"Cultural racism - the cultural images and messages that affirm the assumed superiority of whites and the assumed inferiority of people of color - is like smog in the air. Sometimes it is so thick it is visible, other times it is less apparent, but always day in and day out, we are breathing it in... To say it is not our fault does not relieve us of responsibility, however. We may not have polluted the air, but we need to take responsibility, along with others, for cleaning it up. Each of us needs to look at our behavior. Am I perpetuating and reinforcing the negative messages so pervasive in our culture, or am I seeking to challenge them? If I have not been exposed to positive images of marginalized groups, am I seeking them out, expanding my own knowledge base for myself and my children? Am I acknowledging and examining my own prejudices, my own rigid categorizations of others, thereby minimizing the adverse impact they might have on my interactions with those I have categorized? Unless we engage in these and other conscious acts of reflection and reeducation, we easily repeat the process with our children."
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All the Black Students Sitting By Themselves?
Educating Ourselves
We gathered the resources on this page to help ANN members who want to explore the questions asked in the quote above from Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, especially in the context and intersection of racism and math education. Our hope is that by providing these resources and space within the organization to learn with each other, we can improve our teaching practice and better serve our students.
(Note: Any text in blue is a resource link)
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Beginning Steps in Addressing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Math Classes
In this piece, veteran teacher and founding member of ANN, Pam Meader shares what she's been learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion in math class. She reminds us of the strengths of the adult numeracy practices that we trust while challenging us to keep learning about the history of racism and our own biases.
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Mathematics in Context: The Pedagogy of Liberation
Social justice education isn’t limited to humanities courses. In this article Marian Dingle and Cathery Yeh explain how their commitment to equity informs the way they teach mathematics. (Learning for Justice, Spring 2021)
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Toolkit for “Mathematics in Context: The Pedagogy of Liberation”
This toolkit contains the Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards which have been adapted here imagine math classes that are humanizing for both students and teachers. The student and teacher standards are organized into 4 domains (Identity, Diversity, Action, and Justice). How might they help you work in a more just classroom?
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Rights of the Learner - Rehumanizing Classrooms with Olga G. Torres.
In this interview, Olga G Torres talks about how it’s important to convince students that they are capable of anything. That as teachers we need to support them in this belief. This requires constant vigilance - being in a state of discovery all the time and always looking for the human element, and interacting, watching, observing, and questioning and never losing sight of the humans around you (the students) and the specialness of each. Olga shares her personal teaching experiences and how these experiences influenced her perspective on what students need and how teaching should include the Rights of the Learner. She talks about what classrooms look like that are and are not focused on rehumanizing. Humanized classrooms are active, their curriculum is engaging, connected, and made relevant to the students.
White Supremacy Culture - Tema Okun wrote the original article on White Supremacy Culture in 1999. Today, his website continues and deepens that work, including a page exploring the characteristics of white supremacy culture.
A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction - This toolkit has resources and guidance for teachers to help all Black, Latinx, and Multilingual students thrive. It is divided into 5 sections called strides: (1) Dismantling Racism in Math Instruction, (2) Fostering Deep Understanding, (3) Creating Conditions to Thrive, (4) Connecting Critical Intersections between English language learning and the development of math thinking, and (5) Sustaining Equitable Practice.
Vocabulary
Racial Equity Tools Glossary: From Ally to Whiteness, this glossary defines words often used in discussions of racial equity. "Words and their multiple uses reflect the tremendous diversity that characterizes our society. Indeed, universally agreed upon language on issues relating to racism is nonexistent. We discovered that even the most frequently used words in any discussion on race can easily cause confusion, which leads to controversy and hostility. It is essential to achieve some degree of shared understanding, particularly when using the most common terms. In this way, the quality of dialogue and discourse on race can be enhanced."
Implicit Biases
Explicit bias and racism are harmful and dangerous and have no place in our society, let alone in our math classrooms. But what about implicit biases?
- Implicit Biases are unconscious. We are unaware that we have them and we can't reason them away through introspection.
- Implicit Biases can run counter to our consciously held beliefs and values. For example, a teacher who believes that all students are valuable and capable of learning may be surprised to learn that they call on certain students more often or respond differently to mistakes made by different types of students.
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Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction Exercises for math teachers to reflect on their own biases to transform their instructional practice. (from A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction)
How implicit bias in teachers impacts students
Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls' Childhoods
This report looks at discrepancies in punishments in school between white and black girls. The takeaway is that the way students are read and how their behavior is interpreted by teachers is largely subjective and that leaves them vulnerable to bias, and especially implicit bias from teachers who aren't even aware they are doing it. Even though we are usually not in a position to suspend students in adult education, teachers do wield power in the classroom and our reading of student intent and effort can go a long way towards disrupting or perpetuaing the patterns of the K-12 system.
What Makes a "good" student? What does it mean to say someone is a "good" student? This video breaks down the stereotype of the perfect student and examines the systems and barriers that stop young girls and students of color from reaching their fullest potential.
