Does Deficit Thinking of Students' Mathematical Work (Racism) Really Exist?

• In Event: Racism in Math Education: Research Toward Theory and Praxis

Abstract

In this paper, I explain the resistance to acknowledging the existence and persistence of deficit perspectives about students’ mathematical thinking in mathematics education research. Elsewhere I have documented the existence of deficit perspectives specifically in the literature about students’ understanding of limit in Calculus. That work joins other works that have documented deficit perspectives in other content areas in undergraduate mathematics, as well as in K-12 teaching more broadly. Drawing on Critical Race Theory, I argue that deficit perspectives about students and their mathematical thinking have evolved similarly to perspectives on racism in America. Just like racism, deficit perspectives are adaptable, systemic, and institutionalized. Deficit perspectives similarly benefit from liberalism, the elite’s escapism of racism, and dominant communities’ skepticism of such perspectives. I illustrate the alignment between racism and deficit perspectives in mathematics education by drawing on editorial reviews from three leading journals in mathematics education of two articles critiquing deficit perspectives. Joining other critical scholars, I conclude that the alignment between deficit perspectives and racism is not a coincidence. Instead, it is evidence for deficit perspectives’ function as a tool of oppression in mathematics education, which disproportionately impact students of color.

Author

• Aditya P. Adiredja, The University of Arizona