Abstract:
The purpose of this project was to examine how Social Justice Math (SJM) can help students in urban school districts make real-world connections between the mandated curriculum and issues, topics of need, and concern in their own communities. The goal of Social Justice Math is to help students not only become more aware of the needs of their community through units of study such as this, but to become agents of change themselves. We selected Newark as our target community, and began our project with a walking tour of the city and neighborhoods encompassing several of its public high schools. Our tour, recorded in the form of field notes, revealed that the type of stores, businesses and services readily available to Newark citizens was severely limited in the poorer neighborhoods. This particular disparity between neighborhoods gave rise to a lesson plan and unit analyzing community businesses and services in poorer neighborhoods of Newark, and drawing comparisons to more affluent communities. Using SJM can enable students to “read their world” and develop creative solutions to real problems.
Reflection
As I've written in other blogs, I feel as though my group and I have unearthed something really special in social justice math. In previous blogs, I've candidly admitted to being cautious of SJM. Enough of that. I want to write about the present and the future. SJM has really allowed me to see where I can take a mathematics class, which I never believed possible. Beforehand, mathematics was as I had learned it. As a student, I reveled in mathematics. It was to me, a puzzle that never ceased to interest. For all my reveling, however, I liked other subjects equally well. History and English, for example, were two favorites of mine. I greatly enjoyed analyzing a piece of poetry or prose, or reading of the plight of American's during the Civil War. I still do today: Why this Christmas, I finally read Vidal's Lincoln, an excellent read, for sure. But I digress.
Where I'm going is this: In History and English class, there was always the possibility of relating the class to the real world. I remember reading articles about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski in 8th grade American History class, for example. In Junior Year Spanish, I read Spanish articles about the aspirations of select tennis students. All throughout undergrad, I read food articles for Travel-Writing class. In each of these cases, my teachers brought the real world to the classroom, and extended the curriculum by allowing us to interact with it.
Mathematics class, however, was never about the present or present situations. It was always about hypothetical situations and ridiculous notions. It was about two trains meeting in the night, or Chinese Postmen doing their rounds, or walking across bridges in eighteen-century Prussia. I loved that stuff. Most every did not.
I see SJM as a way to bring the joy I experienced in the non-mathematics classroom to the mathematics classroom. I see it as a way to make mathematics into a real, tangible, and practical tool that students see the necessity in. With it, math becomes something that exists outside of math class; it becomes a language spoken by people who are not math teachers. But at the same time, math is furthering these students' understanding of their world, the parts they play in it and the very real part they play in it. To me, this dual nature is powerful, as it says the following: First, mathematics is important; second, you are important. I think this sort of dual-empowerment is really necessary in the classroom, and is the sort of encouragement needed of students.
In closing, I'm very happy that I did this project (with the help of others) on social justice math. It's totally changed the way I look at the classroom, and opened doors like I'd never expected. It's also challenged me to discover future methods of tying mathematics to social situations, and allowing students to explore the mathematical underpinnings and truths of those situations. I find this combination of possibility and challenge very satisfying. It's enough to wonder, though, what else this teaching gig has in store for me.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Reflections of a Semester
When I think back to the beginning of the semester, I find that I've learned a lot about possibilities. In a mathematics class which I had with Brian Miller--the adjunct professor whom my group interviewed--I learned that there are often two types of applications of math. There's what's most common: Teachers inventing situations based their perceptions of reality. This version inherently leads to contrived situations that both artificial and hardly engaging. Specifically catered to the perceived interests of students, these applications deter students more than interest them.
Then there's the other form. It's not so common, but which is gain interest amongst educators. It turns the previous form on its head. Instead of inventing situations based on perceptions of reality, it takes actual situations and requires students to use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to understand and provide solutions to them. Social Justice Math is but one exploration of this application-based approach, but an effective version, nonetheless. With Social Justice Math (SJM) students learn of power-relations in society, either by examining the microcosm inherent in their own day-t0-day life, or the macrocosm of our world and the injustices we tacitally accept. Rather than using newspaper articles or text books, however, students in sjm situations use something more powerful in understand the world and inequities: Math.
When I first came to MSU, I believed only in the first of these two applications. I had no notion of how I would even do the second. After this semester and my explorations both of the application approach to mathematics and social justice math, in both CURR 523 and Math 579, however, I view has changed. I see now that teaching Mathematics is full of potentially interesting, captivating topics that I can use to excite or intrigue my students. I can also make math into more than procedures, but of concepts, which ideally, is what mathematics is truly all about. But there's more. With this new tool, I see that I can show my students that mathematics is more than just right or wrong answers. It's about history, our past and where we've been . It's about the present, who we are and how we are. It's about future, where we're going and how we'll get there. It's about us. There are no right or wrong answers, here, only opinions.
Based on what I've learned this term, I've stopped seeing the teaching of mathematics as merely what it is. I've started to see it as it could, or someday, might be.
Then there's the other form. It's not so common, but which is gain interest amongst educators. It turns the previous form on its head. Instead of inventing situations based on perceptions of reality, it takes actual situations and requires students to use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to understand and provide solutions to them. Social Justice Math is but one exploration of this application-based approach, but an effective version, nonetheless. With Social Justice Math (SJM) students learn of power-relations in society, either by examining the microcosm inherent in their own day-t0-day life, or the macrocosm of our world and the injustices we tacitally accept. Rather than using newspaper articles or text books, however, students in sjm situations use something more powerful in understand the world and inequities: Math.
When I first came to MSU, I believed only in the first of these two applications. I had no notion of how I would even do the second. After this semester and my explorations both of the application approach to mathematics and social justice math, in both CURR 523 and Math 579, however, I view has changed. I see now that teaching Mathematics is full of potentially interesting, captivating topics that I can use to excite or intrigue my students. I can also make math into more than procedures, but of concepts, which ideally, is what mathematics is truly all about. But there's more. With this new tool, I see that I can show my students that mathematics is more than just right or wrong answers. It's about history, our past and where we've been . It's about the present, who we are and how we are. It's about future, where we're going and how we'll get there. It's about us. There are no right or wrong answers, here, only opinions.
Based on what I've learned this term, I've stopped seeing the teaching of mathematics as merely what it is. I've started to see it as it could, or someday, might be.
Online Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to look at documents presented by the LSNJ, such as The Real Cost of Living in NJ and A Desperate and Widening Divide and to put these studies into context by seeing how the six families studied in Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods would fare in Essex County. The perception is that as educators our students will tend to be represented by one of the nine archetypes represented by Lareau’s study. As teachers in NJ—possibly Essex County, a county with which we as students are familiar—it is further important to be aware of our students’ financial and socioeconomic situations. Therefore, this analysis and comparison of data allows us as teachers to get even closer to the reality of our students and their lives.
Comparing The Real Cost of Living in NJ with the families in Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods paints a grim picture indeed. Of the families studied, only the most affluent families—those of the Tallingers and Williamses—should make it easily in Essex County. Of the remaining families, only Marshalls just get by; even then, it really is just getting by. In Essex county a four-person family with 2 adults and 2 school-aged children costs about $50,000 per year per parent. Therefore, in such straits, the minimum for this lifestyle in Essex Country is $100,000 per year. Ergo, the Marshalls, who made $100,000 in the study, seem to fit perfectly. However, there is a caveat: Based on the report, we learned that Mrs. Marshall felt uneasy about their living situation; working as a computer programmer, she felt as though employment was tenuous at best. Given Mr. Marshall’s employment as a civil servant, were Mrs. Marshall loses her job, there can be little doubt that a major life-style change would be necessary.
Then there are the families who wouldn’t make it in Essex County—The Taylors, the Brindles, the McAllisters, the Drivers, the Yanellis, and even surprisingly the Handlons. The tragedy here is two-fold. In terms of low-income families like the Taylors, Brindles, McAllisters, Drivers, and Yanellis, it begs the question, how do low-income families get by in Essex County. Not every town is Newark, and not every town is Livingston: Essex County is a varied county, with a gamut of salaries, ethnicities, and classes. From Lareau’s study, these five families represented the students I will encounter from low-income families. But if they can’t make it in Essex County, let alone in Lower Richmond, how will this affect their lives, school attendance, and performance?
As I mentioned earlier, the issue of families not making it in Essex County is two-fold. In the case of low-income families, the impact is apparent. However, the impact is less apparent for those families from middle-income households. In this case, I am referring directly to the Handlons who miss the 100K per year mark for 4-person families by 5K to15K. $85K to $95K per year is no small amount of money, and given that yearly income, most Americans would pigeonhole them as middle-class. Regardless, it just goes to show how expensive Essex County is, and further begs the question: If a 4-person family (as most American families are) requires $100K just to be self-sufficient (neglecting miscellany like activities), what happens to the rest? It is a daunting prospect, indeed.3
Matters for low-income families become worse when you take LSNJ’s A Desperate and Widening Divide into account. These families—many of whom are on public assistance and live in the projects—would have to move to Newark, if they chose to move to Essex county. Those families which would most likely fall into this category include: the Brindles, the McAllisters, and possibly the Yanellis.
(The Yanellis, however are hard to quantify because we don’t know how much Mr. Yanelli takes home, or the hours that Mrs. Yanelli works. As at one time they both worked off the books, however, I suspect underhandedness on the parts of their employers; ergo, I have placed them into the low-income category, as opposed to the working-class category.)
Living in Newark, however, would be no boon for these families, for in the ten year previous, the median household income for residents fell by about $1200! This is a staggering amount of money for any group, but would be devastating for those families that don’t have much to start. At the same time, the Brindles and McAllisters are textbook examples of those families most struck by poverty: They are households run by single female mothers. Couple this notion with that statistic that Essex county’s poverty rate has grown by 8.9% over the course of 10 years, and it is not difficult to imagine the great hurdles over which families would need to leap to escape poverty.
Group in the working class families—the Taylors and Drivers—and the picture grows worse. The Taylors at $20,000 would find themselves far below the median household income for families in Essex County. According the PRI, they are also in effective poverty, seeing as Ms. Taylor makes under $27,000 per year. Given that the monthly cost of food for an adult and three children is about $639, or $7668 per year, a good 38% of her paycheck, Ms. Taylor may have to forego such luxuries as monthly trips to Sizzler and yearly trips to the beach. At the same time, the Drivers make at $45,000 per year. Accordingly, the Drivers are not in effective poverty, and are just at the Median Household income for Essex County Residents. However, they do represent a 4-person household, and as such require $55,000 more in order to be self-sufficient. This comparison begs the question: How would other Essex County residents in the Drivers’ situation get by? As I have mentioned before, 4-person families are common, so it stands to reason that the median household income for a country would be sufficient. Results such as these are greatly disappointing.
4.
As a budding math teacher, I find all this information invaluable. As a potential urban educator, it gives me a good picture of my students before entering the classroom. It also illustrates how vastly expensive it is to live in New Jersey, and asks questions about those families that don’t make 100K per year. It also highlights the great disparity in income increase. Why should the most poverty-stricken community only see a $144-increase in median household salary over a period of 10 years, while the most affluent communities see a $5,000 to $8,000 increase? It is greatly unfair, and students need to not only know about it, but should learn about it, and use that knowledge to excel.
This, as in Jin’s blog, leads me to how this is useful to me as a budding math teacher. It all comes down to mathematics, and in the case of our Curriculum Inquiry Project—Social Justice Math. Using social justice math, I can devise lessons that will enlighten students—and not just those from poorer communities—as to the economic difficulties and out-right poverty that exists in New Jersey. But at the same time, being aware of these difficulties also enables me to construct lessons that are strongly mathematics-based and which when coupled with social justice issues will enable me to develop critical thinkers, both in terms of mathematics (and later their careers), and in terms of society. And maybe out that some sort of change is possible.
