This article addresses issues on the interlocking systems of privilege and oppression in math education. These systems benefit the privileged people and hurt those oppressed by injustices. The authors, prospective teachers, and practicing teachers open conversations about their identities and experience in working with students of diverse backgrounds and how these systems operate against the students. Through these discussions, the authors intend to develop educational programs to better prepare future math teachers and math teacher educators to handle these issues in a diverse classroom.
It seems to me that white children or even some white teachers may be ignorant about the math skills and knowledge that minority groups bring with them to the classroom. The authors state that math teachers set lower expectations for students in the minority groups. I believe that the lower expectations may make these students feel inferior to their white peers. The minority students need an equitable opportunity to demonstrate their unique math skills to others. So, everyone in class can reflect on and evaluate the diverse perspectives on math problems. Such communication may help students learn from each other's viewpoints and respect cultural differences. Is it possible that curriculum developers make math content more engaging to children of different cultures on an equitable basis if more educators from minority groups are involved in curriculum development?
No one is born with a racist or classist attitude. In an attempt to eliminate the interlocking systems, the authors address issues where privilege benefits white students and oppression hurts their non-white peers in the context of racism and classism. However, the authors seem to overlook the possiblity that racism and classism can exist within minority groups. If this happens, are there any resources available that math educators can use to resolve these cultural conflicts within the ethnic minorities?
The rasism does exist in our teaching, and it is true that teachers are in favor of some students because of their performances. We cannot do everything, but in our ability level, we try our best to help every student who wants to learn. It is our responsibility to adjust teaching style to help students.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I agree teachers have certain expectations of student ability levels, I think it is also important to be cautious about placing the burden of "showing math skills" on the students, as what constitutes as mathematics and mathematical skill can be very broad, often not even requiring number. Through years of haphazard mathematical training (due to teacher expectations, often, yes) and due an overall negativity towards mathematics, many children end up living in a culture of fear (or even worse, indifference) around mathematics. I will be the pessimist in the thread and say that some children cannot "do" mathematics in the way we expect them to be able: this is not to say that they do not have the capability to do mathematics, but the opportunity has been extinguished by many various factors (often the same ones), and they have been trained to think "I can't do math", "I don't know math" or "I'm stupid" (these quotes all came from the mouths of my students). This aspect of their "nature" ("I'm not a math person") ensures that mathematical literacy is a genetic factor, not a learned one.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point that there can very often be racism, classism, sexism, agism etc. within identifiable cultural groups. There are really no heroes and villains in this picture.
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