Somos arte: Enacting a mathematics pedagogy of rasquachismo

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring issues of justice and identity in the mathematics classroom

Abstract

In this article, we braid together moments from classroom conversations, Chicano art exhibits, and a multilingual mathematics classroom to illustrate the generative power of a rasquache mathematics pedagogy—one that centers people, place, and possibility. Central to this orientation is rasquachismo—a concept first developed within the arts to name a distinct Chicano aesthetic that foregrounds resilience, sustainability, and irreverent resistance (Ybarra-Frausto, 1989). From a rasquache perspective, all members of a community—and all material resources—hold inherent value, challenging dominant narratives of lack and reshaping dominant metrics of beauty, achievement, and legitimacy. Drawing from a single day’s Number Talk (Parrish, 2011), we illustrate how such moments are not merely instructional routines, but sites of creative, relational, and political possibility.

Authors

• Melissa Adams Corral, University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley

• Gladys Krause, College of William & Mary

• Luz A. Maldonado, Texas State University