Storytelling, Validation, and Legitimation in Social Justice Mathematics

• In Event: Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Social Justice

Abstract

In a social justice mathematics activity modelling the spread of gender inclusive speaking habits, students wrote stories of personal experience as a way to validate or invalidate the model. These validation narratives reveal the students’ socio-political awareness as well as their mathematical thinking. We uncover students’ socio-political thinking through critical discourse analysis of forms of legitimation in their narratives. This approach can support much-needed research on the complex and unexpected ways in which students receive and process social justice mathematics lessons.

Authors

• Susan Kimberley Staats, University of Minnesota

• Lori Ann Laster, University of Minnesota

• Kyle Stephen Whipple, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire