“Waiting for Superman”: Using Mathematics to Deconstruct Myths and Empower Communities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 52
  In Roundtable Session: Alternatives to Traditional Public Schools for Black Students: What Works?

Abstract

Due to the lack of high-quality public schools for all children, a lottery is typically the arbiter of fairness for determining a child’s access to better schools. In Guggenheim’s documentary “Waiting for Superman” we are introduced to five students who engage the lottery system to enroll into selective charter schools. The lottery process is a metaphor by which a larger narrative is built to explain how students mitigate their personal hope for a better future, which the film purports only charter schools can provide. However, the system of inequities that constrains choices should be exposed to empower parents to challenge these inequities. This paper discusses mathematics literacy, empowerment and current educational policies that support lotteries and charter schooling.

Authors

• Jacqueline Leonard, University of Wyoming

• Malaika W. Mckee-Culpepper, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign