Math Community Nights

• In Event: Social Justice and Community Engagement in Math Education: Four Examples From New York and Utah

Abstract

Background and Objectives

Math Community Nights are intergenerational events where students showcase their class work with their communities (Figure 5). Parents/guardians, families, and other math educators visit and talk with students about their projects. These take on different formats and themes (e.g., poster presentations, workshops, and fundraising events), yet all community nights involve student-led projects and incorporate their input. Students sometimes translate their work into their home languages for their families (e.g., Samoan, Spanish, Tagalog). These lively events disrupt dominant modes of math education (e.g., rote learning or teacher-centered instruction) and represent a partnership strategy that “[places] young people with their families and community, challenging neoliberal policy and discourse that segments and fractures family” (Cahill et al., 2016, p. 125).

[Figure 5]

Theoretical Frameworks

We combined historically and justice-oriented pedagogical frameworks (Paris & Alim, 2017; Parsons, 2017; Winn & Winn, 2021) with models of community engagement in education (Epstein et al., 2019). The ‘ideals’ of neutrality, objectivity, race/color evasion, individualism, and meritocracy can easily hide in mathematical discourse and practices and thus reproduce inequitable social dynamics in math education. Combing classroom opportunities for students to become historical actors (Gutiérrez et al., 2019) with social events to share their new knowledge can promote deep learning across subject areas while celebrating and strengthening their relationships with family/community.

Mode of Inquiry

Drawing on McGee and Hostetler’s (2014) work on interdisciplinary curricular design, we examine the practical application of social justice and historical inquiry projects in secondary math education. Typically, we launched student projects by scaffolding their inquiry into four stages: 1) Topic Selection and Research Questions, 2) Historical Analysis, 3) Community Connections, and 4) Mathematical Analysis. (A teacher resource page with details about our recent event is found here: EXTERNAL_LINK_1.)

Results

Students consistently report that these events go much better than expected. Students are often surprised at the turnout and how confidently they can speak about their projects to attendees including family members. Students also enjoy autonomy, leading the way as they explore ideas, connecting their social concerns with mathematics, and in the process, becoming historical mathematical actors.
We discuss several tensions and challenges, including inadequate school administrative support, being responsive to rigorous mathematical learning and students’ authentic social concerns, fund-raising, University buy-in, and teacher compensation.

Significance & Future Directions

Our work is inspired by other programs that partner with parents and caregivers to support children’s mathematics learning (e.g., Family Math and Math and Parent Partners [MAPPS]; see Aguirre et al., 2013). The literature on math education would benefit from more examples and practical guidance for engaging families and communities to support children’s math learning.

Looking ahead, we are looking closely at family involvement versus engagement. Ferlazzo observes: “Involvement implies doing to; in contrast, engagement implies doing with” (Ferlazzo, 2011, p. 12). We seek to shift community nights from one-off events to ongoing partnerships among teachers, university researchers, and parents/families (cf. Aguirre et al., 2013), emphasizing two-way communication about how we can all support children’s math learning.

Authors

• José Francisco Gutiérrez, University of Utah

• Roger Quinonez, City Academy Charter School