Conclusions and Recommendations

The relationship between teacher, student, and content, in the context of community, is what makes relevant and meaningful mathematics complex and necessary. The challenge is in acknowledging the history of mathematics education in order to recognize its possibilities (Gutstein, 2007, p. 22). Each of my recommendations for future work centers around student empowerment because that is how we will prepare our students to revolutionize the world.

Allow teachers to take risks and be vulnerable

In order for teachers to create moments of learning for themselves and their students there needs to be a culture shift that can start small (at one school) but then needs to spread throughout a larger organization. That larger cultural shift necessitates leadership to be involved so that teachers feel like they can be vulnerable and take risks that promote student agency and learning. Teachers need support, guidance, structure, and space to be learners themselves.

Teaching math and science for social justice

How do you know when teachers are ready to address issues of social justice in their classrooms? How do you engage those who do not want to engage in the work? They may not be 100% ready, but they have to be ready to learn with their students and from them, to learn about their students’ lives and their communities. They have to be ready for their students, because to say that racism and discrimination aren’t issues as a math teacher is to be ignorant to the power and purpose of mathematics in building human connection.

It is fair and necessary to expect and require every teacher to be willing to address issues of social justice in their classroom. However, in order for teachers to feel ready to teach mathematics for social justice we need to make sure they know how to create an environment that ensures students feel safe and comfortable in addressing issues of social justice in their classrooms. Teaching for social justice is done in a community with one’s students. And yet, there is the potential to support beginning teachers by creating a course on teaching for social justice as a part of more teacher education programs. The LTSJ Belief Scale (Ludlow, Enterline, & Cochran-Smith, 2008, p. 213) is one way to assess whether a person is ready to teach for social justice and can thus directly inform their practice and areas of growth.

We must accept an evolving definition of empowerment, and that we may not agree

My goal at the beginning of this study was to have students feel empowered by mathematics to create social change. The meaning of empowerment that I kept in mind throughout this work encompassed student agency, growing in confidence, and standing up for your rights and those of others. I encourage us to continue having conversations with students and with each other and ask questions like: What are the behaviors of someone who feels empowered? What behaviors lead to empowerment? What are your priorities as a student or for your students?

I am still grappling with the interdependence of the opportunities that rigorous mathematics provides (college education, technical fields, invitation into professional spaces, etc.) and the critical, compassionate, and creative thinking skills developed in social justice mathematics that students will need to participate in meaningful and potentially liberating work once they are inside those professional spaces. Delpit (2007, p. 183) grappled with similar issues when considering the role of critical reading and writing in her students’ lives.

Not everyone agreed. And not all students felt that math should or could be used to create social change. Following the launch activity, some students requested to just focus on SAT or ACT prep in order to prepare for college. Others asked to return to the type of math before the activity. As teachers we are aware of certain pedagogies that students may not be, but their beliefs have a huge impact on their mindset and agency so it’s important to address these perspectives. What these students and others are also confronting is the tension of what success looks like in a social justice mathematics classroom (Delpit, 2007; Gutstein, 2007; Kokka, 2015).

Encouraging the activist in us all

This work needs to continue by building on student activism and developing their sociopolitical consciousness. These students are aware of injustices and they have used mathematics in order to analyze and make sense of them. However, they haven’t fully developed the agency to act. How do teachers support their students to take their findings into their community and demand change? As Francis Su (2019) wrote in the last chapter of his book,

"To love through and because of mathematics is to build community for the isolated, to seek justice for the oppressed, to help one another grow through struggle, even in mathematical ways. To love is to give the gift of play and exploration, to grow in a desire for truth and beauty, to bestow creative power on another human being by showing them mathematics. To love someone is to set them free, not just in their hearts, soul, and strength, but also in their minds" (p. 206).

Mathematics as a tool for liberation is also an act of love. It is our responsibility as educators, parents, guardians, and community members to experience mathematics with our students so they may use it as a tool in their own freedom.