Quantitative Civic Practices in Youth Digital Media on the Eve of the Election 2020

• In Event: Framing Mathematics in Sociopolitical Public Discourse

Abstract

Objective: The 2020 US presidential election coincided with the “quadruple pandemic” (Ladson-Billings, 2021), referencing the multi-century struggle for Black liberation in the face of anti-Black violence, climate disaster, the coronavirus pandemic, and economic crisis. In this uniquely fraught landscape, youth created two-minute media segments with their views on issues of concern and posted them to the digital online platform, “Let’s Talk About Election 2020” (E2020) hosted by national public radio affiliate, KQED. Contributing to the question of where and how mathematics intersects with the sociopolitical lives of youth, this study asked how youth engaged practices of quantitative reasoning in their civic arguments surrounding Black Lives Matter (BLM), climate change, and COVID-19.

Theoretical Framework: A social practice theory approach to both numeracy and civics (Holland & Lave, 2009). presumes that humans use quantification and number as they navigate the world (numeracy), and participate in multiple communities within which they reason and act to shape these communities (civics). This social practice lens provides an alternative to defining and examining either civic engagement or numeracy in terms of an heuristic for evaluating competence, instead offering insights that illuminate youth repertoires of numeracy and civic practice. We use the language of “quantitative civic practices” to describe the multi-layered landscape of how youth mix quantitative forms of reasoning with their civic concerns as they “read” the social-political world and “inscribe” their own participation through civic activity (Freire & Macedo, 2005).

Data and Method: Content logs were created for each E2020 media segment on Black Lives Matter (n=75), climate change (n=225) and COVID-19 (n=52). Numeracy events (n=x), - an instance in which the author speaks or displays numbers in their composition - were bound and coded comprehensively. The codebook included a priori codes for forms of quantitative reasoning (De Lange, 2006) and emergent codes describing the civic function of the numeracy event.

Findings: Across the three topics, youth used quantitative forms of reasoning that included reasoning with quantity and number (92%), reasoning with relationship and change (35%) reasoning with uncertainty (11%) to make civic arguments. The primary functions of numeracy events were to communicate about magnitude (62%), situate an issue in time and space (62%), describe causal mechanisms or a theory of change (38%), and communicate narrative detail (28%). In BLM media numbers were also used to uncover injustice and to communicate about identity. This and other differences across topics reflect the situativity of numeracy as a social practice.

Significance: Challenging deficit views of youth quantitative literacy and civic engagement, this study demonstrates that young people participate in diverse quantitative civic practices and do so even without explicit guidance from either mathematics or social studies teachers. Explicit attention to existing youth quantitative civic practices can provide powerful inroads for mathematics teachers working to build disciplinary connections in support of a more just democratic society.

Authors

• Emma Carene Gargroetzi, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Lynne Zummo, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra Aguilar, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Emma Bene, Stanford University
  Presenting Author