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Why we need to rehumanize mathematics
Abstract
In this chapter, I provide an argument for why we should stop using equity as a goal and, instead, move toward rehumanizing mathematics. I provide 8 dimensions we should consider when rehumanizing mathematics teaching and learning.
... immigrant students and Black students, limiting their resources and possibilities for learning (GUTIÉRREZ, 2018). ...
... Similar to other researchers, I argue that African American students should be provided with a mathematics pedagogy that is built on their cultural experiences (DAVIS; MARTIN, 2018;GUTIÉRREZ, 2018;LAVE, 2019;LERMAN, 2001;POWELL, 2022;WINKLER, 2012). ...
... This has been a goal since 1949, yet it is still a desired reality for many African American students. The proof that this has not been realized is the current state of mathematics education for Black students and the fight that rages on to address it (GUTIÉRREZ, 2018;MARTIN, 2009b; c) -not only for the sake of understanding mathematics but for the increased autonomy in society (VALOYES-CHÁVEZ; MARTIN, 2016). ...
Despite the increase in research in mathematics education for Black students, there remains an achievement gap between them and students of other races. This is not only due to the scores that students may achieve on assessments, but also the associated beliefs that can be placed on Black students and their attainment of mathematics education. There has been much progression of the research particularly in relation to the theory of mathematical identities for Black students. This study contributes to the field, using the perspectives of middle-school students and their teachers. A particular component of this research is the correlation between the participants’ mathematical identities and foregrounds. This qualitative study explores the connection between these theories and their effects on Black students’ perceptions of their future possibilities in relation to mathematics. This research is conducted with students and teachers in two middle schools in Newark Public Schools district, focusing on their experiences in mathematics, thoughts about success, obstacles, hopes, dreams, worries and concerns. Data sources include semi-structured individual interviews with 18 students and two teachers in the North and Central Ward of Newark, NJ. Thematic content analysis is used to draw out four distinctive themes. The findings highlight the different ways in which the participants identify with mathematics, including how they view, define, understand, and perceive mathematics in their world and as possible parts of their future.
... This focus on the individual has also served to characterize teachers' conceptualizations of student learning, guiding the kinds of pedagogical responses teachers make in hopes of supporting learning (Horn, 2007). We contend that for mathematics education to improve and serve all learners, we need to disentangle the assumptions that guide policy from neoliberal agendas, and work towards a vision of mathematics learning that includes and humanizes all learners (Gutiérrez, 2018). ...
Circulating public discourses about mathematics and mathematics learning shape how families and students make sense of their experiences with schooling. In the United States, these discourses can play a large role in how public education policy is developed due to the commitment of public school boards to hearing community voices as well as a recent (but not new) increase in the organization of well-funded conservative parent groups working to maintain–and exacerbate–the inequitable educational opportunities that persist in this country. In this paper we analyze public discourse around mathematics learning in one New York City local school board meeting. Using tools from interaction analysis, we examined the discourse surrounding a proposal to reinstate test-based screening for middle school admissions. We delineated two key features of “common-sense” assumptions around mathematics learning that circulated in this meeting–math learners stay on a one-dimensional learning trajectory, and with varying rates of advancement–and investigated how these assumptions played out in the construction of a figured world of “schooled mathematics.” We argue that the consequences that necessarily follow from these common-sense assumptions construct mathematics as hierarchical and fixed, placing learners on a one-dimensional learning trajectory. Finally, we locate this set of emergent assumptions in the neoliberal racial project and consider the ways in which they shape a particular imagination of schooling and mathematics under neoliberalism.
... When applied to students, Gutiérrez (2009) uses power to "take up issues of societal transformation at many levels" (p. 5), such as whose voice is heard in the classroom (e.g., Moschkovich, 2011), who is serving as school leaders (e.g., Gilbert et al., 2022), and how can we rehumanize mathematics education (e. g., Gutiérrez, 2018). We view MSs as agents of change as they can transform the culture of mathematics teaching and learning (NCTM, 2014(NCTM, , 2020. ...
... Similarly, the field has evolved. Knowledge production and practice in service to urban mathematics education over the past few years, for example, has intensified more than ever to focus on various forms of systemic violence inflicted by mathematics education, the persistent inability of mathematics education reform to alleviate inequities, and a growing movement focused on humanizing mathematics education away from its oppressive tendencies (Battey & Leyva, 2016;Berry, Ellis, & Hughes, 2014;Larnell, Bullock, & Jett, 2016;Gutiérrez, 2013Gutiérrez, , 2018Jett & Davis, 2019;Martin et al., 2019). ...
