Exploring Tensions in Participatory Approaches to Research in Mathematics Education

Session Type: Working Group Roundtable

Abstract

Responding to calls for a “participatory turn” in mathematics education, this session will feature three participatory projects to discuss the tensions and challenges that participatory methods make particularly salient. The papers span a diverse range of approaches to participatory work. Co-researchers include parents of color, teachers, and middle school youth of color. Challenges — all connected to power within and beyond our research teams — include establishing a focus for the team’s work when math is not necessarily everyone’s primary concern; navigating diverse ideas about “justice”; and sharing burdens equitably given the different ways research team members are positioned. How these challenges manifest, and how research teams can make sense of and address them, will be the focus of this session.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research in Mathematics Education

Chair

• Carlos Nicolas Gómez Marchant, University of Texas at Austin

Papers

• Math, Mattering, and Justice? - Nicole Louie, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Chundou Her, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Saron Fenta, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Orienting to Justice: Unapologetic, Underground, or Somewhere In Between? - Emma Carene Gargroetzi, University of Texas at Austin

• Public Good and Personal Well-Being: The Emotional Labor of Racial Justice Work - Frances K. Harper, University of Tennessee; Francia Iszamar Zelaya Zapata, University of Tennessee