Racism and a Global Pandemic Has Given Math Education a New Telescope. Where is the Microscope?
Two years ago, I wrote this article with the purposefully provocative title. I would suggest starting here. It has been viewed close to 15000 times.
Two years later, with a global pandemic still gripping the world with anxiety, and America’s racism getting attention equally expansive attention — rightfully, thankfully, and honestly — education as an institutionalized idea is scrambling to repurpose and reimagine itself in the years and decades to come.
This also includes math education, which historically, has not had a great track record of being early adopters of innovations in education. However, it is rising to the challenge of adopting strong position statements from all its organizations against bias, prejudice, and racism.
It is clear that their mission statements are anti-racist.
Adopting this vision for math education will need to fold in these emergent themes in math education(the whole 12 page ebook from Amplify will be made publicly available at the end of June).
What all these themes have in common is accessing, infusing, and celebrating the stories of mathematics — its living and breathing history. So, moving forward, constructing anti-racist curriculum without the kaleidoscope of colors that is offered in this rear view mirror will lack any substantive punch.
Driving forward in the journey ahead, we should be checking all our mirrors.
I have lots of faith that the collective of passionate and talented math educators will create these needed spaces of equity, inclusiveness, and trust for a robust anti-racist curricula for the future.
While I am confident in that we will attend to the bold, macro ideas, I am far less confident that we will bring the same energy and alacrity to clearing off the dust and cobwebs of a wholly outdated K to 12 curriculum. I know that Jo Boaler’s work at youcubed is leading the work at infusing Data Science into the high school curriculum with color and depth — something which has been long overdue, but will be a pillar of knowledge for decades to come.
However, there are many other areas of the curriculum that need an almost forensic audit. For example, algebra has been pissed on to death by the media — and to be frank, rightfully so — as a gatekeeper for so many students to enter college programs. The problem is not with algebra, the problem is what education did with algebra. It’s history is absolutely compelling and its innovative roots come from the Muslim mathematicians who sought it as practical tool the engineers, trades and commercial people of that time.
It’s rise to prominence came because of everyday usefulness!
But, when you don’t access math history, you get the 21st century arguments that have riddled mathematics with this unnecessary albatross around its neck. And, when you partition it, you choke off its intuitive and historic connection to arithmetic.
The curriculum is starving for awe, wonder, and richer practicality. Where is the holy trinity of theories — number, graph, and game? Have kids play Prime Climb, Ticket to Ride, and Evolution of Trust, and you have them intersecting all three in meaningful ways.
Going backwards, a more powerful microscope will be needed — even though it should never have been necessary.
Children do 5–2 in grade 1. They do 2–5…six years later?????
Is this like not one of most insidious mistakes in our curriculum?
To introduce half the story so far removed? If we did any research, and luckily Jonathan Crabtree from Australia has done massive amounts of it, we would know that this is not how the story was supposed to be told.
My fear is that math education will spend very little time in some of the more micro ideas. It’s like they building a new, modern house, and keeping all the old furniture and carpeting. Is anyone even checking for mold…?
So, like I said two years ago, chuck it all out. Build literally from Zero.
We need to be more like Las Vegas, build new hotels, not refurbish old ones.
Are we on the path to a new reality in math education or obsolescence…?
