Teaching Statistics with Honesty: A Quant/Crit Approach

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Challenging Traditional Norms in Quantitative Research: Critical Perspectives on Equity, Racism, and Statistical Pedagogy (Table 5)

Abstract

Rooted in positivism, quantitative methods frame statistics as neutral, privileging access to natural truths via the logics of mathematics. Researchers learn quantitative methods’ core dogma via a hegemony of neutrality, which wallpapers over the troubling origin stories of most statistical analyses, echoes of which continue to permeate social science domains. Reimagining the foundations of quantitative methods is essential if quantitative research is to dismantle inequities. We address this problem by interrogating how we teach introductory social science statistics courses. We highlight six core lessons that occur in Introductory Social Sciences Statistics, and we reframe these from a QuantCrit perspective, offering new and innovative ways to disrupt the historical roots of these hegemonic research tools.

Authors

• Rebecca A. Cruz, Johns Hopkins University

• Allison Firestone, San Francisco Unified School District

• Rachel Saperstein McClam, Johns Hopkins University

• Andrea Louise Ochoa, Brown University

• Noah Nelson, Johns Hopkins University