Comparing The Real Cost of Living in NJ with the families in Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods paints a grim picture indeed. Of the families studied, only the most affluent families—those of the Tallingers and Williamses—should make it easily in Essex County. Of the remaining families, only Marshalls just get by; even then, it really is just getting by. In Essex county a four-person family with 2 adults and 2 school-aged children costs about $50,000 per year per parent. Therefore, in such straits, the minimum for this lifestyle in Essex Country is $100,000 per year. Ergo, the Marshalls, who made $100,000 in the study, seem to fit perfectly. However, there is a caveat: Based on the report, we learned that Mrs. Marshall felt uneasy about their living situation; working as a computer programmer, she felt as though employment was tenuous at best. Given Mr. Marshall’s employment as a civil servant, were Mrs. Marshall loses her job, there can be little doubt that a major life-style change would be necessary.
Then there are the families who wouldn’t make it in Essex County—The Taylors, the Brindles, the McAllisters, the Drivers, the Yanellis, and even surprisingly the Handlons. The tragedy here is two-fold. In terms of low-income families like the Taylors, Brindles, McAllisters, Drivers, and Yanellis, it begs the question, how do low-income families get by in Essex County. Not every town is Newark, and not every town is Livingston: Essex County is a varied county, with a gamut of salaries, ethnicities, and classes. From Lareau’s study, these five families represented the students I will encounter from low-income families. But if they can’t make it in Essex County, let alone in Lower Richmond, how will this affect their lives, school attendance, and performance?
As I mentioned earlier, the issue of families not making it in Essex County is two-fold. In the case of low-income families, the impact is apparent. However, the impact is less apparent for those families from middle-income households. In this case, I am referring directly to the Handlons who miss the 100K per year mark for 4-person families by 5K to15K. $85K to $95K per year is no small amount of money, and given that yearly income, most Americans would pigeonhole them as middle-class. Regardless, it just goes to show how expensive Essex County is, and further begs the question: If a 4-person family (as most American families are) requires $100K just to be self-sufficient (neglecting miscellany like activities), what happens to the rest? It is a daunting prospect, indeed.3
Matters for low-income families become worse when you take LSNJ’s A Desperate and Widening Divide into account. These families—many of whom are on public assistance and live in the projects—would have to move to Newark, if they chose to move to Essex county. Those families which would most likely fall into this category include: the Brindles, the McAllisters, and possibly the Yanellis.
(The Yanellis, however are hard to quantify because we don’t know how much Mr. Yanelli takes home, or the hours that Mrs. Yanelli works. As at one time they both worked off the books, however, I suspect underhandedness on the parts of their employers; ergo, I have placed them into the low-income category, as opposed to the working-class category.)
Living in Newark, however, would be no boon for these families, for in the ten year previous, the median household income for residents fell by about $1200! This is a staggering amount of money for any group, but would be devastating for those families that don’t have much to start. At the same time, the Brindles and McAllisters are textbook examples of those families most struck by poverty: They are households run by single female mothers. Couple this notion with that statistic that Essex county’s poverty rate has grown by 8.9% over the course of 10 years, and it is not difficult to imagine the great hurdles over which families would need to leap to escape poverty.
Group in the working class families—the Taylors and Drivers—and the picture grows worse. The Taylors at $20,000 would find themselves far below the median household income for families in Essex County. According the PRI, they are also in effective poverty, seeing as Ms. Taylor makes under $27,000 per year. Given that the monthly cost of food for an adult and three children is about $639, or $7668 per year, a good 38% of her paycheck, Ms. Taylor may have to forego such luxuries as monthly trips to Sizzler and yearly trips to the beach. At the same time, the Drivers make at $45,000 per year. Accordingly, the Drivers are not in effective poverty, and are just at the Median Household income for Essex County Residents. However, they do represent a 4-person household, and as such require $55,000 more in order to be self-sufficient. This comparison begs the question: How would other Essex County residents in the Drivers’ situation get by? As I have mentioned before, 4-person families are common, so it stands to reason that the median household income for a country would be sufficient. Results such as these are greatly disappointing.
4.
As a budding math teacher, I find all this information invaluable. As a potential urban educator, it gives me a good picture of my students before entering the classroom. It also illustrates how vastly expensive it is to live in New Jersey, and asks questions about those families that don’t make 100K per year. It also highlights the great disparity in income increase. Why should the most poverty-stricken community only see a $144-increase in median household salary over a period of 10 years, while the most affluent communities see a $5,000 to $8,000 increase? It is greatly unfair, and students need to not only know about it, but should learn about it, and use that knowledge to excel.
This, as in Jin’s blog, leads me to how this is useful to me as a budding math teacher. It all comes down to mathematics, and in the case of our Curriculum Inquiry Project—Social Justice Math. Using social justice math, I can devise lessons that will enlighten students—and not just those from poorer communities—as to the economic difficulties and out-right poverty that exists in New Jersey. But at the same time, being aware of these difficulties also enables me to construct lessons that are strongly mathematics-based and which when coupled with social justice issues will enable me to develop critical thinkers, both in terms of mathematics (and later their careers), and in terms of society. And maybe out that some sort of change is possible.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Blog 11
Yes, this one is late. In fact, given the end of the year, they’re all late, but I think that is to be expected. I like to supply good, well-thought blogs when I write them, not a few paragraphs strung together to fulfill an assignment. But enough of me: Onto the blog.
One of the blogs for week 12 was to reflect on what we had learned regarding the inquiry project, and how it has shaped my understanding of public education. Admittedly, I tend to cringe when I read essays that proclaim how much their life is forever changed due to such and such project, and how in succeeding years, he/she will implement these ideas in increasingly dynamic ways. Blah blah blah. The irony, here, is that I genuinely feel this way regarding our project—that of social justice math— and its direct relation to my future career as a teacher of math.
Before I knew anything about social justice math, I wasn’t really sure of its place in the mathematics classroom, a common notion. As I began to dig deeper, I started wondering if I had been exposed to bits and pieces of it while in school and as and editor. Certainly, I had seen items that exposed students to environmental issues, such as tracking the fossil-fuel build-up in the atmosphere. In its own way, this is social justice math, but in terms of inner-city students—in fact all students— it’s also a hair removed. Learning about global warming can empower students to be more eco-friendly, but it is also a hair removed from students’ lives.
After our “walkabout” in Newark, however, I really began to see how social justice math can really be a tool to incorporate into lessons in teaching and a method by which to empower students to learn math and better understand the world around them. Although any cursory trip into the inner city tends to reveal the same types of businesses, I was never aware of the quantity of each type and their proximity to each other. I was also completely unaware of the total paucity of business I would have expected present, but which sadly were not. Based on our trip, I have come to realize that it really is possible to “read the world with mathematics,” as Eric Gutstein suggests, and that this contextual application of mathematics need not be limited to statistics classes, as I had previously feared.
While it is true that out of our walkabout, we came up with a possible set of lessons that teachers could implement, I feel that our project has had a more direct impact for me, as it has opened my mind to bringing more controversial and traditionally social studies type ideas into mathematics class. I find this idea riveting, for a host of reasons. One of these is that while I do enjoy mathematics (and during my free time can be found reading math journals and textbooks) my interests continue outside of math; they include music, history, and the humanities.
Why is this exciting? Well, for one thing it allows mathematics to be more interesting, not only for me, but also for my students. When I think of traditional applications of mathematics, the most common ideas are: 1) Story problems that have no bearing in reality, 2) the mathematics of science, and sometimes 3) the mathematics of music. However, with the inclusion of an idea like social justice math, the applications are more.
For example, for another class I put together a lesson that explored the relationship between race and salary amongst major league baseball players. For me, this lesson was not only interesting to develop, it used mathematics to explore a concept that has long been an element of the history of baseball, while also furthering students’ understanding of difficult statistical concepts like null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis, hypothesis testing, z-scores, and regression equations.
Given these two, very different lesson ideas, I can only imagine the world interesting and socially rewarding mathematics lessons allowed by social justice math, not only for myself, but also for my students.
One of the blogs for week 12 was to reflect on what we had learned regarding the inquiry project, and how it has shaped my understanding of public education. Admittedly, I tend to cringe when I read essays that proclaim how much their life is forever changed due to such and such project, and how in succeeding years, he/she will implement these ideas in increasingly dynamic ways. Blah blah blah. The irony, here, is that I genuinely feel this way regarding our project—that of social justice math— and its direct relation to my future career as a teacher of math.
Before I knew anything about social justice math, I wasn’t really sure of its place in the mathematics classroom, a common notion. As I began to dig deeper, I started wondering if I had been exposed to bits and pieces of it while in school and as and editor. Certainly, I had seen items that exposed students to environmental issues, such as tracking the fossil-fuel build-up in the atmosphere. In its own way, this is social justice math, but in terms of inner-city students—in fact all students— it’s also a hair removed. Learning about global warming can empower students to be more eco-friendly, but it is also a hair removed from students’ lives.
After our “walkabout” in Newark, however, I really began to see how social justice math can really be a tool to incorporate into lessons in teaching and a method by which to empower students to learn math and better understand the world around them. Although any cursory trip into the inner city tends to reveal the same types of businesses, I was never aware of the quantity of each type and their proximity to each other. I was also completely unaware of the total paucity of business I would have expected present, but which sadly were not. Based on our trip, I have come to realize that it really is possible to “read the world with mathematics,” as Eric Gutstein suggests, and that this contextual application of mathematics need not be limited to statistics classes, as I had previously feared.
While it is true that out of our walkabout, we came up with a possible set of lessons that teachers could implement, I feel that our project has had a more direct impact for me, as it has opened my mind to bringing more controversial and traditionally social studies type ideas into mathematics class. I find this idea riveting, for a host of reasons. One of these is that while I do enjoy mathematics (and during my free time can be found reading math journals and textbooks) my interests continue outside of math; they include music, history, and the humanities.
Why is this exciting? Well, for one thing it allows mathematics to be more interesting, not only for me, but also for my students. When I think of traditional applications of mathematics, the most common ideas are: 1) Story problems that have no bearing in reality, 2) the mathematics of science, and sometimes 3) the mathematics of music. However, with the inclusion of an idea like social justice math, the applications are more.
For example, for another class I put together a lesson that explored the relationship between race and salary amongst major league baseball players. For me, this lesson was not only interesting to develop, it used mathematics to explore a concept that has long been an element of the history of baseball, while also furthering students’ understanding of difficult statistical concepts like null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis, hypothesis testing, z-scores, and regression equations.
Given these two, very different lesson ideas, I can only imagine the world interesting and socially rewarding mathematics lessons allowed by social justice math, not only for myself, but also for my students.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
A Lesson
If you’ve been checking up on me, you’ve probably noticed that I’m a bit behind on my blogs. I blame the weather. All this rain and grey skies—it’s totally ruining my creative energy. Remind me never to move to Seattle.
Enough of that: This is supposed to be an introduction to my project. Rose Ellen wrote a very nice intro to our group project; allow me elaborate on what this project has become for me.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it all started with an Ed. D student named Eliza. In mere passing she’d mentioned Social Justice Math to me. Initially, I was not intrigued. I thought it sounded like socio-Marxist mathematics. Unsurprisingly, that’s what a lot of people think it is.
As I dug in deeper, I came to appreciate it as something more—as a way to see the world as it truly is using real-world statistics and mathematics. Teaching mathematics in this way is very contextual: It makes math real.
For our project, we chose to drive around Newark and see what popped out at us. Jin drove. Rose-Ellen took pictures, and I looked out the window. As we drove around the lower-income areas we kept seeing the same few things: liquor store, Western Union, Church, Fast-food joint, grocery/tienda, and used car place. Every few blocks: Rinse and repeat.
At first it started out as a joke, an open query: Just how many check places were there in Newark? Or in the central ward? Were there more in different wards? And what could that mean? By the end of the trip, however, I knew that we had a potential lesson.
The lesson or ongoing project would start with an assignment:
“In a group, travel 1 square mile around your neighborhood and make a chart of each kind of business. Be sure to keep a tally of each kind. Be sure also to record the addresses for each kind of business.”
For Newark, teachers could assign different square miles if students were older, didn’t live in Newark, and/or had access to a car. Further, I see this lesson as being appropriate for grades 8 and up. The idea here would be to encourage students to cull data. To elicit further interest, teachers would explain to teachers that this was a part of a new investigation called: “What Makes a Neighborhood.” When pressed what such an investigation would cover, teachers could say that it would allow them to learn about the places in which they live.
