Designing an Empowering Mathematics Curriculum: Strategies to Teaching Mathematics Through a Social Justice Lens

Kyla Devlin

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." -Nelson Mandela

Pedagogical Strategy:

This article introduces topics of social justice to students through the mathematical curriculum by using the narrative-first approach
This article's approach specifically identifies rich narratives through picture books, which then map key components of the story to develop problem-solving tasks connected to the narrative as well as the curriculum
The article further argues that picture books offer a unique way to engage children in mathematics by providing opportunities for rich mathematical discussions through the mathematical representations in the text, illustrations, context, and logical developments
Furthermore, picture books have a positive effect on young children’s numbers, measurement and geometry capabilities
Children's literature has also been utilized by secondary school students to make explicit mathematical connections beyond the classroom, in addition to broadening their understanding of mathematical concepts
The example used within this article is Dust by Colin Thompson, which covers the confronting social justice issues of famine, food scarcity, poverty, and waste
After reading, students took action in understanding the cause of these issues as well as the impact through an analysis of data. Students began a food-waste task activity that incorporated the four phases present within Thompson's Dust
As these tasks were only small, they were a significant step in shifting the focus of classroom practice from abstract use of mathematics to the purposeful and constructive application of mathematics for a transformed, positive future

The Narrative-first Approach

Scarcity and waste: Harnessing the power of mathematics and children's literature to understand social justice issues

"Mathematics is a powerful tool for unpacking and understanding social justice and creating positive change."

Adopt/Adapt:

The article has proven that picture books not only have a positive effect on young children but in addition on secondary school students as well
I will utilize the narrative-first approach by incorporating critical literacy and using picture books within my own secondary education classroom that include topics of social justice issues while identifying mathematical representation in the text and illustrations
Not only will I just explore these social justice topics, but further encourage students to brainstorm ideas in ways to take action, such as the food-waste task activity within the article. Below is an example activity of how I could encourage this action by targeting the social justice issue of food waste

Bragg, L. A., & Eyers, A. (2021). Scarcity and waste: Harnessing the power of mathematics and children’s literature to understand social justice issues. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 26(2), 17–22.

Pedagogical Strategy:

This article examines social justice topics by mathematical modeling which is the process of exploring real-world situations and making sense of it using mathematics
This article uses mathematical modeling to logically approach the social issue topic of hydraulic fracturing
Students were assigned to choose an aspect of fracking to explore, then further research websites, articles, and data sets to make sense of messy informations
The students then investigated their aspect, created a mathematemcatical model of the answer, and designed a presentation slide incorporating their questions and answer, and then the math they used to figure their answer

Mathematical Modeling

Fracking: Drilling into Math and Social Justice

"Teachers need to create opportunities for students to use mathematics to make sense of real-world situations."

Adopt/Adapt:

I can incorporate mathematical modeling within my own classroom that covers any social justice topic so long students are able to create a mathematical model
Any question discussing social justice issues can be utilized, considering that I have students think about the mathematics they are using to find their answers and what each number and procedure means in terms of the context

Hendrickson, K. A. (2015). Fracking: Drilling into MATH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 20(6), 366–371. https://doi.org/10.5951/mathteacmiddscho.20.6.0366

Pedagogical Strategy:

This article focuses on the importance of learner agency which involves learners having a feeling of control over their learning in addition to being able to exercise that control by making decisions and taking actions
According to the article, this agency can be acquired if students are provided with open-ended tasks that consider real-life problems which involve making decisions before employing a suitable mathematical model
Within the article, a group of students were encouraged to choose a social issue that interests them, then further use mathematics to develop their awareness of the issue and present an argument for change
This project had a positive impact on the motivation of students toward learning mathematics, as they enjoyed exploring links between mathematics and real-life issues that they felt strongly about

Learner Agency

Towards an empowering mathematics curriculum: A focus on learner and teacher agency

"...real learning only takes place when the acquisition of knowledge is accompanied by the learner's increased awareness of, and control over, their situation."

Adopt/Adapt:

As the article stated, teaching that embraces problem-solving, meaningful contexts, collaborative learning, and discussion elicits greater enjoyment among students, as well as more positive attitudes towards learning mathematics and high levels of achievement
I can incorporate the importance of learner agency into my own classroom by letting students research social issues they choose to show interest in, and incorporate these either into my own lessons, or have students create their own projects. Below is an example of how mathematics and real-life issues can be presented within a word problem

Wright, P. (2021). Towards an empowering mathematics curriculum: A focus on learner and teacher agency. Mathematics Teaching, 279, 40–43.

Ethical Understandings Curriculum

A social justice approach to teaching mathematics

"The infusion of mathematics with social justice emphasizes being globally aware whilst locally contextualizing critical dilemmas."

Pedagogical Strategy:

This article focuses on the significant of an Ethical Understandings curriculum, which explores what it means for both an individual and society to live well, in addition to stregthening students' capacity to make informed decisions on engaement at local, national and global levels
Moreover, this article lists a number of positive features that a social justice approach to mathematics has on students, for instance students not only deepen their understanding of critical social justice issues, but also understand how mathematics is an essential analytical tool to problem-solving and changing the world
The article uses the example of the Grandfather's birthday, adapted from Rethinking mathematics: Teaching social justice by the numbers, which weaves teaching mathematics through a social justice perspective by focusing on inequality
According to the article, these dilemmas and scenarios encourage growth in the mathematel understeninng of specific content and its real-world applicability
Ultimately, having students understand the complexity of social justice issues provides them with the opportunity to anticipate, act, and reflect

Adopt/Adapt:

I can adapt this strategy into my own classroom by combining the Mathematics and Ethical Understandings curriculum
I can do this by having my students exame social justice issues by exploring, developing and applying Ethics Understandings by analyzing data and statistics
Much like the Grandfather's birthday example, I can develop word problems that incorporates ethical dilemmas while applying contextualized mathematical knowledge

Bragg, L. A. (2021). A social justice approach to teaching mathematics. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 26(1), 25–29.

Pedagogical Strategy:

This article focuses on how social justice math is beginning to unfold in middle and high school, and even as young as an elementary school
For instance, Melissa Collins, a 2nd-grade teacher is blending math, history, and language arts into a unit about school segregation
The article furthermore gives examples of specific schools which are developing socially-relevant frameworks that weave social issues, such as wealth inequality, immigration, and power and oppression into math instruction
One example is shown by middle school math coach Mike Edillion, who incorporated a map of police shootings within a lesson on proportionality and graphing. With Black Lives Matter protests all over the city, he reflected on the purpose of teaching and concluded that helping his students (low-income students of color) see how maths illuminates their world was at the heart of his job
Another sample described in the article comes from a San Antonio teacher Dashiell Young-Saver, who rewrote his AdvancedPlacement statistics course because his students asked to study police use of force. Saver used data from New York City police stops in a “socially-relevant” approach to statistics

Socially Relevant Framework

Teaching Math Through A Social Justice Lens

"As nation's are racial increasingly inequity radar, math soars bringing teachers on the social-justice questions into their classrooms to help students see the subject's relevance and recognize that they can use it to become change agents in the world."

Adopt/Adapt:

I can incorporate a socially-relevant framework into my curriculum by practicing student-centered instruction
By doing so, students will be encouraged to make decisions on their own learning, more specifically working with other students to research and gain knowledge on topics that are culturally and socially relevant to them
This will differ from typical teacher-centered instruction, as learning will be collaborative and community-oriented as students explore their own civil issues with a mathematical approach

Gewertz, C. (2020). Teaching Math Through A Social Justice Lens. Education Week, 40(15), 14–16.

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