Dare to Care: The Impacts of a Caring Pedagogy on Mathematical Making, Teaching, and Learning

• In Event: Responding, Relating, Caring: How Teachers Respond to Students

Abstract

Our study presents findings from a Maker project as it was enacted through a caring pedagogy in a course for preservice and practicing mathematics teachers. We focus on the cases of three individuals - outsiders to the traditionally exclusionary cultures and spaces of Making and mathematics - as we explore the questions: How does enacting a caring pedagogy during a Making-centered experience impact and broaden opportunities for meaningful mathematics learning? How does this challenge traditional notions of who can and cannot Make or do mathematics? We suggest a pedagogy of caring, sharing, and Making as one way to accept the educational responsibility of celebrating such marginalized and often excluded individuals, and centering them in meaningful mathematical learning within these spaces.

Authors

• Eileen Fernandez, Montclair State University

• Erin Pomponio, Montclair State University

• Jessica Davidson, Montclair State University