Mathematics, Social Justice, and Race: A Critical Race Theory Analysis of Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice

• In Event: Blackness as an Act of Social Justice

Abstract

Teaching and learning mathematics for social justice (TLMSJ) is a pedagogical approach to mathematics teaching and learning designed to address issues of equity within mathematics education and to teach students to use mathematics to analyze social issues. Although TLMSJ has proliferated within the mathematics education community, this work has lacked a critical analysis of race and racism. In this paper, the authors use critical race theory (CRT)—namely the tenets of interest convergence and the critique of liberalism—to analyze TLMSJ and to consider how this pedagogy can potentially reify the racist notions that it intends to subvert. With this analysis, the authors aim to identify ways in which TLMSJ tasks reify race-based assumptions using task-based examples.

Authors

• Erika C. Bullock, The University of Memphis

• Christopher Charlie Jett, The University of West Georgia

• Gregory V. Larnell, University of Illinois at Chicago