In the next class, students would bring the data they culled together. Here they would determine the average number of each business per square mile per ward. Taking this idea a step further, teachers would ask students: “Now that you have this statistic, how many of each business is in each ward? And further, what is the ratio of people per ward to each business type?” Challenged in this way, the teacher would facilitate a discussion with the students on different ways to approximate areas, and in particular, unusual areas like Newark’s wards. A variety of methods would be introduced: among these would be Pick’s Theorem. For homework, students would determine an area of each of the wards using different approximation techniques. After class (or during if they have access to computers) students would also post the results of their discussions onto a class webpage. They should also be developing a class map using Google maps. On this map, they can post the location of each kind of institution/service/business.
In class 3, the teacher would facilitate a discussion with students on the different areas determined for each ward. The teacher would then pose another question: Given the number of square miles in each ward, what are good approximations of each number of businesses? Students discuss in groups and then discuss in a teacher-facilitated discussion. Here the idea of ratio, rate, and proportion is discussed as students instruct others on how to determine the approximate number of services/businesses available in each of the wards. For homework, each student would look at the number of businesses and types of each per ward and discuss in a journal the equity of said distribution. Students would also note the distribution of certain institutions in the different wards—e.g., banks, gyms, hospitals, supermarkets—and discuss this equity, as well. In particular, students would assess if people in the different wards require better access (e.g., more, but less costly transportation, or a better distribution of services per ward), to institutions and services that are unavailable in the different wards.
During the fourth lesson period, the teacher might ask her students to discuss what they wrote about in their journals, directing the class in particular to the notion of distance, time, and money required to arrive at certain institutions: e.g., banks, gyms, hospitals, or supermarkets. As a final activity, student will use the map they have been developing to determine the most effective route from their home to each service/institution. Using www.njtransit.com, they will also determine if they can take a bus there, how much walking is required of them, and how much money the trip will require. After this activity is completed, the class will come together, and report their results. From these, averages will be determined. These will go on their webpage. Students can also write about their discoveries in their math journals. They should discuss how they feel about the costs, and speculate how this affects the constituents in their community.
If time is provided, the project could be extended to the suburbs, and this time to encompass 5-square-mile blocks of similarly affluent neighborhoods. Here, as before, students would record the different number of businesses/services/institutions represented in that block. If students do not possess cars, this part of the project could be altered in the following ways:
1) It could be developed into a field trip, wherein different groups of students would go with an assigned parent or teacher to a different part of a very affluent suburb and canvas the neighborhood in a way similar to the listing above; or
2) This project of three to four lessons could be developed at the same time by another or several mathematics classes in affluent suburbs in the state.
At the beginning of the project, students would be told that they would be working on a social project with students at these other schools and that each class would be developing their own web pages to illustrate that learning. Similar in scope to the 3-day activities posted above, classes in the affluent suburbs would be responsible for accumulating data about affluent areas. Ideally, these classes should look at 5 square-miles. If this is unrealistic, however, the teacher can partition a suburb into square-mile blocks and assign each to each pair. Those students can then do the same activities as their urban counterparts: cull data on neighborhood businesses, determine the type and number of each kind per 5-square miles and use this approximation as a way to estimate the number of and type of each business for each suburb. As determined, this information would go up on each class web page. Students from all classes would be required to look at each for each stage of the project.
With the data available on each class webpage, each teacher should require their students to compare life in the suburbs to life in the urban areas (using their data as a metric). Out of this activity, students should analyze the different ratios, distances, number of institutions, costs, and distances/times from home to each institution developed by the classes. Students should determine numeric and symbolic ways to compare these times and draw generalizations from the data. After completing these activities, students should discuss their findings in a teacher-mediated discussion. The teacher should bring up the notion of access, and ask students about the fairness of each situation. She should ask them if there are ways to ameliorate the inequalities in access, and provide them with ideas if the class has none. For homework, students should reflect on the ideas discovered from this project and what might do to affect their community positively in regards to the lessons learned from the project.
And that, I think would be a really cool and interesting project. Certainly a lot more interesting than anything I ever did in math class.
Enough of that: This is supposed to be an introduction to my project. Rose Ellen wrote a very nice intro to our group project; allow me elaborate on what this project has become for me.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it all started with an Ed. D student named Eliza. In mere passing she’d mentioned Social Justice Math to me. Initially, I was not intrigued. I thought it sounded like socio-Marxist mathematics. Unsurprisingly, that’s what a lot of people think it is.
As I dug in deeper, I came to appreciate it as something more—as a way to see the world as it truly is using real-world statistics and mathematics. Teaching mathematics in this way is very contextual: It makes math real.
For our project, we chose to drive around Newark and see what popped out at us. Jin drove. Rose-Ellen took pictures, and I looked out the window. As we drove around the lower-income areas we kept seeing the same few things: liquor store, Western Union, Church, Fast-food joint, grocery/tienda, and used car place. Every few blocks: Rinse and repeat.
At first it started out as a joke, an open query: Just how many check places were there in Newark? Or in the central ward? Were there more in different wards? And what could that mean? By the end of the trip, however, I knew that we had a potential lesson.
The lesson or ongoing project would start with an assignment:
“In a group, travel 1 square mile around your neighborhood and make a chart of each kind of business. Be sure to keep a tally of each kind. Be sure also to record the addresses for each kind of business.”
For Newark, teachers could assign different square miles if students were older, didn’t live in Newark, and/or had access to a car. Further, I see this lesson as being appropriate for grades 8 and up. The idea here would be to encourage students to cull data. To elicit further interest, teachers would explain to teachers that this was a part of a new investigation called: “What Makes a Neighborhood.” When pressed what such an investigation would cover, teachers could say that it would allow them to learn about the places in which they live.
In the next class, students would bring the data they culled together. Here they would determine the average number of each business per square mile per ward. Taking this idea a step further, teachers would ask students: “Now that you have this statistic, how many of each business is in each ward? And further, what is the ratio of people per ward to each business type?” Challenged in this way, the teacher would facilitate a discussion with the students on different ways to approximate areas, and in particular, unusual areas like Newark’s wards. A variety of methods would be introduced: among these would be Pick’s Theorem. For homework, students would determine an area of each of the wards using different approximation techniques. After class (or during if they have access to computers) students would also post the results of their discussions onto a class webpage. They should also be developing a class map using Google maps. On this map, they can post the location of each kind of institution/service/business.
In class 3, the teacher would facilitate a discussion with students on the different areas determined for each ward. The teacher would then pose another question: Given the number of square miles in each ward, what are good approximations of each number of businesses? Students discuss in groups and then discuss in a teacher-facilitated discussion. Here the idea of ratio, rate, and proportion is discussed as students instruct others on how to determine the approximate number of services/businesses available in each of the wards. For homework, each student would look at the number of businesses and types of each per ward and discuss in a journal the equity of said distribution. Students would also note the distribution of certain institutions in the different wards—e.g., banks, gyms, hospitals, supermarkets—and discuss this equity, as well. In particular, students would assess if people in the different wards require better access (e.g., more, but less costly transportation, or a better distribution of services per ward), to institutions and services that are unavailable in the different wards.
During the fourth lesson period, the teacher might ask her students to discuss what they wrote about in their journals, directing the class in particular to the notion of distance, time, and money required to arrive at certain institutions: e.g., banks, gyms, hospitals, or supermarkets. As a final activity, student will use the map they have been developing to determine the most effective route from their home to each service/institution. Using www.njtransit.com, they will also determine if they can take a bus there, how much walking is required of them, and how much money the trip will require. After this activity is completed, the class will come together, and report their results. From these, averages will be determined. These will go on their webpage. Students can also write about their discoveries in their math journals. They should discuss how they feel about the costs, and speculate how this affects the constituents in their community.
If time is provided, the project could be extended to the suburbs, and this time to encompass 5-square-mile blocks of similarly affluent neighborhoods. Here, as before, students would record the different number of businesses/services/institutions represented in that block. If students do not possess cars, this part of the project could be altered in the following ways:
1) It could be developed into a field trip, wherein different groups of students would go with an assigned parent or teacher to a different part of a very affluent suburb and canvas the neighborhood in a way similar to the listing above; or
2) This project of three to four lessons could be developed at the same time by another or several mathematics classes in affluent suburbs in the state.
At the beginning of the project, students would be told that they would be working on a social project with students at these other schools and that each class would be developing their own web pages to illustrate that learning. Similar in scope to the 3-day activities posted above, classes in the affluent suburbs would be responsible for accumulating data about affluent areas. Ideally, these classes should look at 5 square-miles. If this is unrealistic, however, the teacher can partition a suburb into square-mile blocks and assign each to each pair. Those students can then do the same activities as their urban counterparts: cull data on neighborhood businesses, determine the type and number of each kind per 5-square miles and use this approximation as a way to estimate the number of and type of each business for each suburb. As determined, this information would go up on each class web page. Students from all classes would be required to look at each for each stage of the project.
With the data available on each class webpage, each teacher should require their students to compare life in the suburbs to life in the urban areas (using their data as a metric). Out of this activity, students should analyze the different ratios, distances, number of institutions, costs, and distances/times from home to each institution developed by the classes. Students should determine numeric and symbolic ways to compare these times and draw generalizations from the data. After completing these activities, students should discuss their findings in a teacher-mediated discussion. The teacher should bring up the notion of access, and ask students about the fairness of each situation. She should ask them if there are ways to ameliorate the inequalities in access, and provide them with ideas if the class has none. For homework, students should reflect on the ideas discovered from this project and what might do to affect their community positively in regards to the lessons learned from the project.
And that, I think would be a really cool and interesting project. Certainly a lot more interesting than anything I ever did in math class.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Curriculum Inquiry Project
I'm a part of the Social Justice Math group, so if you see some overlap between our documents, there's good reason: We're using google docs to brainstorm ideas relating to social justice math, to pinpoint a main topic question, to isolate queries for students and teachers, and to unpack the whole kit and kaboodle.
As of 1:27 pm this Monday, March 30, here is a brief sketch of things and where they stand:
TOPIC QUESTION:
Can social justice math (sjm) be an effective teaching method in urban school districts?
SUBTOPICS:
1. Using actual data or statistics, what can educators infer from sjm's implementation in the classroom?
2. Is sjm an effective form of teaching?
3. To gauge its effectiveness:
Does it raise student motivation and achievement?
What data illustrates/refutes this claim?
Which school districts employ sjm in the classroom?
4. Why do some districts choose not to employ sjm?
5. How do teachers feel toward using sjm in the classroom?
6. Can it help students deal with standardized testing?
QUALITATIVE DATA
1. Interview questions:
Tentative candidates for interview: Eliza Leszczynski, Brian Miller, Rick McNamee
Also possible: Math teachers or administrators from these high schools in NYC:
Harvey Milk HS (East Village)
New York City Algebra Project (Brooklyn)
Acorn High School for Social Justice (Brooklyn)
Bushwick School for Social Justice (Brooklyn)
Possible interview questions include:
1. How would you summarize the basic purpose behind social justice math (sjm)? What aspects of sjm are most important? Why? What to you are essential criteria for effective instruction using sjm?
2. What is your assessment of sjm? How do your peers in teaching view sjm? How do administrators (super-intendants, principals) in your experience view sjm?
3. Do you currently use sjm in your classes? If not presently, have you ever used sjm in your classes? If never, is it a methodology that you would like to use in math class? Why or why not?
4. Please describe your personal experiences using sjm in the classroom. What noticeable effects, if any, were apparent due to its implementation? What do you feel are the cause of these effects? What immediate effects, if any, has sjm had on your students? What long term effects, do you suppose, sjm has had on your students?
5. What do you feel are the positive outcomes of using sjm in a classroom? What do you feel are the negative aspects to using sjm in a classroom? Are these unique to teaching with sjm? With increased development, are they avoidable, or are they necessary aspects of teaching with sjm?
2. Survey questions:
For students through Brian Miller, Rick McNamee
For teachers at Harvey Milk HS, New York City Algebra Project, Acorn High School for Social Justice, Bushwick School for Social Justice, and other math teachers who agree to take our survey.
