Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Linking Theory to Practice

• In Event: Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Supporting Critical Mathematics Instruction Amid Racial Justice Protests

Abstract

Teaching mathematics for social justice (TMSJ) provides opportunities to use mathematics to critique the world, understand the connections between social and cultural issues that impact the lives of people, and advocate for social changes (Author A et al., 2020). Before engaging in TMSJ, teachers must first have an appreciation of their students’ cultures, understand the development of knowledge within students’ cultural frameworks, and recognize that the interpretation of information and mathematics happens within students’ cultural and experiential frameworks. TMSJ goes beyond merely stating the importance of connecting mathematics teaching and learning to lived experiences and interests; it positions students as and to be actors in their world. TMSJ is critical for four reasons:

• Builds an informed society. Mathematics serves a role to inform teachers and students about the lives of people, contexts, and conditions that may be different from their own.
• Connects mathematics with students' cultural and community histories. TMSJ creates opportunities for deepening mathematical knowledge by connecting mathematics teaching and learning to cultural and communal histories.
• Empowers students to confront and solve real-world challenges they face. This requires identifying issues that are unjust and using mathematics as a tool to analyze, critique, and confront unjust issues.
• Helps students learn to use mathematics as a tool for social change. When we use mathematics to explore, understand, and respond to social injustices, we learn to use mathematics as a tool to transform inequities and create social change.

There is much work required of teachers when planning learning opportunities that shape students' mathematical experiences, for example the decisions they make, and when and how to incorporate instructional practices that are appropriate for their contexts. Consequently, TMSJ includes not only NCTM's (2014) eight effective mathematics teaching practices but also requires educators to understand and demonstrate pedagogies associated with four bodies of work in a nested relationship (Picha, 2019) having to do with equitable mathematics teaching (Figure 1): Standards-Based Mathematics Instruction (SBMI; see NCTM, 2014), Complex Instruction (CI; see Featherstone et al., 2011; Horn, 2012), Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP; see Ladson-Billings, 1994), and Critical Mathematics Education (CME; see Frankenstein, 1983; Freire, 2018/1970; Powell, 1995; Skovsmose, 1995).

[Figure 1]

• Standards-Based Mathematics Instruction: SBMI emphasizes learning mathematics for understanding over attending primarily to fluency with algorithms and facts.
• Complex Instruction: A key feature of CI is valuing many different ways of being mathematically “smart.”
• Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: CRP reminds us that to ensure that equitable instruction must draw on students’ cultural practices, experiences, and assets, with an aim to build both academic excellence and critical consciousness.
• Critical Mathematics Education: CME extends the tenet of critical consciousness from CRP to explicitly attend to issues of power, fairness, and social justice (Freire, 2018/1970).

SBMI, CI, CRP, CME, and TMSJ form a foundation for achieving (a) self-love, (b) knowledge of and respect for issues of social injustice, and (c) awareness raising and social action in the mathematics classroom. This paper theorizes a framework for linking theory to practice for TMSJ.

Author

• Robert Q. Berry, University of Virginia