Antiracist Tool
“If your anti-racism work prioritizes the ‘growth’ and ‘enlightenment’ of white America over the safety, dignity and humanity of people of color – it’s not anti-racism work. It’s white supremacy.”
- Ijeoma Oluo, The Guardian, 2019
In the United States, it is a common myth that mathematics and mathematics education are culturally, linguistically, and politically neutral (e.g. Joseph, 2010; Martin, 2009). More specifically, Martin (2009; 2013) argues that mathematics education is a white institutional space. In order to counteract racism, this tool was developed to assist mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) to shift from a nonracist pedagogy to an antiracist pedagogy. Drawing on tenets of Critical Race Theory, this tool is designed with the principle that racism is endemic and enduring (Bell, 1992). Although race and racism are endemic and permanent, MTEs are responsible to function as “a threat” to the existing racial inequity (Gorski, 2016). We believe this tool will be useful to MTEs as they seek to incorporate an antiracist stance toward their professional growth, teaching, and professional development they lead. This tool poses questions to consider and provides examples of resistance so that MTEs can make conscious decisions to enact an antiracist pedagogy.
Background
This tool was developed by the A3IMS project team as we collaborated with teachers in a district with urban characteristics (see Milner, 2012). In our work together we started to recognize that non-racist actions and pedagogies were not the same as antiracist actions. Thus, we began developing this tool to better understand antiracism in order to analyze and critique our work as mathematics teacher educators. The following pages of this website include key constructs that are important to understanding and using this tool. These key constructs include 1) our definition of racism and making a distinction between racism, nonracism, and antiracism; 2) the “domains of power” framework (Collins, 2009) which provides a conceptualization about how racism is perpetuated and how individuals can exercise antiracism through our agency and influence within each of the domains of power; and 3) our assumptions about mathematics and education.
Key Constructs Behind the Tool
The domains of power framework highlights how racism operates in multiple ways which include the cultural, disciplinary, structural, and interpersonal domains of power. Click here to learn more.
Racism is “a system of advantage based on race” (Wellman, 1977). To be racist is contribute to the maintenance of the system whereas to be nonracist is to passively accept the systems that maintain a racial hierarchy. Antiracism, on the other hand, is active resistance against the system. Click here to learn more.
Schooling and mathematics education are inherently political. The historical and modern functions of schooling, along with the discipline of mathematics, combine to make mathematics teaching and mathematics teacher education a political act (Felton-Koestler & Koestler, 2017). Click here to learn more.
Understanding these assumptions is necessary to fully understand and utilize the tool. This tool is intended for mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) to reflect on their practices (with prospective and current mathematics teachers) to cultivate the habits of mind towards an anti-racist mathematics pedagogy. Click here to access the draft antiracist tool for mathematics teacher educators.