QUESTIONS (for students):
1. What does the term "social justice" mean to you? What could the term "social justice math" mean?
2. Do you feel that math should incorporate social, political and economic issues into its instruction, such as with a social justice math curriculum? Why/why not?
3. Is it important for students to have an understanding of social, political and economic issues locally and around the world?
4. Should developing a "social consciousness" be an important part of your educational experiences?
5. Have you ever heard of the "empowerment of students"? What do you think that could mean? Can math empower students to analyze and potentially change the world? How?
6. Are you familiar with the idea of higher-level thinking? Do you think higher-level thinking about larger mathematical ideas is important? Why/why not?
7. Could incorporating social justice math motivate more students to learn math?
8. Do you think math would be more engaging if it was "real world" rather than "theoretical"?
9. If you were given the opportunity, would you choose to participate in actual community problem-solving projects?
QUESTIONS (for teachers) [Note: there is some overlap between these question and the interview questions, though I have been conscious to limit the interview questions so that they are fewer and more open-ended in scope]:
1. What do you know about social justice math? How would you summarize its basic purpose?
2. Do you currently use social justice math in your classes?
3. What do you feel are the positive outcomes of using sjm in a classroom?
4. What do you feel are the negative aspects to using sjm in a classroom?
5. Please describe your personal experiences using sjm in the classroom. What noticeable effects, if any, were apparent due to its implementation? What do you feel are the cause of these effects?
6. Please provide examples of lessons you have brought to the classroom
incorporating sjm. Which were most effective? Why?
7. Rate the following on a scale of 1 (least likely) to 5 (most likely):
- Social justice math can help me differentiate the curriculum more easily.
- Social justice math can help me create interdisciplinary and thematic units.
- Social justice math can help me learn about my students' families and their communities.
- Social justice math can help me assess learning within a meaningful context.
3. Qualitative Research includes:
Christiansen. (2007). Some tensions in mathematics education for democracy.
a qualitative study of four mathematics classrooms and some of the tensions and benefits of teaching sjm.
Garii & Rule (2009). Integrating social justice with mathematics and science: an analysis of student teacher lessons
a qualitative analysis of how student teachers incorporate social justice into math and science classes
Gutstein, Lipman, Hernandez, & de los Reyes. (1997). Culturally relevant mathematics teaching in a Mexican American context.
a qualitative study of teaching elementary/middle school in a Mexican American community. The purpose of the project is to help teachers use what they know about their students' culture to improve students' learning of mathematics, and of other subjects as well, and to help students develop critical approaches to knowledge and the tools they will need to be agents of social change
Gutstein. (2003). Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Social Justice in an Urban, Latino School.
a qualitative study of 7th and 8th grade Latino/a students in a midwestern public school who learned mathematics using the curricular program Mathematics in Context (MiC) as well as special projects on sjm
Gutstein. (2006). The real World as We Have Seen It: Latino/a Parents' Voices on Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice
a qualitative study of Latino/a parents who supported social justice math in their children's 7th grade classroom in the Chicago public schools
Gutstein. (2007). And That's Just How It Starts: Teaching Mathematics and Developing Student Agency.
a two-year qualitative, practitioner-research study of teaching and learning for social justice.... research suggests that students learned mathematics and began to develop sociopolitical awareness and see themselves as possible actors in society through using mathematics to understand social injustices.
Skovsmose. (1994). Towards a Critical Mathematics Education.
This article uses a class project that uses sjm to explain math literacy (or mathemacy) and the importance of a critical mathematics education. It implements several units that could be used in a sjm setting.
Telese. (1999, May). Mexican American high school students' perceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching.
a survey of Mexican American high school students and their perceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching in traditional and reform classrooms.
Treisman. (1992). Studying Students Studying Calculus: A Look at the Lives of Minority Mathematics Students in College.
a lecture given as one of the Mary P. Dolciani lectures at Hunter College. Embeded within is a qualitative study of college freshman, in particular minorities (African americans and Asians), their motivation towards studying and understanding mathematics (calculus), and how the college system failed them
radicalmath.org
a chart of possible topics for sjm classroom use; how to implement sjm into the classroom; advantages and disadvantages to using sjm in the classroom
4. Quantitative Research includes:
West and Davis (2005). Research Related to the Algebra Project’s Intervention to Improve Student Learning in Mathematics.
A quantitative study of the Algebra Project as provided by Lesley College for the State of Virginia's Department of Education. It demonstrates that the Algebra Project served to bolster test scores for traditionally under-achieving students.
Winter (2007) Infusing Mathematics with Culture: Teaching Technical Subjects for Social Justice
A quantitative study that provides statistical data demonstrating that social and cultural learning can be infused into technical courses without negatively affecting content area learning
As of 1:27 pm this Monday, March 30, here is a brief sketch of things and where they stand:
TOPIC QUESTION:
Can social justice math (sjm) be an effective teaching method in urban school districts?
SUBTOPICS:
1. Using actual data or statistics, what can educators infer from sjm's implementation in the classroom?
2. Is sjm an effective form of teaching?
3. To gauge its effectiveness:
Does it raise student motivation and achievement?
What data illustrates/refutes this claim?
Which school districts employ sjm in the classroom?
4. Why do some districts choose not to employ sjm?
5. How do teachers feel toward using sjm in the classroom?
6. Can it help students deal with standardized testing?
QUALITATIVE DATA
1. Interview questions:
Tentative candidates for interview: Eliza Leszczynski, Brian Miller, Rick McNamee
Also possible: Math teachers or administrators from these high schools in NYC:
Harvey Milk HS (East Village)
New York City Algebra Project (Brooklyn)
Acorn High School for Social Justice (Brooklyn)
Bushwick School for Social Justice (Brooklyn)
Possible interview questions include:
1. How would you summarize the basic purpose behind social justice math (sjm)? What aspects of sjm are most important? Why? What to you are essential criteria for effective instruction using sjm?
2. What is your assessment of sjm? How do your peers in teaching view sjm? How do administrators (super-intendants, principals) in your experience view sjm?
3. Do you currently use sjm in your classes? If not presently, have you ever used sjm in your classes? If never, is it a methodology that you would like to use in math class? Why or why not?
4. Please describe your personal experiences using sjm in the classroom. What noticeable effects, if any, were apparent due to its implementation? What do you feel are the cause of these effects? What immediate effects, if any, has sjm had on your students? What long term effects, do you suppose, sjm has had on your students?
5. What do you feel are the positive outcomes of using sjm in a classroom? What do you feel are the negative aspects to using sjm in a classroom? Are these unique to teaching with sjm? With increased development, are they avoidable, or are they necessary aspects of teaching with sjm?
2. Survey questions:
For students through Brian Miller, Rick McNamee
For teachers at Harvey Milk HS, New York City Algebra Project, Acorn High School for Social Justice, Bushwick School for Social Justice, and other math teachers who agree to take our survey.
QUESTIONS (for students):
1. What does the term "social justice" mean to you? What could the term "social justice math" mean?
2. Do you feel that math should incorporate social, political and economic issues into its instruction, such as with a social justice math curriculum? Why/why not?
3. Is it important for students to have an understanding of social, political and economic issues locally and around the world?
4. Should developing a "social consciousness" be an important part of your educational experiences?
5. Have you ever heard of the "empowerment of students"? What do you think that could mean? Can math empower students to analyze and potentially change the world? How?
6. Are you familiar with the idea of higher-level thinking? Do you think higher-level thinking about larger mathematical ideas is important? Why/why not?
7. Could incorporating social justice math motivate more students to learn math?
8. Do you think math would be more engaging if it was "real world" rather than "theoretical"?
9. If you were given the opportunity, would you choose to participate in actual community problem-solving projects?
QUESTIONS (for teachers) [Note: there is some overlap between these question and the interview questions, though I have been conscious to limit the interview questions so that they are fewer and more open-ended in scope]:
1. What do you know about social justice math? How would you summarize its basic purpose?
2. Do you currently use social justice math in your classes?
3. What do you feel are the positive outcomes of using sjm in a classroom?
4. What do you feel are the negative aspects to using sjm in a classroom?
5. Please describe your personal experiences using sjm in the classroom. What noticeable effects, if any, were apparent due to its implementation? What do you feel are the cause of these effects?
6. Please provide examples of lessons you have brought to the classroom
incorporating sjm. Which were most effective? Why?
7. Rate the following on a scale of 1 (least likely) to 5 (most likely):
- Social justice math can help me differentiate the curriculum more easily.
- Social justice math can help me create interdisciplinary and thematic units.
- Social justice math can help me learn about my students' families and their communities.
- Social justice math can help me assess learning within a meaningful context.
3. Qualitative Research includes:
Christiansen. (2007). Some tensions in mathematics education for democracy.
a qualitative study of four mathematics classrooms and some of the tensions and benefits of teaching sjm.
Garii & Rule (2009). Integrating social justice with mathematics and science: an analysis of student teacher lessons
a qualitative analysis of how student teachers incorporate social justice into math and science classes
Gutstein, Lipman, Hernandez, & de los Reyes. (1997). Culturally relevant mathematics teaching in a Mexican American context.
a qualitative study of teaching elementary/middle school in a Mexican American community. The purpose of the project is to help teachers use what they know about their students' culture to improve students' learning of mathematics, and of other subjects as well, and to help students develop critical approaches to knowledge and the tools they will need to be agents of social change
Gutstein. (2003). Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Social Justice in an Urban, Latino School.
a qualitative study of 7th and 8th grade Latino/a students in a midwestern public school who learned mathematics using the curricular program Mathematics in Context (MiC) as well as special projects on sjm
Gutstein. (2006). The real World as We Have Seen It: Latino/a Parents' Voices on Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice
a qualitative study of Latino/a parents who supported social justice math in their children's 7th grade classroom in the Chicago public schools
Gutstein. (2007). And That's Just How It Starts: Teaching Mathematics and Developing Student Agency.
a two-year qualitative, practitioner-research study of teaching and learning for social justice.... research suggests that students learned mathematics and began to develop sociopolitical awareness and see themselves as possible actors in society through using mathematics to understand social injustices.
Skovsmose. (1994). Towards a Critical Mathematics Education.
This article uses a class project that uses sjm to explain math literacy (or mathemacy) and the importance of a critical mathematics education. It implements several units that could be used in a sjm setting.
Telese. (1999, May). Mexican American high school students' perceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching.
a survey of Mexican American high school students and their perceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching in traditional and reform classrooms.
Treisman. (1992). Studying Students Studying Calculus: A Look at the Lives of Minority Mathematics Students in College.
a lecture given as one of the Mary P. Dolciani lectures at Hunter College. Embeded within is a qualitative study of college freshman, in particular minorities (African americans and Asians), their motivation towards studying and understanding mathematics (calculus), and how the college system failed them
radicalmath.org
a chart of possible topics for sjm classroom use; how to implement sjm into the classroom; advantages and disadvantages to using sjm in the classroom
4. Quantitative Research includes:
West and Davis (2005). Research Related to the Algebra Project’s Intervention to Improve Student Learning in Mathematics.
A quantitative study of the Algebra Project as provided by Lesley College for the State of Virginia's Department of Education. It demonstrates that the Algebra Project served to bolster test scores for traditionally under-achieving students.
Winter (2007) Infusing Mathematics with Culture: Teaching Technical Subjects for Social Justice
A quantitative study that provides statistical data demonstrating that social and cultural learning can be infused into technical courses without negatively affecting content area learning
Monday, March 23, 2009
Themes for Chapters 3, 4, and 5
Upon reading Chapters 3, 4, and 5 from Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods, two main themes occurred to me: child/child interaction and adult/child interaction. Below is a list of notes and reflections I have compiled on each.
Child/child interaction:
Amongst children in the three classes represented in this study (middle, working, and poor), I was surprised to discover that as parents made less money, the bond between siblings, cousins, and neighborhood children grew stronger. Growing up in a foreign country, several thousands of miles from any of my cousins, I was never afforded the luxury of playing often with them. I did, however, relish the time we spent together during our often 6-week family vacations in the summer.
