Disrupting the Harm of Unhearing in Mathematics Teaching

• In Event: Disrupting Normative Practices in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Many students routinely experience harm in mathematics classrooms. One source of harm is that of being unheard or talked past and consequently devalued. To investigate this harm and its disruption, we draw on the work of Lipari (2009) and her conception of listening otherwise. We analyse a corpus of video of teaching for three features: attention to difference, prioritizing of compassion, and openness to self-transcendence. Our analysis reveals that teaching in these short episodes is uniformly listening-otherwise-oriented or speaking-and-unhearing-oriented, with the latter common even when teaching actively elicits and discusses student thinking. We use our analysis to suggest practices for disrupting patterns of harm in mathematics teaching.

Authors

• Matthew Dahlgren, Marian University

• Mark Hoover, University of Michigan

• Charles Mack Phillips, University of Michigan