A New Look At Math in the Classroom

This article was written originally for MultiBriefs Education.

Be honest with yourself. How many of you remember how to factor a polynomial (math teachers, you are exempt from answering this question). How many of you have found a use for this skill in the real world, just like your teacher promised you that you would when you were back in high school? Am I being a little snarky right now? Perhaps. But as a former high school math teacher myself, I’m worried that the profession is doing a disservice to millions of students who are not making the deep connections with math in the same way that they do with other content areas, and our nation’s math assessment scores only serve to support that statement. What are we doing wrong, and what can we do to fix it? This is a question many of us in the field have been asking for years. There must be a better way.

This article is not a knock on my fellow math teachers. In fact, I know many who would like to see a complete overhaul in how and what is taught in the mathematics classroom. In a recent Mind/Shift article, Kara Newhouse explains why math teachers want more human ties. Newhouse writes, “Mathematics is created by humans, math teachers are humans and math students are humans. Yet many contemporary math classrooms erase humans from the equation.” She goes on to quote Sam Shah, a Brooklyn math teacher, who stated, “Often mathematics is talked about as if it were apolitical, objective, and cold. A sterile textbook, a teacher writing on a chalkboard and rarely turning around.”

What does it mean to humanize a math classroom? Newhouse reported out on Vanderbilt education researcher Ilana Horn, who explained it best as a classroom “where kids can bring their ideas and interact with their ideas about math to be able to make sense of it.” In other words, a space where inquiry, personalization, and deeper learning result in an engaged mathematical learner. Newhouse closed her article by citing four questions teachers can ask themselves when looking to rehumanize their math classrooms. These questions come from University of Illinois professor Rochelle Gutiérrez:

 

1. In mathematics, what feels dehumanizing to my students?
2. In mathematics, what feels dehumanizing to me, other teachers, or families/communities?
3. What might feel more rehumanizing?
4. Who can help me rehumanize this space?

You can hear more about Gutiérrez’s thoughts on this topic from a recent UCLA presentation she delivered, which is available for viewing here. In her talk, Gutiérrez uses the equity lever as the primary reason to support this move. In her own words, “It has been difficult to assess progress beyond closing the achievement gap or recruiting more diverse students into the mathematical sciences. Instead, we should rehumanize mathematics, which considers not just access and achievement, but the politics in teaching and mathematics.”

In 2019, the Seattle Schools began such an initiative, and their work was detailed in this Education Week article, where Catherine Gewertz described the move as potentially “controversial” due to a focus by the District to “infuse all K-12 math classes with ethnic-studies questions that encourage students to explore how math has been “appropriated” by Western culture and used in systems of power and oppression.” Seattle’s frameworks can be found here. As Gewertz reported, the plan “outlines strands of discussion that teachers should incorporate into their classes. One leads students into exploring math’s roots in the ancient histories of people and empires of color. Another asks how math and science have been used to oppress and marginalize people of color, and who holds power in a math classroom.”

Seattle’s bold plan takes its cue directly from a National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 2018 publication “Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics,” which calls for prioritization of math programs that help students see how math affects the lives of millions, in social media algorithms, polling data, and world finance.

The COVID19 pandemic has created now reasons to need a curriculum that is engaging and promotes deeper learning for students, particularly as many schools prepare to open this fall in blended and remote learning formats. Through all of this, equity concerns continue to rise for students of color and those who are economically disadvantaged. Perhaps this push can provide some relief in this effort.