For the remainder of the year, I had my brother, and as children we and our friends played often. However — and this may be because the beginning of my childhood began in the 80s and ended in the 90s — unlike the children reflected in this study, I would argue that my childhood was definitely middle class (with certain privileges that in this country would be synonymous with upper class), and while I did engage in certain activities after school, these were never as extreme as the cases presented, nor did they trump the way in which we valued the sleepovers and day-time activities organized by my friends, my brother and me. Perhaps ironically, reading the case study on the working-class family seemed greatly familiar to me, and the model I would implement for raising children, though borrowing some of the adult-support themes from the middle-class study.
Universally, I also noticed that regardless of class (and this could actually be more a result of class than anything) that in their culturally cultivated activities, children tended to play in homogenous settings; at the same time, natural growth activities also found children playing in homogenous settings.
Adult/child interactions:
I noticed that as families had more money, siblings also tended to become highly competitive with one another; in these cases, it seemed as though children had learned that parental favorites — and thus sibling hierarchy — were dictated by ability. Those with more ability became the center of family life, while the remaining children had to eschew their own lives for the most able of siblings.
Reading of this culture greatly shocked and upset me. To me, children should be treated equally, not favored, nor broken-up in to a caste system based on ability (or birth order). While I agree that their abilities should be nurtured, they ought to be chosen by the child, not dictated by the whims of the adults. It deeply upset me, for example, that Mr. Tallinger did not wish to nurture Spencer’s love of science because he knew nothing of science. To me, that’s one responsibility of a parent: to learn the interests of his children, and to enable them to explore those interests. It’s also, however, the responsibility of the parent to provide balance in a child’s life, so that children have time to be children: to play, to have fun, and to connect with others their own age. The time to be adults need not be rushed into. This balance also seemed to be missing from the lives of the Tallinger’s, even though they had the money to do right what the Taylors and Brindles could not.
Another theme I noticed in the relationship between the adults and their children is the role adults play in children’s lives. I call this either anchor or coach. In the Tallinger study, Mr. Tallinger seems to be more of a coach than a father: he seems to approach his role in their lives as part employer (see when he reasoned with his sons to finish homework or join the swim team) and part cheerleader (when he comes to Garrett’s games and sits with the parents to cheer-on his son; though even here, the cheering is more employer criticism than cheering).
In the Brindle and Taylor studies, however, I found that Ms. Brindle and Taylor were (or attempted to be) anchors in their children’s’ lives. In the case of Ms. Taylor, she went to Teroc’s games to be supportive and because she felt that she should be there to nurture his abilities and interests. At the same time, Ms. Brindle wanted to fly to be with her HIV-positive daughter to be supportive of her (even if it was a tremendous burden to her own life).
This theme continues through parental justice. Mr. Tallinger reasons and argues with his children to accomplish discipline. He is the epitome of a coach in their lives. On the other hand, Ms. Brindle and Taylor have no qualms in beating their children when they misbehave. While beating seems barbaric to me, this action remains true with their role as an anchor — even here, beating allows them to discipline their children.
Child/child interaction:
Amongst children in the three classes represented in this study (middle, working, and poor), I was surprised to discover that as parents made less money, the bond between siblings, cousins, and neighborhood children grew stronger. Growing up in a foreign country, several thousands of miles from any of my cousins, I was never afforded the luxury of playing often with them. I did, however, relish the time we spent together during our often 6-week family vacations in the summer.
For the remainder of the year, I had my brother, and as children we and our friends played often. However — and this may be because the beginning of my childhood began in the 80s and ended in the 90s — unlike the children reflected in this study, I would argue that my childhood was definitely middle class (with certain privileges that in this country would be synonymous with upper class), and while I did engage in certain activities after school, these were never as extreme as the cases presented, nor did they trump the way in which we valued the sleepovers and day-time activities organized by my friends, my brother and me. Perhaps ironically, reading the case study on the working-class family seemed greatly familiar to me, and the model I would implement for raising children, though borrowing some of the adult-support themes from the middle-class study.
Universally, I also noticed that regardless of class (and this could actually be more a result of class than anything) that in their culturally cultivated activities, children tended to play in homogenous settings; at the same time, natural growth activities also found children playing in homogenous settings.
Adult/child interactions:
I noticed that as families had more money, siblings also tended to become highly competitive with one another; in these cases, it seemed as though children had learned that parental favorites — and thus sibling hierarchy — were dictated by ability. Those with more ability became the center of family life, while the remaining children had to eschew their own lives for the most able of siblings.
Reading of this culture greatly shocked and upset me. To me, children should be treated equally, not favored, nor broken-up in to a caste system based on ability (or birth order). While I agree that their abilities should be nurtured, they ought to be chosen by the child, not dictated by the whims of the adults. It deeply upset me, for example, that Mr. Tallinger did not wish to nurture Spencer’s love of science because he knew nothing of science. To me, that’s one responsibility of a parent: to learn the interests of his children, and to enable them to explore those interests. It’s also, however, the responsibility of the parent to provide balance in a child’s life, so that children have time to be children: to play, to have fun, and to connect with others their own age. The time to be adults need not be rushed into. This balance also seemed to be missing from the lives of the Tallinger’s, even though they had the money to do right what the Taylors and Brindles could not.
Another theme I noticed in the relationship between the adults and their children is the role adults play in children’s lives. I call this either anchor or coach. In the Tallinger study, Mr. Tallinger seems to be more of a coach than a father: he seems to approach his role in their lives as part employer (see when he reasoned with his sons to finish homework or join the swim team) and part cheerleader (when he comes to Garrett’s games and sits with the parents to cheer-on his son; though even here, the cheering is more employer criticism than cheering).
In the Brindle and Taylor studies, however, I found that Ms. Brindle and Taylor were (or attempted to be) anchors in their children’s’ lives. In the case of Ms. Taylor, she went to Teroc’s games to be supportive and because she felt that she should be there to nurture his abilities and interests. At the same time, Ms. Brindle wanted to fly to be with her HIV-positive daughter to be supportive of her (even if it was a tremendous burden to her own life).
This theme continues through parental justice. Mr. Tallinger reasons and argues with his children to accomplish discipline. He is the epitome of a coach in their lives. On the other hand, Ms. Brindle and Taylor have no qualms in beating their children when they misbehave. While beating seems barbaric to me, this action remains true with their role as an anchor — even here, beating allows them to discipline their children.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Annotations
Bartell, T., & Meyer, M. (2008, April). Addressing the Equity Principle in the Mathematics Classroom. Mathematics Teacher, 101(8), 604-608.
Similar in lack of scope to the other Mathematics Teacher article (see below), this piece argues strongly for the inclusion and necessity of social justice and equity issues in the mathematics classroom, but fails to provide a methodology for implementing equity-based and social-justice-based mathematics. Using a teacher-education course as the impetus for this article, the authors explore the four major conceptions of equity — its relation to: (1) instruction, (2) environment, (3) equal opportunity, and (4) appropriate curriculum. The authors further argue that equity in a math classroom is the shared responsibility of the teacher, her students, their families and community, policymakers, and even university teacher academics. Generally, however, the authors feel that the first step towards providing better support of students lies with teachers and their journey in exploring equity, “their role and responsibilities in closing the achievement gap, and their knowledge of individual students.”
Assessment: In terms of an article on equity, this article provides a neat summary. In terms of an article that bridges equity and mathematics education, this article fails in illustrating the need of integrating equity (and social justice) in the mathematics classroom. The authors argue its necessity as a means to provide better support of students and in closing the achievement gap, however, as math education plays such a minor part in this article, one wonders if this article is specific to math, as its title and abstract suggest.
Christiansen, I. M. (2007). Some tensions in mathematics education for democracy. The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, Monograph 1(2007), 49-62.
In this long (and perhaps poorly translated) article, Christiansen discusses the implications and tensions that are revealed by implementing social justice to teach mathematics. In his first narrative, Christiansen provides a math lesson which relates to the inequity of land distribution amongst blacks and whites in South Africa using circle graphs, percents, tables, inequalities, and nonstandard units of measure. In this lesson, social justice math was appreciated amongst Danish students who are well removed from the situation presented. In his second narrative, however, Christiansen witnessed the reverse: Presenting his lesson to Zulus and Indians in a South African school, students refused to participate, citing that they did not like being reminded of their own situation. Using this situation as a spring board, Christiansen asserts that social justice math must do more than merely presenting students with a study of situations. Developing a critical mentality is not enough; mathematics must be equated with power, while lessons should also explore how “the less privileged [can] improve their lives” (p. 54). In his third and fourth narratives, Christiansen argues that empowering students need not be accomplished merely through social justice math, but by cultivating “mathematical awareness” in students. To this end, teachers must be instruments of change and agents of personal authority in the classroom and in the world.
Assessment: While the lesson presented is perhaps one of the best I have read, the article fails to deliver clear solutions to tensions created by the integration of social justice in the mathematics classroom. Instead, it offers alternatives to teaching social justice math, but for teachers who wish to implement the pedagogy it offers no advice on how to prepare students for social justice in the class, or how to broach this subject with students who find offense with the lesson.
Frankenstein, M. (1983). Critical Mathematics Education: An Application of Paulo Freire's Epistemology. Journal of Education, 165(4), 315-339.
In this article, Frankenstein provides an introduction to Freire’s epistemology, while neglecting some of his more controversial political theories and their ties to education. In her literature review, Frankenstein examines how knowledge is not static, nor neutral, but is instead continually redefined and a part of the human consciousness. From here, she introduces Freire’s conscientiaçao, or development of critical consciousness, asserting that by nurturing this aspect of conscience, students might overcome “massification.” She concludes with a section on content and methods for education and critical thinking which argue for constructivist, problem-posing teaching which develops students into critical thinkers who co-investigate ideas with their teachers.
The rest of the paper explores the application of social justice in Frankenstein’s mathematics classroom. In this section, she explores the nature of statistics in terms of the methods that politicians and CEOs may use to prevaricate on the truth. She further explores the notion that math anxiety can lead to an avoidance of mathematics and thus disempowerment. This is also explored in terms of gender and the self-fulfilling prophesy under which society subjects females — they are told that as a gender, they cannot “do” math, and as a result they cannot. To counteract this massification and other related ideological hegemonies, Frankenstein urges for the implementation of critical mathematics education “by using statistics to reveal the contradictions (and lies) underneath the surface of these ideologies by providing learning experiences where students and teachers are ‘co-investigators’ and where math ‘anxious’ students overcome their fears” (p. 329).
As co-investigators, Frankenstein suggests using math journals as a way to probe students’ social interests for developing critical math exercises. Such journals also act as a way to empower students by causing them to realize that they are already more capable mathematically than a month previously. Frankenstein also suggests introducing students to different statistics-based organizations — such as the Coalition for Basic Human Needs, the International Association of Machinists, or Counter-Information Services (CIS) — and allowing students to work with these groups to further “challenge” students to reconsider their previously ‘take-for-granted’ beliefs,” (p. 331). Taken together, Frankenstein asserts that these Freirean-based concepts can provide for more capable classrooms of students who can overcome math anxiety, learn math, and understand that they can make a difference in the world.
Gutstein, E. (2003, January). Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Social Justice in an Urban, Latino School. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 34(1), 37-73
In this study, Gutstein shows that by implementing a social justice curriculum for a math classroom, that teachers can empower students to read the world (understand complex issues involving justice and equity) using math, write the world (have an impact upon these issues) and develop a sense of mathematical power. Using the Mathematics in Context (MiC) curriculum as a basis, Gutstein illustrates how he was able to introduce several “real-world projects [that incorporated] issues of economics and racial discrimination and inequality, immigrant status, gentrification, and other examples of injustice facing [students] and their families on a daily basis” (p. 47). In his study, Gutstein further illustrates that his program succeeded in developing both students’ critical mathematics literacy and mathematical power without sacrificing either skill.
Assessment: In terms of all the articles, this piece was the most successful in terms of its intersection between mathematics education and social justice — content discussed herein was neither math-lite nor overly social-justice-heavy. Instead, this article provided theoretical knowledge and practical applications of social justice math, as well as the positive implications of its use. Most importantly, Gutstein’s students’ math abilities increased, and came to see the power of math and its importance for understanding the world.
