When X=451 Fahrenheit : An Investigation Into Mathematics Textbook Banning Practices in the United States, China, and Russia

• In Event: Social and justice issues in mathematics education

Proposal

On April 15, 2022, the State of Florida in the United States announced that fifty-four mathematics textbooks used in grades K-12 would be banned for further use by students in the state. This came on the heels of a government-led inquiry looking for themes cited as being linked to Critical Race Theory (CRT), after which 41% of mathematics textbooks used in the state were excluded from future curricular use (Florida Department of Education Press, 2022). Although the banning of textbooks in the K-12 curriculum in the United States due to themes cited as aligning with CRT has repeatedly been cited in recent academic literature (e.g., Kaerwer & Pritchett, 2023; Kelly, 2023; Nix, 2023; Morgan, 2022), the ban on textbooks in the field of mathematics is a marked departure from previous censorship, as the exclusion of topics within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has previously been primarily relegated to biology and physics.

Although the banning of mathematics textbooks in the United States is a widely debated topic currently in the country, North America as a continent still only accounts for 7.41% of the global share of general book bans. The continents containing the highest percentages, Asia at 43.92% and Europe at 33.07% (Curcic, 2023), are also home to the two nations that additionally have history of previous mathematics textbook banning: China and Russia (Gan, 2022; Dolgov, 2014).

Using the theoretical framework proposed by Ninni Walstrom (2018) to unite curriculum text and pedagogical classroom practices, the released examples from banned Florida textbooks were analyzed both for their content and how these would tie in to classroom practices. The four released examples of content that led to textbooks being banned by the State of Florida came from such diverse mathematical topics as data analysis and interpretation and algebraic thinking with varying targeted grade levels. The author then categorized each with the Standards for Mathematical Practice promoted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in the United States to look at how different practices may be hindered with the bans. For the banned mathematics textbooks from China and Russia, the released examples were investigated to see if they too had similar practices that could be hindered by the elimination of content. Common themes here were identified.

It was found through the analysis that there were similarities between the Russia and Florida cases, as both cited a form of “indoctrination” as a reason for the ban (FLDOE, 2022; Dolgov, 2014). In the Chinese case, however, the ban involved a perception of racism against the majority, which was also cited in the Florida case (FLDOE, 2022; Gan, 2022). With the Chinese and Russian cases, the solution to the items identified as unpatriotic or racist in nature was modifications to the problems at hand for a rerelease of the printed material. It was determined that, in these cases, the Standards for Mathematical Practices would remain unaltered with the changes. In the Florida case, however, the standard “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others” (NCTM) was found to be significantly impacted by the wording and intention of the ban as seen through the released examples. These findings align with the position statement released by the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM) in their May 2022 response position statement to the ban while showing the uniqueness of the impact of this ban when compared to other primary and secondary mathematics textbook bans globally.

The author of this paper makes the call to action for a change in the methods by which mathematics textbooks are analyzed as appropriate for students in the United States based on the findings of this study. Through this paper presentation, it is hoped to bring to attention the state of the curricular changes within Florida and also open discussion on how students can still reason mathematically while teachers face government restrictions.

Author

• Brianna Ashley Kurtz, Mary Baldwin University