Exploring Non-Numerical Set Theoretic Practices of Youth Engagement in Connective Journalism

• In Event: Framing Mathematics in Sociopolitical Public Discourse

Abstract

Over the last several decades, many have stressed the importance of student access to all of their mathematical knowledge while in the classroom (González et al., 2001; Nasir, 2002; Madkins & Nasir, 2019). However, historically most mathematics presented to students in the classroom is dedicated to operation, calculation, and number (Stanic, 2003), sidelining a great deal of the mathematics that students produce across other contexts. This message that school mathematics represents all mathematics limits student opportunity to identify alternative ways of mathematical knowing, as Millroy (1992), notes “How can anyone who is schooled in conventional Western mathematics 'see' any form of mathematics other than that which resembles the conventional mathematics with which she is familiar” (p. 11). To be seen and valued as a mathematical knower represents a privileged access to spaces of power (Martin et al., 2010), a privilege which should not solely be afforded through school mathematics, a structure rooted in whiteness (Martin, 2019). We present in this work the non-numerical mathematics students produce through civic composition, as we endeavor to explore student mathematical brilliance without explicit mapping to school mathematical standards or concepts.
The civic compositions of focus are four student works regarding the COVID-19 pandemic submitted to KQED’s (a San Francisco public radio affiliate) ‘Let’s Talk About the Election’ website. These submissions engaged in what Marchi and Clark (2021) refer to as connective journalism, wherein civic composers, “...express their personal identities while also attracting others who share similar experiences or views” (p. 289) through solutions-based communication. In their submissions, students were interacting with other ideas shared locally or nationally, with many students connecting these to their own experiences. They created and invoked sets and set relations in their explanations of how the COVID-19 pandemic so quickly and drastically changed their daily lives. In our analysis we noticed four major strategies of set theoretic composing: use of representative elements, intention and care with relative scope or scale of sets, deft use of relationships between sets, and thorough reflection upon the implications of these sets’ interactions.
The young authors we analyzed developed rich set theoretic forms of reporting that could only be partially mirrored by school mathematical set theory. We were not capable of recreating the depth of their work with school mathematics alone, as theirs was a distinct discourse which relied upon specific aspects of their identities. They did not require school mathematics to create detailed and effective compositions. Students are practicing and building non-school mathematics in ways that classrooms focused on quantification are not equipped to cultivate or enrich. Creating space for students to access non-numerical mathematical knowledge allows them to claim more of their mathematical brilliance. Students who value themselves as mathematical (regardless of assessed numerical fluency) and who value non-numerical mathematics can hopefully begin to critique those structures which weaponize the valorization (Mudry, 2009) of strictly numerical mathematics (e.g. Ewing, 2018).

Authors

• Alexandra Aguilar, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Emma Carene Gargroetzi, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Lynne Zummo, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Emma Bene, Stanford University
  Presenting Author