The Overlapping Discourses of Mathematics and Whiteness: Pushing Social Justice out of Mathematics

• In Event: 44.070 - Interrogating Whiteness in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Bartell (2013) highlights the challenge of teaching mathematics for social justice, even by teachers who are committed to social justice. Discourses are one source of this challenge. Discourses both enable and constrain (Fairclough, 2001). Discourses enable by creating a shared idea of a concept. Discourses constrain by setting limits on shared ideas. This enablement and constraint illustrate power in discourses. Discourses portray mathematics as apolitical, neutral, and acultural; in contrast to discourses of social justice. The pressure to conform to these discourses limit what is possible to think, and maintain power structures, especially White privilege. The purpose of this study is to understand how the discursive constraints of Whiteness and mathematics impede those efforts.
The participants in this study were seven secondary mathematics student-teachers. During the Spring 2014 semester, I taught an action research class for these students as I continued supervising their student-teaching. All data were drawn from transcribed recordings of our class discussions and from my own and the teacher candidates’ reflection journals. These materials were reviewed to identify discussions of social justice in mathematics. Selected transcripts were then analyzed using critical discourse analysis to identify and explain themes.
CDA is used to explore the ways in which consent is manufactured through dominant discourses (Fairclough, 2001). Gee explains that “the goal of discourse analysis is to render even discourses with which we are familiar ‘strange’” (2005, p. 102). By rendering discourses “strange,” we can see the underlying power structures. I approached this process using Gee’s “building tasks.” I have also framed these discourses within Whiteness Theory to analyze how these discourses maintain White privilege (Frankenberg, 1993; Frye, 1992).
As a group, our understanding of what it means to teach mathematics for social justice was constrained by discourses of teacher authority . Discourses of teacher authority emphasize control of content and behavior. While we generally associate authoritarian teaching with students sitting quietly in rows, progressive teaching emphasizes teacher control of content and behavior, although the control is less apparent.
The mathematics teacher’s control of the classroom is connected to her knowledge of abstract mathematics. This connection grows out of the certainty of abstract mathematics and of the certainty of judgment that accompanies (White) authority positions. Teaching mathematics for social justice often requires the teacher to introduce topics and methods that are uncertain. These can lead to feelings of loss of control of the class. This perceived loss can then preempt teachers’ attempts to teach for social justice. Even when we design social justice mathematics lessons that allow teacher control, we miss broader aspects of social justice, especially identity and power relations (Gutiérrez, 2012).
Teaching mathematics for social justice is challenging (Bartell, 2013); however, overcoming those challenges may lead to equitable mathematics education. This study provides understanding of the ways in which discourses of Whiteness and mathematics overlap to dissuade teachers from approaching social justice, allowing teachers and researchers prepare to teach for social justice.

Author

• Trevor Warburton, Jordan School District