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Math education researcher Deborah Lowenberg Ball has done extensive work around what she calls, "discretionary spaces," which refer to all the judgements teachers have to make moment to moment. Through her research she hopes to help teachers look for implicit biases, subtle racism and sexism and change their practice. In this video, she explores 1 minute and 28 seconds of her class and counts 20 micro moments where she had to decide how to react, each with dramatic implications for the math identities of her students. Highly recommended watching.
To read more, visit 20 Judgements a Teacher Makes in 1 Minute and 28 Seconds.
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Low Expectations
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Teacher implicit biases can also hurt students when they lower expectations. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when students are presumed to be unable to handle certain types of mathematics and so receive instruction focused on rote memorization, drills, and procedural understanding, which ensures that those students never experience another type of math. And which loops back and reinforces the initial implicit bias that students are only capable of memorizing procedures.
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Does Race Matter by Dr. Danny Martin (NCTM Teaching Children Mathematics, October 2009)
"We must be aware that our beliefs in racial achievement gaps can motivate us to appropriate or develop negative beliefs about African American children and prevent us from seeing them as the intellectually capable, competent doers of mathematics that they are."
Microaggressions
Microaggressions are offshoots of bias. Dr. Derald Wing Sue defines them as everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.
The video to the right, Microaggressions in the Classroom (18 minutes) is centered around students sharing different microaggressions they have experienced in school. The video also offers strategies from teachers on what to do when someone else commits a microaggression in your class.
Additional Resources and Information on Microaggressions in the Classroom
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This 2 minute video uses the metaphor of mosquito bites to describe the impact of the constant barrage of microaggressions.
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Additional Readings
Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life (2007) by Derald Wing Sue, Christina M. Capodilupo, Gina C. Torino, Jennifer M. Bucceri, Aisha M. B. Holder, Kevin L. Nadal, and Marta Esquilin
Asian are good at math? Why dressing up racism as a compliment doesn't add up (The Conversation, Jan 2020)
What Teachers Should Know About Implicit Bias Right Now by Angela Duckworth (Education Week, June 2020)
In Math, Teachers Unconscious Biases May Be More Subtle Than you Think by Sarah Sparks (Education Week, December 2019) "I don't think any teacher is intentionally having different expectations based on gender or race...That's why we need to increase awareness of implicit bias, so teachers are more aware of the implicit messages they are giving to their students." The Uses of Anger by Audre Lorde
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Exploring the History of Racial Oppression, Resistance, and Power Knowing history helps us recognize patterns in the world and in our own behaviors. It also helps teachers and students learn to appreciate traditions of resistance and power in marginalized communities. One idea that is present in most of the resources in this section is the idea that there is nothing natural about systemic racism and oppression - it is the result of specific choices, decisions and law.
Seeing White This podcast explores the current state of the US through a history of racism focused on the history, and explicit creation, of "whiteness."
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones is a major contribution in understanding the legacy of slavery with "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of our national narrative." There is also a 1619 Project Podcast (available online and through Spotify)
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Beginning with his powerful TEDTalk titled "We Need to Talk About An Injustice," this playlist of videos features human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson and the work of the Equal Justice Initiative. The theme throughout is the importance of facing some hard truths about the United States and the danger of our unexamined history.
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Ibram X. Kendi Interview with Brene Brown: This interview is a good introduction to the anti-racism work of Dr. Kendi, the author of How to Be an Anti-Racist and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist ideas in America (and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You, which is a YA version and suitable for ABE students). Also The American Nightmare by Ibram Kendi (The Atlantic, June 2020)
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On Being with Krista Tippet - In this episode, Krista hosts a Conversation between Resmaa Menakem and Robin DiAngelo. Resmaa Menakem is a Minneapolis trauma specialist, therapist, and author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. Robin DiAngelo is the author of White Fragility.
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Tulsa Burning: This 60 Minutes segment from 1999 looks into the history and the cover up of one of the largest race massacres in US history. In 1921, mobs of white residents murdered over 300 Black people, looted and burned almost every Black home and business to the ground, leaving over 10,000 Black people homeless. The attacks included bombs dropped from planes (in the first aerial attack on US citizens) and the violence continued with mass unmarked graves, denied insurance claims and philanthropic aid, and city ordinances prohibiting rebuilding on property that had been burned. There has been a lot of discussion not only about the history of the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, but of why the event is not taught as part of US history.
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Looking at Systemic Racism
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In 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article “The Case for Reparations” went viral. Tracing everything from the racial terror of slavery to the rampant housing discrimination of the 20th century, Coates made the case for financial reparations for the descendants of those enslaved in the US. However, this argument extends back further than 2014 and also has significance beyond the Black American community.
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Ongoing US Settler Colonialism Native Peoples Teach-Out: This free Coursera asynchronous course is for anyone who is curious about the United States as a settler colonial nation that exists on the homelands of current Indigenous Peoples/Native Nations. This course is designed with Native and non-Native folks in mind.