... Furthermore, such assumptions of neutrality have real and lasting impacts. Luis Levya et al. argue that "epistemologies of STEM disciplines as cultureless, objective, and apolitical (Harding, 1992;Prescod-Weinstein, 2020) perpetuate ideologies of colorblindness and gender neutrality that leave Whiteness and cisheteropatriarchy in STEM knowledge production uncontested (Calabrase Barton and Tan, 2019;Gutiérrez, 2018)" (Levya et al. 2022, 867). Michael Savaria and Kristina Monteiro thus view the STEM syllabus as a potential vehicle to engage underrepresented and underserved students and improve retention in STEM by focusing more directly on mentoring, active learning, and increased dependence among students (Savaria and Monteiro, 2017, 95). ...
Syllabi are widely used at higher education institutions in the United States to present students with course-related information before or at the beginning of a new class. The timing and versatility of these documents allows instructors to set the tone of a course with (or without) an eye towards inclusivity. This can be important for all students but affects, in particular, students from marginalized groups as they navigate STEM courses. We report a study about inclusive practices in course syllabi at a STEM institution by addressing whether they: (a) list instructors’ pronouns, (b) utilize readings and materials authored by women and gender minority scholars, and (c) contain inclusivity statements. We report and compare perspectives on these three aspects from two datasets: 163 syllabi analyzed based on a rubric that we developed and results from an undergraduate student survey, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The two complementary datasets provide a way to benchmark whether there is a link between student and faculty perceptions of syllabi use and desired content. We find sharp differences between students’ expectations and actual syllabi content for all three of our topics of interest with students wanting inclusive practices at the forefront of course development regardless of subject and faculty lagging behind. We provide suggestions on how to incorporate inclusive practices in syllabi design and propose further questions to explore.
This chapter sheds light on how microteaching in an online elementary methods course can support pre-service teachers (PSTs) develop an equity-based teaching practice. The authors describe a model for a microteaching cycle where PSTs plan, teach, review, and analyze video recordings of their teaching to reflect and notice. PSTs report high value for microteaching and for feeling part of a supportive and encouraging class community. With regards to their growth in becoming equity-based practitioners, PSTs were mostly concerned about student engagement, which included noticing if students could hide or be ignored. PSTs practiced a variety of communication modes and supports and gave students (peers role-playing K–6 students) options for methods to solve a problem and for working alone or with others. The authors conclude with a reflection on our efforts in hopes that it supports other teacher educators who endeavor to use microteaching as a means for developing equity practices.
This chapter reports on work from a decade-long project to develop and study the use of teaching simulations focused on the teaching practices of eliciting and interpreting student thinking to support preservice teachers' (PSTs') learning. The chapter describes how teaching simulations focused on these practices allow teacher educators to support PSTs in orienting to student sense-making that is at the heart of equitable mathematics instruction. The teaching simulation approach is described. Examples illustrate how the approach is designed and facilitated in ways that make visible PSTs' engagement with three teaching performance areas (eliciting the student's process, using mathematical knowledge and skill, and conveying respect for the student as a mathematical thinker and learner) that are crucial for more equitable mathematics instruction. Connections between each of the performance areas and more equitable eliciting and interpreting of student thinking are described alongside the ways in which teacher educators can provide feedback that supports PSTs' development.
Supporting preservice teachers to learn to facilitate math discussions in ways that are both mathematically productive and equitable is a goal for many mathematics teacher educators (MTEs). In pursuit of this goal, MTEs may utilize approximations of practice, such as rehearsals of mathematics discussions or enactments in school settings. However, little is known about how MTEs integrate attention to equity considerations into work with such approximations. This chapter calls upon MTEs using approximations of practice to make their attention to issues of equity explicit and to engage in cycles of self-examination to hold themselves accountable for following through on commitments to equity. As an example, a self-study of one MTE's practice in an elementary mathematics methods course is shared. Findings identify challenges that the MTE encountered with maintaining an explicit equity focus with respect to mathematics discussion approximations. Implications for equity-oriented MTEs are discussed.
The marginalizing effects of mathematics education, particularly for students who are also marginalized by racism, poverty, and other intersecting forms of oppression, are well-documented. In response, many educators and researchers claim that it is mathematics teachers’ ethical responsibility to adopt equitable instructional practices. In this chapter, I argue that equitable practices, which are often taken for granted in pursuit of more equitable mathematics education, exist in relation to what Lauren Berlant calls cruel optimism: where what we are drawn to paradoxically makes it harder to achieve our desires. I examine the cruelty of three common “equitable” practices through a lens of relational ethics and suggest that we, who are interested in justice, might actively choose cruelty.
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