Fear as Whiteness in the Backlash to Mathematics Education Reform

• In Event: Framing Mathematics in Sociopolitical Public Discourse

Abstract

Objectives
Recent reform efforts to center issues of equity and social justice in mathematics classrooms have been under fire from the loudest sectors of right-wing media. The hysteria around incorporating social justice issues in mathematics classrooms is captured in the artificial binary: STEM or CRT. For instance, critics of the proposed new California mathematics framework argued that issues of racial justice in mathematics will water down rigorous mathematics and harm society because “with fewer people who know math well, how are we going to build bridges, launch rockets or advance technologically?” (Evers & Wurman, 2021). In Florida, mathematics textbooks were taken out of consideration because of “fear of indoctrination or exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts in our classrooms” (Florida Department of Education, 2022). Backlash towards mathematics education reform efforts is not new. Even when race and justice were not explicitly centered, critics resisted efforts to center student thinking in mathematics instruction. In the early 1990’s, standards-based reform efforts sought to lessen mathematical formalism and direct instruction (Herrera & Owens, 2001). In our paper, we examine resistance to reform in mathematics education in artifacts geared towards audiences outside of mathematics education researchers through the lens of whiteness: a social construction maintaining white supremacy, the ideology that the white race is superior to others, while simultaneously claiming a sense of delicacy and fragility (Frankenburg, 1993; Leonardo, 2009).

Methods and Data Sources
We used critical discourse analysis to “explore connections between educational practices and social contexts” (Mullet, 2018, p. 117) and to examine how power structures are maintained (Oughton, 2007). We analyzed a number of artifacts from the math wars of the late 1990’s and the current backlash towards mathematics education reform in California and Florida authored by writers from various backgrounds and for diverse, broad audiences. Some examples of the artifacts are a speech from Riley, Clinton’s secretary of education, widely open letters from current California STEM professors and professionals critiquing the California reform, and press releases from the Florida Department of Education explaining the textbook ban.

Conclusions
We found fear to be a significant mechanism to uphold whiteness in the backlash to mathematics education reforms, particularly centering white fear. We showed how opponents construct reform efforts as an enemy backed by flimsy research and powerful bad actors. Additionally, we illustrated how they depicted the deterioration of university mathematics, STEM, and American economic competitiveness as a result of reform efforts pushing traditional mathematics out of K-12. This is consistent with other scholars’ conceptualization of fear. For instance, Okun (2021) described fear as the primary strategy for sustaining white supremacy (p. 7).

Scholarly Significance
The mathematics education field’s response to the backlash has largely been absent or tepid (e.g., the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’s “Statement on Using Mathematics for Divisiveness”). By describing how fear is constructed in the artifacts, scholars may find more targeted responses to the backlash by addressing the ideas perpetuated in these artifacts.

Authors

• Eric Cordero-Siy, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Michael R. Lolkus, CPM Educational Program
  Presenting Author

• Frances K. Harper, University of Tennessee
  Presenting Author