What Is the Cost of (Math) Wars?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Studies of Mathematics Teaching and Learning (Table 5)

Abstract

In literature and artifacts from the Math Wars of the 1990s to 2000s, educators argued that: Math Wars are divisive; therefore, children suffer. Two decades later, there are signs of Math Wars-like discourse in media and open letters on the California Math Framework. Our purpose is to examine the argument that Math Wars cause suffering in the educational community, and to articulate costs and casualties precisely, and grounded in empirical data. We report emerging findings from interviews of 10 people who lived through the Math Wars (1990s-2000s) as professionals in mathematics and/or mathematics education communities. Our examination addresses the question: What is the cost of the act of math wars?

Authors

• Erin E. Baldinger, University of Minnesota

• Yvonne Lai, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Charles E. Wilkes, University of California - Davis