McCoy, L. (2008, February). POVERTY: Teaching Mathematics and Social Justice. Mathematics Teacher, 101(6), 456-461.
This article examines poverty, the poor, and the relation between poverty and school achievement using statistics as the lens by which to understand the each instance. Aimed at teachers who wish to implement social justice into their mathematics classrooms, two activity-ideas are provided. One activity requires students to create a budget of essentials and nonessentials and to compare the prices of each to the average, monthly income for n-person families; students are then to reflect upon how their life compares to a family living below or near the poverty line. A second activity provides a table that illustrates percents of the population that live below the poverty level by demographic (gender, age, race, and education). Using these figures, students construct bar graphs to compare data and discuss conclusions. A third activity requires that students collect data on the poverty level of students by school district in the country. Using spreadsheet software (or graphing calculators), students then create a scatter plot, calculate a correlation coefficient, and then a regression equation to relate the data. Students then discuss both the mathematical and societal implications of their findings.
Assessment: While this article provides very interesting and necessary ideas within the realm of social justice math, only the third activity truly merits use in a mathematics class (and at the level suggested: Algebra I, II, and Statistics). Should teachers consider bringing these activities to their classroom, further development of said activities are necessary.
Similar in lack of scope to the other Mathematics Teacher article (see below), this piece argues strongly for the inclusion and necessity of social justice and equity issues in the mathematics classroom, but fails to provide a methodology for implementing equity-based and social-justice-based mathematics. Using a teacher-education course as the impetus for this article, the authors explore the four major conceptions of equity — its relation to: (1) instruction, (2) environment, (3) equal opportunity, and (4) appropriate curriculum. The authors further argue that equity in a math classroom is the shared responsibility of the teacher, her students, their families and community, policymakers, and even university teacher academics. Generally, however, the authors feel that the first step towards providing better support of students lies with teachers and their journey in exploring equity, “their role and responsibilities in closing the achievement gap, and their knowledge of individual students.”
Assessment: In terms of an article on equity, this article provides a neat summary. In terms of an article that bridges equity and mathematics education, this article fails in illustrating the need of integrating equity (and social justice) in the mathematics classroom. The authors argue its necessity as a means to provide better support of students and in closing the achievement gap, however, as math education plays such a minor part in this article, one wonders if this article is specific to math, as its title and abstract suggest.
Christiansen, I. M. (2007). Some tensions in mathematics education for democracy. The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, Monograph 1(2007), 49-62.
In this long (and perhaps poorly translated) article, Christiansen discusses the implications and tensions that are revealed by implementing social justice to teach mathematics. In his first narrative, Christiansen provides a math lesson which relates to the inequity of land distribution amongst blacks and whites in South Africa using circle graphs, percents, tables, inequalities, and nonstandard units of measure. In this lesson, social justice math was appreciated amongst Danish students who are well removed from the situation presented. In his second narrative, however, Christiansen witnessed the reverse: Presenting his lesson to Zulus and Indians in a South African school, students refused to participate, citing that they did not like being reminded of their own situation. Using this situation as a spring board, Christiansen asserts that social justice math must do more than merely presenting students with a study of situations. Developing a critical mentality is not enough; mathematics must be equated with power, while lessons should also explore how “the less privileged [can] improve their lives” (p. 54). In his third and fourth narratives, Christiansen argues that empowering students need not be accomplished merely through social justice math, but by cultivating “mathematical awareness” in students. To this end, teachers must be instruments of change and agents of personal authority in the classroom and in the world.
Assessment: While the lesson presented is perhaps one of the best I have read, the article fails to deliver clear solutions to tensions created by the integration of social justice in the mathematics classroom. Instead, it offers alternatives to teaching social justice math, but for teachers who wish to implement the pedagogy it offers no advice on how to prepare students for social justice in the class, or how to broach this subject with students who find offense with the lesson.
Frankenstein, M. (1983). Critical Mathematics Education: An Application of Paulo Freire's Epistemology. Journal of Education, 165(4), 315-339.
In this article, Frankenstein provides an introduction to Freire’s epistemology, while neglecting some of his more controversial political theories and their ties to education. In her literature review, Frankenstein examines how knowledge is not static, nor neutral, but is instead continually redefined and a part of the human consciousness. From here, she introduces Freire’s conscientiaçao, or development of critical consciousness, asserting that by nurturing this aspect of conscience, students might overcome “massification.” She concludes with a section on content and methods for education and critical thinking which argue for constructivist, problem-posing teaching which develops students into critical thinkers who co-investigate ideas with their teachers.
The rest of the paper explores the application of social justice in Frankenstein’s mathematics classroom. In this section, she explores the nature of statistics in terms of the methods that politicians and CEOs may use to prevaricate on the truth. She further explores the notion that math anxiety can lead to an avoidance of mathematics and thus disempowerment. This is also explored in terms of gender and the self-fulfilling prophesy under which society subjects females — they are told that as a gender, they cannot “do” math, and as a result they cannot. To counteract this massification and other related ideological hegemonies, Frankenstein urges for the implementation of critical mathematics education “by using statistics to reveal the contradictions (and lies) underneath the surface of these ideologies by providing learning experiences where students and teachers are ‘co-investigators’ and where math ‘anxious’ students overcome their fears” (p. 329).
As co-investigators, Frankenstein suggests using math journals as a way to probe students’ social interests for developing critical math exercises. Such journals also act as a way to empower students by causing them to realize that they are already more capable mathematically than a month previously. Frankenstein also suggests introducing students to different statistics-based organizations — such as the Coalition for Basic Human Needs, the International Association of Machinists, or Counter-Information Services (CIS) — and allowing students to work with these groups to further “challenge” students to reconsider their previously ‘take-for-granted’ beliefs,” (p. 331). Taken together, Frankenstein asserts that these Freirean-based concepts can provide for more capable classrooms of students who can overcome math anxiety, learn math, and understand that they can make a difference in the world.
Gutstein, E. (2003, January). Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Social Justice in an Urban, Latino School. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 34(1), 37-73
In this study, Gutstein shows that by implementing a social justice curriculum for a math classroom, that teachers can empower students to read the world (understand complex issues involving justice and equity) using math, write the world (have an impact upon these issues) and develop a sense of mathematical power. Using the Mathematics in Context (MiC) curriculum as a basis, Gutstein illustrates how he was able to introduce several “real-world projects [that incorporated] issues of economics and racial discrimination and inequality, immigrant status, gentrification, and other examples of injustice facing [students] and their families on a daily basis” (p. 47). In his study, Gutstein further illustrates that his program succeeded in developing both students’ critical mathematics literacy and mathematical power without sacrificing either skill.
Assessment: In terms of all the articles, this piece was the most successful in terms of its intersection between mathematics education and social justice — content discussed herein was neither math-lite nor overly social-justice-heavy. Instead, this article provided theoretical knowledge and practical applications of social justice math, as well as the positive implications of its use. Most importantly, Gutstein’s students’ math abilities increased, and came to see the power of math and its importance for understanding the world.
McCoy, L. (2008, February). POVERTY: Teaching Mathematics and Social Justice. Mathematics Teacher, 101(6), 456-461.
This article examines poverty, the poor, and the relation between poverty and school achievement using statistics as the lens by which to understand the each instance. Aimed at teachers who wish to implement social justice into their mathematics classrooms, two activity-ideas are provided. One activity requires students to create a budget of essentials and nonessentials and to compare the prices of each to the average, monthly income for n-person families; students are then to reflect upon how their life compares to a family living below or near the poverty line. A second activity provides a table that illustrates percents of the population that live below the poverty level by demographic (gender, age, race, and education). Using these figures, students construct bar graphs to compare data and discuss conclusions. A third activity requires that students collect data on the poverty level of students by school district in the country. Using spreadsheet software (or graphing calculators), students then create a scatter plot, calculate a correlation coefficient, and then a regression equation to relate the data. Students then discuss both the mathematical and societal implications of their findings.
Assessment: While this article provides very interesting and necessary ideas within the realm of social justice math, only the third activity truly merits use in a mathematics class (and at the level suggested: Algebra I, II, and Statistics). Should teachers consider bringing these activities to their classroom, further development of said activities are necessary.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Questions for Exploration
A few posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted the focus of my Community Inquiry Project to be Social Justice Math. In particular, I wanted to create tools that would help me implement Social Justice Math or elements of it as necessary in my professional career as a teacher of math. Admittedly, I know little of Social Justice Math. The little that I do know has been gleaned from two math adjuncts at Montclair State —Eliza Leszczynski and Brian Miller. I also know a little of critical pedagogy and the work of Paolo Freire by performing research for Dr. Fernando Naiditch, the professor in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching for whom I GA.
From what I can tell, Social Justice Math seems to be the application of critical pedagogy to mathematics education. Having researched extensively on other applications of critical pedagogy, I am rather interested in following whatever leads I can on social justice math and how it can be applied to the classroom.
In particular, I am hoping to answer the following queries: What is Social Justice Math? Is it, as some critics indicate, an attempt by the far-left to indoctrinate our youth to socialism, or is in fact a valid educational tool that will aid in the establishment of a more democratic society? What materials exist to help teachers formulate lessons that follow the social justice math ideology? Also, is there research to show that social justice math helps to create its goal — that of a more democratic society, or is it merely academic posturing? Further, by providing students with a context by which to explore math, does this form motivate students to learn and value math as a social tool or is this exploration of math mostly lost on students?
Over the course of this investigation into social justice math, I would also like to interview teaching professionals —both teachers and teacher educators— to get a more immediate understanding of social justice math, how it has been effective/ineffective in the classroom, and what has/hasn’t worked. I am also curious to know if social justice math as a topic works well with all students, or merely with students of certain backgrounds/classes. Are students from low-income families more willing to dig deeper than students from more affluent communities? Or is it something that students from all backgrounds embrace? Also, is social justice math more applicable to certain levels of math, or is it something that can be addressed in lessons for a range of grades?
By answering these and more questions, it is my hope and goal to garner a clearer and better understanding of social justice math. Should my research prove useful, and a boon to others in the teaching community, I would also like to develop those discoveries into tools that I can share with others that would enable us to effectively incorporate elements of social justice math into our practice and become better teachers of math.
From what I can tell, Social Justice Math seems to be the application of critical pedagogy to mathematics education. Having researched extensively on other applications of critical pedagogy, I am rather interested in following whatever leads I can on social justice math and how it can be applied to the classroom.
In particular, I am hoping to answer the following queries: What is Social Justice Math? Is it, as some critics indicate, an attempt by the far-left to indoctrinate our youth to socialism, or is in fact a valid educational tool that will aid in the establishment of a more democratic society? What materials exist to help teachers formulate lessons that follow the social justice math ideology? Also, is there research to show that social justice math helps to create its goal — that of a more democratic society, or is it merely academic posturing? Further, by providing students with a context by which to explore math, does this form motivate students to learn and value math as a social tool or is this exploration of math mostly lost on students?
Over the course of this investigation into social justice math, I would also like to interview teaching professionals —both teachers and teacher educators— to get a more immediate understanding of social justice math, how it has been effective/ineffective in the classroom, and what has/hasn’t worked. I am also curious to know if social justice math as a topic works well with all students, or merely with students of certain backgrounds/classes. Are students from low-income families more willing to dig deeper than students from more affluent communities? Or is it something that students from all backgrounds embrace? Also, is social justice math more applicable to certain levels of math, or is it something that can be addressed in lessons for a range of grades?
By answering these and more questions, it is my hope and goal to garner a clearer and better understanding of social justice math. Should my research prove useful, and a boon to others in the teaching community, I would also like to develop those discoveries into tools that I can share with others that would enable us to effectively incorporate elements of social justice math into our practice and become better teachers of math.
