Critical Mathematics Pedagogy: Transforming Teachers’ Practices [Proceedings]

Unpublished manuscript, 2007

CITATION: Stinson, D. W., Bidwell, C. R., Powell, G. C., & Thurman, M. M. (2007). Becoming critical mathematics pedagogues: Three teachers’ beginning journey. Unpublished manuscript, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. Manuscript presented (summer 2008) at the annual International Conference of Teacher Education and Social Justice, Chicago, IL. Condensed manuscript published: Stinson, D. W., Bidwell, C. R., & Powell, G. C. (2012). Critical pedagogy and teaching mathematics for social justice. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 4(1), 76–94. ABSTRACT: In this study, the authors report the transformations in the pedagogical philosophies and practices of three mathematics teachers (middle, high school, and 2-year college) who completed a graduate-level mathematics education course that focused on critical theory and teaching for social justice. The study employed Freirian participatory research methodology; in fact, the participants were not only co-researchers but also co authors of the study. Data collection included reflec-tive essays, journals, and “storytelling”; data analysis was a combination of textual analysis and autoethnography. The findings report that the teachers believed that the course provided not only a new language but also a legitimization to transform their pedagogical philosophies and practices away from the “traditional” and toward a mathematics for social justice.

This study reports the effects of a graduate-level mathematics education course that focused on critical theory and teaching for social justice on the pedagogical philosophies and practices of three mathematics teachers (middle, high school, and 2-year college). The study employed Freirian participatory research methodology; in fact, the participants were not only co- researchers, but also co-authors of the study. Data

The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 2012

CITATION: Stinson, D. W., Bidwell, C. R., & Powell, G. C. (2012). Critical pedagogy and teaching mathematics for social justice. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 4(1), 76–94. ABSTRACT: In this article, the authors explore critical pedagogy within the context of mathematics classrooms. The exploration demonstrates the evolving pedagogical practices of mathematics teachers when teaching mathematics is explicitly connected to issues of social justice. To frame the exploration, the authors provide brief overviews of the theoretical tenets of critical pedagogy and of teaching mathematics for social justice. Through using narrative and textual data, the authors illustrate how a graduate-level, critical theory and teaching mathematics for social justice course assisted, in part, in providing not only a new language but also a legitimization in teachers becoming critical mathematics pedagogues.

International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2016

This study describes efforts at two institutions to integrate critical pedagogy within the context of two mathematics content and pedagogy courses for K-8 pre-service teachers (PSTs). The purpose of the curriculum within these courses was to focus PSTs’ attention on how issues pertaining to social justice may be taught within mathematics contexts. The desired goals were for PSTs to: 1) come to appreciate individuals within their own communities as valid practitioners of mathematics; and 2) come to understand the responsibility that they, their school districts, curriculum developers, and others bear to ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to learn mathematics.

2008

This session will report the findings of a study that explored the beginning transformations in the pedagogical philosophies and practices of three mathematics teachers (middle, high school, and 2-year college) who completed a graduate-level mathematics education course that focused on critical theory and teaching for social justice, and how these transformations are compatible (or not) with reform mathematics education as suggested by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and in turn, the ...

2013

In this essay, the authors share some of their journey as they seek to make sense of what it might mean to prepare secondary mathematics preservice teachers to teach mathematics for social justice. The focus on how to prepare mathematics teachers to critically consider the world around them and to further develop the dispositions to become agents of change has been discussed in the research literature. What it might "look like" to enact this type of programmatic-level teaching at a college or university, however, has rarely been examined. Through the sharing of their thoughts and reflections, the authors hope others might draw inspiration to reconsider the teaching of mathematics courses for social justice at the program level.

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Background Mathematics education is not often identified as the locus of radical social change work, with these topics assumed instead as fodder for social studies or language arts lessons. As such, teachers of mathematics can struggle to find avenues for their commitments to social and educational justice in their mathematics teaching spaces. Purpose This study examined the practice and experiences of 10 math educators participating in a voluntary teacher learning community focused on critical pedagogies and math. The purpose was to identify the core learnings and challenges made possible through this learning community. Setting and Participants The Critical Mathematics Teacher Collaborative (CMTC) consists primarily of preservice and early career K–12 teachers, all of whom teach math and seek to develop their own math teaching practices through frameworks of critical pedagogy and social justice. An informal, nonhierarchical learning community, CMTC uses a cycle of critical reflect...

1996

 This thesis is the result of a decision to extend the approach used by me when examining Irish burial practices, to a review of the archaeological and documentary record for burial practices and associated phenomena in the transitional period from late/post-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England. The study considers burial rites; the method of disposal of physical remains, the position and orientation of bodies, and burial structures and enclosures: grave-goods are only referred to when they are pertinent to a particular line of argument. My intention is to draw together the various aspects of burial of the Iron Age, Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon periods in order to look at the overall picture. Occasionally this may mean stating the obvious, but by noting and plotting distributions of various burial traits first in the Iron Age and Romano-British periods, and then comparing these traits with the Anglo-Saxon period some revealing results can be obtained. It was important to begin wi...

What is the best way to understand how an ancient Egyptian king looked in life? It certainly isn't by attempting to reconstruct his face from his skull. That's the worst way, as has been proved several times now by persons whose finished product in no way resembles the ancient portraits of the individual.