Overview
Join educators, parents, students, activists, and community members from around the country for a 3-day conference to explore the connections between math education and social justice. We will explore many questions, challenges, and opportunities to work toward social justice through math education. We invite you to share your thoughts, lesson plans, questions and to be a facilitator for a workshop, interest group, or presentation. Facilitators may choose to present on topics related to math and social justice including equity in education, literacy and social justice, and integrating social issues into the math classroom. Sessions need not be entirely polished presentations as we hope to share ideas in order to build together.
Goals of the conference
- Bring together educators, researchers, parents, activists, and students to collectively discuss social justice and math education
- Foster new and innovative partnerships and collaborations
- Create a space to share resources, lesson plans, best practices, and other classroom materials
- Develop structures for ongoing discussion and working groups about math and social justice
- Organize a national voice in the ongoing debate over math education reform
- Plan actions, advocacy, future meetings, etc.
Suggested Topics for workshops: (Please do not feel limited by this list, we provide these as a brainstorm of potential workshops and would love to expand.)
Social justice in the mathematics classroom:
How can educators integrate social, political, and economic justice issues (ie. prison rates, military recruitment patterns, etc.) into their math classes? What math topics can be explored from a social justice perspective? How do we address these issues while making sure the work is mathematically rigorous?
Sample Sessions:
- Share a lesson plan, unit, or project you wrote.
- Create a networking session for lesson planning.
- Share successes and challenges of integrating social justice and math lessons/projects (possibly with student co-facilitators who can share their experiences).
Mathematics literacy as “gatekeeper”
Are ALL students receiving a high quality mathematics education? Why do students need to be mathematically literate? What “gatekeepers” (ie. SAT, graduation exit exams, etc.) are there and how do they affect students’ academic and professional opportunities? What does math literacy look like?
Sample Session Suggestions
- Facilitate a discussion about equity in the math class, or the relationship between equity and math pedagogy
- Facilitate a workshop around the issues of standardized testing.
- Explore how mathematics is necessary and useful in “real life” ie. careers, etc.
- Explore data regarding math education/achievement and race/gender/income, etc.
Ethnomathematics:
What is Ethnomathematics? What isn’t Ethnomathematics? How do we integrate Ethnomathematic lessons, units, theory, etc., into our classes? How do we ensure that the cultures and their mathematics are given equal respect (ie, with no tokenizing of cultures)?
Sample Session Suggestions:
- Share a lesson plan, unit, or project you wrote.
- Facilitate an interest group discussion about the benefits and challenges of using Ethnomathetics in math class.
- Explain what Ethnomathematics is and provide examples for teachers new to the topic.