Culture of Self
As a child, I remember tuning the television to tv-tiga (channel 3) and catching the beginning, middle, or end of the call to prayer. I remember stills of the interiors of a mosque with a blue dome and minaret to match; and in the background the deep baritone timbre of a muezzin sang the adhan. This would continue for fifteen minutes and then television would reconvene as though nothing unusual had occurred. And in fact, nothing had. As a child, I was exposed to scores of instances and peculiarities of the many cultures with which I lived. From the call to prayer in Malaysia, to the juxtaposition of class in the Philippines, to the paradoxical divisiveness of cultural groups in America that form in spite of those visionaries calling for its abolition —and the cornucopia of ethnicities abounding each country— culture has played a strong hand in shaping me, my view of culture, and the attitudes that I bring to the classroom — both as a learner and a teacher.
When I think of the part that religion has played in shaping me and my view of culture, I think of the religious acceptance in Malaysia — a fact that might shock Americans whose frame of Islam remains shrouded by the media’s myopic portrayals of fundamentalists and terrorists in the Middle East. (Which is ironic, as Malaysia is as far from the Middle East as New York is from Hawaii.) To this day, Kuala Lumper (or KL) —the capital and city in which I lived — is composed of three main ethnicities: Malays, Chinese, and Indians, each of which practice their own faiths: Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism (or Jainism), respectively. Christianity exists, too, though sparsely, and mostly for expats and Filipina amahs. Out of this crucible of acceptance and my parents’ own equal fascination and appreciation of other cultures, I became well-acquainted with religious diversity, and enjoy the continued impact it has had upon my life. In some cultures, religion isolates and divides; having lived in a culture that embraced religious diversity, I too am accepting of other religions and customs.
I realize that like religion, language also frames the world in which we live; it reflects our place in the socioeconomic structure, our education, and our privileges. By growing up in business centers where English is seen as the lingua franca —with Malay, Cantonese, and Tagalog designated as a local or even street language— I see how language has placed me in a place of privilege and power. This continues even in my present life, where multilingualism is seen by those foisting assimilation as a negative, but by those with a higher socio-economic status as a necessity in the business world. Here, the tragedy is that one class deprives those without power of language, while reserving the facility of several languages for those with power. Having experienced both worlds, and recognizing the struggle endemic to those who lack language, I find myself eager to empower those without so that we can stand together in a democratic society and not apart.
Tied strongly with language and its effect on me is class, though it is not something upon which I tend to dwell. When I think of class and its effect upon culture, I immediately think of the Philippines. Society there is bilaterally defined by class: on one side are the fifth-generation Spanish (the aristocrats), defined not only by their wealth, but boastfully by their link to Spain’s conquest and the subsequent colonialization of the Philippine Islands; on the other are the rest — locals with no claim to old money or power, of which some have made it in the business, educational, clergical, or governmental sectors, but of which most live in a kind of garish squalor far below living standards in America. As teen, I was appalled by this inequity in lifestyles and the limits it placed on the have-nots; I was equally appalled to recognize it again when I worked one summer between semesters during undergrad. That summer I worked for Follett as an assistant book buyer. In that role, I assisted in the purchasing, boxing, and loading of hundred of textbooks from schools in and around Chicago. While on the job, I witnessed great wealth, and equally great poverty. What struck me most, though, was how much like a developing country elements of the poorer neighborhoods and suburbs were. It enabled me to better realize the privileges that I have had in my life, but also of the great divide of wealth in my own country.
Ethnicity, too, has had a tremendous effect upon my life and how I view culture. First, I choose the term ethnicity instead of race, because to me race is too limiting. Having lived among Malays, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Bengalis, Japanese, Thais, Indonesians, even Filipinos —each with their own distinct culture — and how can I do any less? Having attended an international school as a child where intercultural education and multiculturalism were a part of the curriculum since day one, to me ethnicity is merely another frame by which I can appreciate the world; it is not the barrier that I occasionally have witnessed mounted in my peers, but a challenge to view to the whole world as it is.
Finally, there is gender and sexuality — two aspects of culture whose effects upon me coalesced slowly during undergrad. As a male, I recognize that I am more privileged than females. Females are usually paid less than men; they are often treated as secondary citizens because of their gender; and at night, they have more to fear. As a heterosexual, I am also aware that my sexuality privileges me. My culture and other cultures will not label me as perverted, religions will not shun me on high moral ground, and society will not label me as an invisible member of the community. However, I also recognize that neither — gender nor sexuality — is my choice. My brother is gay and I am marrying a beautiful woman in the spring. Should that mean that because of my privileges that I should treat them any worse? Or that I should treat others worse? I think not.
As I see it, culture has shaped me into the person I am today, as well as the professional I hope to be in the classroom. As a learner, it has broadened me, allowing me to accept others as they are, to refrain from defining others by the limiting construct of stereotyping, and to reach out and give chances to others that may be limited by the frames that define their culture. At the same time, I also respect their culture as surely their culture defines them as much as mine defines me.
As a teacher, it is my hope to bring my love of culture to the classroom, not only to better illustrate the inter-connectedness of math and culture, but to further illustrate that we bring culture everywhere, even to school. As a teacher, I am also aware that the environment in which I teach will rarely approximate the intercultural environment in which I learned. It is my belief, however, that culture continues to evolve based upon the interaction of differing cultures, views, opinions, and attitudes, and the assessment that the participants of those interactions make. Therefore, while my culture and my views may differ from those of my peers and my students, it is my responsibility to challenge those sociocultural opinions in order to impact the culture and ideas of those around me, and hopefully develop this society into one that better approximates democracy.
When I think of the part that religion has played in shaping me and my view of culture, I think of the religious acceptance in Malaysia — a fact that might shock Americans whose frame of Islam remains shrouded by the media’s myopic portrayals of fundamentalists and terrorists in the Middle East. (Which is ironic, as Malaysia is as far from the Middle East as New York is from Hawaii.) To this day, Kuala Lumper (or KL) —the capital and city in which I lived — is composed of three main ethnicities: Malays, Chinese, and Indians, each of which practice their own faiths: Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism (or Jainism), respectively. Christianity exists, too, though sparsely, and mostly for expats and Filipina amahs. Out of this crucible of acceptance and my parents’ own equal fascination and appreciation of other cultures, I became well-acquainted with religious diversity, and enjoy the continued impact it has had upon my life. In some cultures, religion isolates and divides; having lived in a culture that embraced religious diversity, I too am accepting of other religions and customs.
I realize that like religion, language also frames the world in which we live; it reflects our place in the socioeconomic structure, our education, and our privileges. By growing up in business centers where English is seen as the lingua franca —with Malay, Cantonese, and Tagalog designated as a local or even street language— I see how language has placed me in a place of privilege and power. This continues even in my present life, where multilingualism is seen by those foisting assimilation as a negative, but by those with a higher socio-economic status as a necessity in the business world. Here, the tragedy is that one class deprives those without power of language, while reserving the facility of several languages for those with power. Having experienced both worlds, and recognizing the struggle endemic to those who lack language, I find myself eager to empower those without so that we can stand together in a democratic society and not apart.
Tied strongly with language and its effect on me is class, though it is not something upon which I tend to dwell. When I think of class and its effect upon culture, I immediately think of the Philippines. Society there is bilaterally defined by class: on one side are the fifth-generation Spanish (the aristocrats), defined not only by their wealth, but boastfully by their link to Spain’s conquest and the subsequent colonialization of the Philippine Islands; on the other are the rest — locals with no claim to old money or power, of which some have made it in the business, educational, clergical, or governmental sectors, but of which most live in a kind of garish squalor far below living standards in America. As teen, I was appalled by this inequity in lifestyles and the limits it placed on the have-nots; I was equally appalled to recognize it again when I worked one summer between semesters during undergrad. That summer I worked for Follett as an assistant book buyer. In that role, I assisted in the purchasing, boxing, and loading of hundred of textbooks from schools in and around Chicago. While on the job, I witnessed great wealth, and equally great poverty. What struck me most, though, was how much like a developing country elements of the poorer neighborhoods and suburbs were. It enabled me to better realize the privileges that I have had in my life, but also of the great divide of wealth in my own country.
Ethnicity, too, has had a tremendous effect upon my life and how I view culture. First, I choose the term ethnicity instead of race, because to me race is too limiting. Having lived among Malays, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Bengalis, Japanese, Thais, Indonesians, even Filipinos —each with their own distinct culture — and how can I do any less? Having attended an international school as a child where intercultural education and multiculturalism were a part of the curriculum since day one, to me ethnicity is merely another frame by which I can appreciate the world; it is not the barrier that I occasionally have witnessed mounted in my peers, but a challenge to view to the whole world as it is.
Finally, there is gender and sexuality — two aspects of culture whose effects upon me coalesced slowly during undergrad. As a male, I recognize that I am more privileged than females. Females are usually paid less than men; they are often treated as secondary citizens because of their gender; and at night, they have more to fear. As a heterosexual, I am also aware that my sexuality privileges me. My culture and other cultures will not label me as perverted, religions will not shun me on high moral ground, and society will not label me as an invisible member of the community. However, I also recognize that neither — gender nor sexuality — is my choice. My brother is gay and I am marrying a beautiful woman in the spring. Should that mean that because of my privileges that I should treat them any worse? Or that I should treat others worse? I think not.
As I see it, culture has shaped me into the person I am today, as well as the professional I hope to be in the classroom. As a learner, it has broadened me, allowing me to accept others as they are, to refrain from defining others by the limiting construct of stereotyping, and to reach out and give chances to others that may be limited by the frames that define their culture. At the same time, I also respect their culture as surely their culture defines them as much as mine defines me.
As a teacher, it is my hope to bring my love of culture to the classroom, not only to better illustrate the inter-connectedness of math and culture, but to further illustrate that we bring culture everywhere, even to school. As a teacher, I am also aware that the environment in which I teach will rarely approximate the intercultural environment in which I learned. It is my belief, however, that culture continues to evolve based upon the interaction of differing cultures, views, opinions, and attitudes, and the assessment that the participants of those interactions make. Therefore, while my culture and my views may differ from those of my peers and my students, it is my responsibility to challenge those sociocultural opinions in order to impact the culture and ideas of those around me, and hopefully develop this society into one that better approximates democracy.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Mathematics In the City
When I came MSU last semester, I became well acquainted with an adjunct at the school of mathematical sciences — one Eliza Leszczynski. The course I took with Eliza was College Geometry — a high school math course masquerading as a math methods course. While the class presented an enlightening departure from my dreary Ed Psych course and its pompous instructor, or my nebulous curriculum course which dabbled in mysticism and how I might reach my students with meditation, it wasn’t until I went to meet with Eliza personally that I discovered the real gems of taking a course with her. You see, while in class she presented us with math proofs on triangular numbers, beguiled us with circle inversion, and tickled us with fractals, outside of the classroom she introduced me to two math ideas I wasn’t likely to encounter in a pure maths class: Ethnomathematics and Social Justice Math.
Ethnomathematics is study of both mathematics and culture, or more importantly it’s the way that mathematics and culture interact and the study of this interaction. If you want to read about ethnomathematics’ origins and such, wikipedia has an informative article on the subject. In essence, it is one way to make math relevant to students by bridging what is usually a cold, unsympathetic subject with an aspect of students’ lives. It makes math relevant and a necessary part of one’s being.
Social Justice Math, on the other hand, is a school of mathematics instruction that argues that you can use math to understand and learn about issues of politics, economics and social justice. Contrarily, it also argues that you can use an understanding of these issues to attain stronger math literacy — in effect, to learn math. While critics argue that this form of instruction proselytizes the youth with strong biases from the left, social justice math provides students with the opportunity to judge the fairness and necessity of decisions made by our society based on statistics and mathematics facts. For a more detailed understanding of social justice math, visit radicalmath.org. Similar to ethnomathematics, social justice math also makes math relevant, but in a different way. Here, math becomes a tool for enabling students to understand the world in which they live, and the basis for the decisions that our culture makes.
When I first heard of both maths, I was scoffed at their use. In terms of urban education, however, I suspect that of the two, Social Justice Math might be more useful. Therefore, for my CI project, I would like to discover how Social Justice Math can be used in urban education. To this end, I feel that it would be terrific to have developed a website that could serve as a tool to using Social Justice Math in urban settings as well as garnering a better understanding of this school of thought and its uses.
