From learning opportunities to being opportunities: Promoting community ontologies in the mathematics classroom

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Mathematics Beyond the Classroom: Engaging Families and Affecting Communities

Abstract

Mathematics education has persistent issues with historical and structural inequity (NAEP, 2024; NASEM, 2024). Documented inequities have consistently fallen along racial and ethnic lines, which implicate culture, even though mathematics is often positioned as a culture-free topic. This conceptual paper proposes being opportunities as an extension of learning opportunities (Hiebert, Gallimore, & Stigler, 2025). I use Urrieta’s (2018) notion of identity to bridge the concepts and describe how the study of mathematics can either create or foreclose ontological possibilities for students by examining previously published research. I argue that community-based ontologies are essential for student success and building community futures.

Author

• Salvador Huitzilopochtli, San Jose State University