Recognizing Power as a Necessary Lens to Advance the Study of Productive Disciplinary Engagement

• In Event: Access and Identity in Math Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Designing mathematically productive learning environments is largely seen as also designing for equity. Current research, however, provides compelling evidence of how even well-designed learning environments fail to engage non-dominant students at various levels. We question the equivalence of productivity and equity by bringing the issues of power to the forefront in the study of learning. While drawing on a widely applied Engle and Conant’s (2002) framework of Productive Disciplinary Engagement (PDE) that has significantly advanced our understanding of disciplinary learning, we ask: What might it take to integrate ideologies of power (race, class, gender) and disciplinary engagement in studies of learning? In this paper, we first surface three themes related to the racialized, classed and gendered dimensions of learning from the current literature. We then rearticulate the PDE framework in relation to those themes of power. Implications of the revised framework for both research and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Priyanka Agarwal, University of California - Irvine

• Tesha Sengupta-Irving, Vanderbilt University