Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction

[DemonTree]

@puzzlegal

I’ve been tutoring a math class in a mostly-minority urban school, and i think some of the issues that paper send to be trying to address are real. I wouldn’t call them “white supremacy”, but i feel like a lot of the class is structured to reward blind obedience to authority, not critical thinking. And the core of math is critical thinking. Maybe I should read the paper for ideas.

Do you think that’s because of the curriculum, the way the teachers are trained, or what?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@DemonTree

What do the kids you teach think of those two sorts of problems? I remember my classmates hating word problems, they wanted to be asked ‘What’s 3 x 3/4?’ not some question involving buttermilk.

I don’t know that they have much experience with a curriculum devoid of word problems. It’s a huge part of our math instruction, figuring out how to apply concepts to the real world, and also how to apply the real world to the concepts (so, figuring out how to model mathematical phenomena; I’ve spent the last four months teaching seventh-grade algebra to fourth graders using dice, bingo chips, and a picture of a balance scale).

[puzzlegal]

@DemonTree

Do you think that’s because of the curriculum, the way the teachers are trained, or what?

It’s the curriculum. But i think the teachers have some flexibility, and could mitigate it. I’m trying to do so as a tutor.