Using mathematics to understand history
Poster by: Tiantian He
Sessions B/D | 9:45 – 10:00/10:45 – 11:00 | Room Main Corridor, 2nd Floor
Abstract:
I integrate mathematics with social justice lessons to show how it can better help students understand the nature of social inequality. I designed six questions based on the goals of criticalmathematical literacy, and weaved the Chinese immigrants for building Canadian Pacific Railway and head tax into them. The questions include: calculating how many times the head tax increased, how much Canadian government collected; reflecting if $ 500 was affordable for Chinese workers if they were paid one dollar per day for the whole year; determining which number represents the most accurate death number for constructing the CPR, and what is the most truthful way to describe the data to the public; assessing the effectiveness of teaching mathematics for social justice.
However, I could not draw a consistent conclusion in terms of developing mathematical power and changing her dispositions towards mathematics. However, there are some pedagogical implications on further developing student’s mathematical power in the future, which include (my)self, students, and the society. Teaching for social justice promotes me to question why the Chinese government never revealed the history of Chinese immigrants to students and be critical of my (Canadian teacher’s) way of teaching. Moreover, one needs to know your students well, including their cultural backgrounds, learning styles, their way of knowing and thinking, and most importantly their cognitive level.