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Anti-Racist Teaching Resources
The Algebra Project: Bob Moses on Math Literacy as a Civil Right: Part 1 (51 min) and Part 2 (28 min). A two-episode interview with Bob Moses on the Ethical Schools podcast
What Anti-Racist Teachers Do Differently by Pirette Mckamey (The Atlantic, June 2020): "The only measure of our anti-racist teaching will be the academic success of all of our students, including our black students."
Seattle Public Schools K-12 Math Ethnic Studies Framework with Learning Targets and Essential Questions organized around 4 themes: (1) Origins, Identity, & Agency, (2) Power & Oppression , (3) History of Resistance & Liberation, and (4) Reflection & Action
Crime & Punishment: A Tale of Changing Beliefs by Jenna Laib - Recommended by Amy Vickers (WI) "Jenna tells a compelling story that really illustrates the value of adult numeracy in understanding the world around us, especially using numeracy to question what we already know or think we know."
Teaching for Excellence & Equity in Mathematics, Summer 2022, Vol. 13, Issue 1: Special Issue on Antiracism in Mathematics Education, Part 1 (Please note, access to this document requires a membership to TODOS Mathematics for Al)
Abolitionist Teaching Network - Abolitionist Teaching Network's mission is simple: develop and support educators to fight injustice within their schools and communities. Below are some recent panel discussions with some of the leaders of that organization.
- Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of Our Schools A conversation between Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, and Dena Simmons, moderated by Brian Jones and co-sponsored by Haymarket Books & the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (1 hour, 30 minutes)
- Repurposing Our Pedagogies: Abolitionist Teaching in a Global Pandemic: A panel discussion with Dr. Bettina Love, Carla Shalaby, Stephanie Cariaga, Sagnicthe Salazar, and Marylin Zuniga. (1 hour, 36 minutes)
- Deepening Your Understanding of Race and Racism|Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching - webinar discussion organized by PBS LearningMedia with Dr. Bettina Love, Julia Torres, Loira Limbal, & Roshanna Beard. (1 hour, 4 minutes)
- Abolition Science A podcast series focused on anything related to science and math that connects to colonialism, exploitation, resistance, justice, and liberation.
Organizations & Communities
For ANN members wishing to connect with other organizations & communities that are exploring the intersection of anti-racism and math teaching and learning, here are some resources to support your work:
Nepantla Teachers Community: "Our mission is to create a space for mathematics educators to develop critical perspectives by forming a community that can support and push each other toward equitable and just practices. We support this work by developing and exploring teachers’ own identities in the context of their race, gender, and class. Our goal is to develop teacher leaders who will advocate for students who are traditionally marginalized." North American Study Group on Ethnomathematics (NASGEm): The term "ethnomathematics" was coined by Ubiratan D'Ambrosio to describe the mathematical practices of identifiable cultural groups. It is sometimes used specifically for small-scale indigenous societies, but in its broadest sense the "ethno" prefix can refer to any group -- national societies, labor communities, religious traditions, professional classes, and so on. Mathematical practices include symbolic systems, spatial designs, practical construction techniques, calculation methods, measurement in time and space, specific ways of reasoning and inferring, and other cognitive and material activities which can be translated to formal mathematical representation. NASGEm strives to increase our understanding of the cultural diversity of mathematical practices, and to apply this knowledge to education and development.
A Virtual Conference on Humanizing Mathematics: Between August 1 and August 29th, 2019, Hema Kodai & Sam Shah, organized an online conference through daily keynote blogposts written by math teachers from across the country. At their core, each post explored one of these two broad questions - How do you highlight that the doing of mathematics is a human endeavor? How do you express your identity as a doer of mathematics to, and share your “why” for doing mathematics with, kids?
#ClearTheAir is an open group of educators on Twitter who believe (1) community, learning and dialogue are essential to personal and professional development, (2) we have the power and responsibility to lay the foundations necessary to create a more just and equitable society, and (3) education is a vehicle for social change. The group is facilitated by the gifted Valerie Brown, reading texts together to (1) engage in public discourse because it allows us to live our values out loud, (2) invite others into the conversation and hold them lovingly accountable, and (3) understand that we are on a lifelong journey and are committed to taking any steps that move us forward.
EduColor - EduColor mobilizes advocates nationwide around issues of educational equity, agency, and justice. They use social media as their primary platform for community and coalition, mobilizing the digital community towards concrete action on equity, justice, and anti-racism. They host a town hall-style conversation with our participants all over the world on every last Thursday of the month. They use the hashtag #EduColor for educators to ask and answer questions, and to provide resources.
The Young People's Project and the Math Literacy Worker Program
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Is there a resource about the history of racism that you think should be added? Is there a resource on anti-racist teaching you'd like to share.
Please let us know - Resource Suggestions.
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