquiry-based lessons, teachers who are not adept at negotiating the politics of language, racism, and testing cannot adequately support their marginalized students to learn high quality mathematics. In fact, highly effective mathematics teacher communities have been derailed by district politics that have forced teachers to focus on test scores (Gutiérrez, 2007; 2014; Jilk, 2007; 2013). As such, if researchers and schools of education do not respond to this intensified context with appropriate research methodologies and teacher education, we run the risk of setting teachers up for culture shock or failure. Teachers need to be prepared with political knowledge that can accompany their pedagogical content knowledge and their understanding of students’ funds of knowledge (Gutiérrez, 2013a; 2013c). Part of this political knowledge involves understanding the history of education for urban students (e.g., the legacy of segregated schools and internment camps); deconstruct systems of oppression in schools (e.g., policies and practices that depict Latin@, black, American Indian, English learners, and low-income youth as unmotivated, inferior, or unable to learn rigorous mathematics); as well as developing the ability to creatively sidestep policies and practices that are not in the best interest of their students (e.g., challenging deficit-based arguments while in school wide meetings). This paper expounds on what is political knowledge for teaching and why urban mathematics teachers need it.

Authors

• Rochelle Gutierrez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Juan Manuel Gerardo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign