Addressing Inequalities in Mathematics Education for Students With Dis/abilities: A Culturally Responsive and Relational Framework

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Humanizing Mathematics Education for Students With Dis/Abilities

Abstract

Mathematics education for students with dis/abilities has a legacy of exclusion: a focus on rote facts, procedural instruction, and a narrow range of content. Using perspectives from both critical pedagogy and critical disability studies, we argue against dominant approaches of viewing dis/ability as a fixed defect to understanding dis/ability as embodied within historical, political, and cultural contexts of learning mathematics. The theoretical assumptions and guiding principles for a framework of culturally responsive and relational understanding of dis/ability will be shared with a case of this approach in classroom practice. The paper advances efforts to support all learners in robust mathematics learning and in advancing research that illustrates the situated nature of ability, identity, and achievement.

Authors

• Cathery Yeh, Chapman University

• Dina Mahmood, Chapman University

• Mark W. Ellis, California State University - Fullerton