Presentation by: Kofi Amoah, Arthur Chen, Cynthia Nicol, Vanessa Radzimski, and Kwesi Yaro
Session: E | Time: 11:05AM – 11:45AM | Location: Room 200
We are exploring curriculum and pedagogies of teaching mathematics for social justice. We are inspired by the work of American mathematics educator Enrico Gustein and Brazilian educational philosopher and activist Paulo Freire to engage students in a critical mathematics education. We are examining our own experiences as beginning social justice educators and theorizing our practices for what it means to read (interpret) and write (change) the world with mathematics. As a group we draw upon our different educational experiences (doctoral students and faculty) and professional contexts (in New Zealand, United States, Ghana, and Canada) to research our developing practices of teaching mathematics for social justice.
Our research explores our developing ideas of what teaching social justice mathematics might look like and how to prepare school and university level mathematics students as well as ourselves to engage in a critical mathematics education. Given our diverse cultural backgrounds and life experiences we wonder what might count as contexts for generative themes of interest to our students and their communities as well as to our own curiosities that can engage us in social justice mathematics.
In this presentation we discuss resources and contexts for social justice mathematics pedagogies as well as the challenges, contradictions, and discomfort we experienced in teaching math for social justice. We will share strategies for researching social justice practices and engage audience members in discussions around strategies for teaching with discomfort and risk.
Abstract: 631