Exposing Injustice and Analyzing Policy: Social Empowerment Through a Quantitative Literacy Curriculum

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Innovations for Social Change and Empowerment: Curriculum From K–12 to Teacher Education

Abstract

Quantitative literacy curriculum offers promises to promote “social empowerment through mathematics” (Ernest, 2015, p. 189). In this paper, we examine students’ conceptions of social empowerment through mathematics and identify curricular features supporting these conceptions in a social justice-oriented quantitative literacy curriculum. We analyzed students’ written reflections relating course material to their perspectives about the role of mathematics in making social change. Students described the role of mathematics as influencing decisions, uncovering problems, and developing general understanding. Engaging students in quantitative analysis of policies and equipping them with quantitative tools to measure injustice were particularly impactful for students’ understanding of the power of mathematics to create social change; however, this understanding did not translate into students’ personal social empowerment.

Authors

• Vivian Y. Lim, Guttman Community College

• Jared Warner, Guttman Community College