Ethnomathematics is study of both mathematics and culture, or more importantly it’s the way that mathematics and culture interact and the study of this interaction. If you want to read about ethnomathematics’ origins and such, wikipedia has an informative article on the subject. In essence, it is one way to make math relevant to students by bridging what is usually a cold, unsympathetic subject with an aspect of students’ lives. It makes math relevant and a necessary part of one’s being.
Social Justice Math, on the other hand, is a school of mathematics instruction that argues that you can use math to understand and learn about issues of politics, economics and social justice. Contrarily, it also argues that you can use an understanding of these issues to attain stronger math literacy — in effect, to learn math. While critics argue that this form of instruction proselytizes the youth with strong biases from the left, social justice math provides students with the opportunity to judge the fairness and necessity of decisions made by our society based on statistics and mathematics facts. For a more detailed understanding of social justice math, visit radicalmath.org. Similar to ethnomathematics, social justice math also makes math relevant, but in a different way. Here, math becomes a tool for enabling students to understand the world in which they live, and the basis for the decisions that our culture makes.
When I first heard of both maths, I was scoffed at their use. In terms of urban education, however, I suspect that of the two, Social Justice Math might be more useful. Therefore, for my CI project, I would like to discover how Social Justice Math can be used in urban education. To this end, I feel that it would be terrific to have developed a website that could serve as a tool to using Social Justice Math in urban settings as well as garnering a better understanding of this school of thought and its uses.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
I, Too, Sing America
I, Too, Sing America
by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
While the assignment this week was to reflect on the major influences that shape schools in urban centers, I thought that I’d begin with this Langston Hughes poem as I feel that the themes central to the birth of the urban schools are reflective in the poem, and in general, in the lives of lower-income nonwhites, in particular African Americans, Latinos, and indigenous Americans. One of these central themes is exclusion. As in Fruchter’s book, Urban Schools Public Will whether it takes the form of segregation, suburban growth, or globalization, exclusion is a central influence in the shaping of the urban center and its schools. There can be no argument that prior to Brown, nonwhites (or more correctly non-WASPs) were excluded from many walks of life. We are all familiar with the photographs of the restaurants that excluded “coloreds,” as well as the stories of separate drinking fountains for whites and nonwhites. Less familiar --but just as important-- are the hotels, businesses, and clubs that were “restricted” — a term that referred to those organizations that restricted Jews from entrance.
While this exclusion became illegal in schools after Brown, it spurred on resistance from the dominant majority, or as Fruchter decides: the white majority. While one cannot refute that there was resistance in the south which in turn signaled the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, I remain unconvinced that this struggle was as simple as Fruchter paints it. I wonder if it was in fact some subset of white culture — in particular WASPs— that resisted. I digress.
Fruchter further argues that Brown helped contribute to suburban growth. While unfounded fear of African Americans is evident in both Fruchter’s vignette of life in Camden, as well as in documents from the era (cf. Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun), I question his claim that Brown’s inclusion of nonwhites in “white” schools was responsible for the exodus of middle-class and working-class families from the cities and into the suburbs during the 1950s and 60s.
Whatever the origins of this flight, there can be no doubt that by abandoning the urban centers for the greener pastures offered by suburbia (in accordance with the construction of highways and roads that separated the suburbs from the city, both literally and economically), has had a grave impact on the development of the urban centers and those schools that are found within. In this case, exclusion has lead to a diminishing of local funding for education. The results are obvious: Lacking the funds for proper education, schools and facilities within the urban centers will erode and fall into squalor; lacking these funds and the facilities in which to teach, students will not be prepared with the tools necessary to succeed in the modern world; lacking these tools, they and their progeny will not reach a higher-income level and be able to better themselves. In effect, this exclusion has created a serfdom composed mostly of African Americans, Latinos, and immigrants.
And it gets worse. In the more recent world, Fruchter argues that globalization continues what Brown and suburban growth began in the 1950s. In truth, globalization is but the newest incarnation of exclusion in the twenty-first century. With the departure of different industries (whether they be in manufacturing or labor) either overseas or to suburbia, there should be no surprise that low-income areas whose constituents have been abandoned by commerce, by industry, by most of society, and who have no legal prospects by which to better themselves have become easy targets for crime and vice.
Thus, from this crucible of exclusion comes the creation of schools in America’s urban centers. They are poor, crime-ridden areas that seem permanently broken, and not at all to their own fault. This undeniable situation begs poignant questions: When will tomorrow come; when will America’s darker brothers will be welcome at the table; when will they be seen as beautiful? When will they, too, be America?
by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
While the assignment this week was to reflect on the major influences that shape schools in urban centers, I thought that I’d begin with this Langston Hughes poem as I feel that the themes central to the birth of the urban schools are reflective in the poem, and in general, in the lives of lower-income nonwhites, in particular African Americans, Latinos, and indigenous Americans. One of these central themes is exclusion. As in Fruchter’s book, Urban Schools Public Will whether it takes the form of segregation, suburban growth, or globalization, exclusion is a central influence in the shaping of the urban center and its schools. There can be no argument that prior to Brown, nonwhites (or more correctly non-WASPs) were excluded from many walks of life. We are all familiar with the photographs of the restaurants that excluded “coloreds,” as well as the stories of separate drinking fountains for whites and nonwhites. Less familiar --but just as important-- are the hotels, businesses, and clubs that were “restricted” — a term that referred to those organizations that restricted Jews from entrance.
While this exclusion became illegal in schools after Brown, it spurred on resistance from the dominant majority, or as Fruchter decides: the white majority. While one cannot refute that there was resistance in the south which in turn signaled the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, I remain unconvinced that this struggle was as simple as Fruchter paints it. I wonder if it was in fact some subset of white culture — in particular WASPs— that resisted. I digress.
Fruchter further argues that Brown helped contribute to suburban growth. While unfounded fear of African Americans is evident in both Fruchter’s vignette of life in Camden, as well as in documents from the era (cf. Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun), I question his claim that Brown’s inclusion of nonwhites in “white” schools was responsible for the exodus of middle-class and working-class families from the cities and into the suburbs during the 1950s and 60s.
Whatever the origins of this flight, there can be no doubt that by abandoning the urban centers for the greener pastures offered by suburbia (in accordance with the construction of highways and roads that separated the suburbs from the city, both literally and economically), has had a grave impact on the development of the urban centers and those schools that are found within. In this case, exclusion has lead to a diminishing of local funding for education. The results are obvious: Lacking the funds for proper education, schools and facilities within the urban centers will erode and fall into squalor; lacking these funds and the facilities in which to teach, students will not be prepared with the tools necessary to succeed in the modern world; lacking these tools, they and their progeny will not reach a higher-income level and be able to better themselves. In effect, this exclusion has created a serfdom composed mostly of African Americans, Latinos, and immigrants.
And it gets worse. In the more recent world, Fruchter argues that globalization continues what Brown and suburban growth began in the 1950s. In truth, globalization is but the newest incarnation of exclusion in the twenty-first century. With the departure of different industries (whether they be in manufacturing or labor) either overseas or to suburbia, there should be no surprise that low-income areas whose constituents have been abandoned by commerce, by industry, by most of society, and who have no legal prospects by which to better themselves have become easy targets for crime and vice.
Thus, from this crucible of exclusion comes the creation of schools in America’s urban centers. They are poor, crime-ridden areas that seem permanently broken, and not at all to their own fault. This undeniable situation begs poignant questions: When will tomorrow come; when will America’s darker brothers will be welcome at the table; when will they be seen as beautiful? When will they, too, be America?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Frames of Media
Before delving heavily into each form of media and what I gleamed from those interpretations, I wanted to mention that I grew up in Southeast Asia, and attended all International/American private schools, so my view of American Public School is entirely dictated by the media. I have no firsthand experience. That said, I tried to write about media that others have not, but have found it difficult at best, and a disappointment at worst. What I have discovered, however, is that the major difference expressed among rural, suburban, and urban education in the media is the source of their conflicts.
Generally, media that deals with urban education focuses on external conflicts from the community and how these act as social barriers, or hurdles, for students to negotiate in order to succeed in their lives. While these will often focus on a teacher or students, the main source of conflict is between the students’ lives in school and the demands of their lives outside of school. Generally, the external forces involve difficult choices for minors that could drastically dictate the course of their lives.
Suburban education as it is portrayed in the media dwells less on immediate external societal pressures — like working in a factory to support the family — and more on school-centric conflicts. Media that focus on suburban education tend to dwell on the conflicts endemic on students bound for college, on relationships, and on social participation (cheerleading, dancing, sports, or band). Regarding this facet of the media, the attention tends to not be on the external social status of the student, but the internal social status and how the student negotiates to the desired goal (college, a date, making the state competition).
Finally, rural education as it is portrayed in the media tends to be either an extension of suburban education, tends to focus on more traditional Christian values, abuse, or can be a blending of both urban and suburban issues juxtaposed against the under-developed regions of the United States. The theme that “townsfolk” of rural America are naïve, backwards, and bumpkins, appears as well.
Film
Urban: Hoop Dreams
Hoop Dreams is the story of two boys from the Cabrini Green projects in Chicago who are recruited to St. Joseph’s High School in the Chicagoland suburbs to participate in St. Joe’s outstanding Basketball program. While some might argue that this is less a movie about urban education, and more one about the struggle of two inner-city youths as they negotiate school-life in the suburbs, I argue that as it is about two students from the inner city, each of whom deals with a wealth of extracurricular activities pertaining to their lives in Chicago amidst attending school and experiencing the wealth of activities therein related, that it can be classified as a film about urban education.
Suburban: Ping Pong
Having not attended school in Japan, I wasn’t sure if this was set in the city or in a suburb. However, as this movie is more concerned with two students and their time on the school ping pong team, I felt that it was more indicative of suburbia, than of urban life. In this movie, Peco is a brash high school ping pong player with a lot of spirit and talent, but no discipline. His close friend, Smile, is also on the team, and is much better than Peco, but lacks his friend’s enthusiasm: It’s just a game to him. In this movie, their coach tries to inspire Smile, but after much enthusiasm discovers that he has a better chance of inspiring him by treating him as a person, and less so as a student.
Rural: The Music Man
The Music Man is the story of con man Professor Harold Hill who arrives in the quiet Iowa town of River City under the guise of a band leader. His goal: To sell uniforms and band instruments to the town, and skip out with the profits. In this musical-turned-movie, the Iowans are seen as gullible, but also conservative Christians who fear the results of gambling. There isn’t a lot of education or formal teaching going on in this movie, short of piano lessons as given by local librarian Marian Paroo, we do see Hill inspiring many youths to join his band.
Television
Urban: The Wire, Season 4
Similar to Hoop Dreams in terms of problems the students encounter at home, season 4 of The Wire delves into the lives of four boys living in the slums of West Baltimore and new teacher, Prez, who tries to reach his students. Unlike the TV shows depicting suburbia or rural America (see below), the stakes in The Wire are higher: This show follows the lives of these four boys as they are lured into the drug trade and the ramifications these choices will have not only for them, but for the lives of those that intersect with their own.
Suburban: Saved By the Bell
Saved by the Bell is an idyllic show from the early 90s that focuses on a multicultural cast of teens attending a high school in middle-class, suburban America. Unlike most movies, the show is more student-centric, focusing on the hijinks of Zack and his friend Screech, their friends A.C., Jessie, Kelly, and Lisa, and their oft run-ins with Mr. Belding, the Principal of Bayside High School. Although teachers do appear in this show, they do little to propel conflict which generally occurred between Zack and AC, Zack and Mr. Belding, or as a result of a date gone awry.
Rural: 17 Kids and Counting
17 Kids and Counting is one of many reality TV shows that allow viewers to peer into the day-to-day lives of the Duggar Family, a 19-person family in rural Arkansas. While the show focuses more on family life than on school education, the show does on occasion present the Duggars home schooling and interviews the children and their mother, Michele, on their views of home schooling. During these interviews it is clear that the children are fully indoctrinated into their insular and orthodox lifestyle, and that their parents limit what media their children are allowed to experience.
News
Urban: “Computers Sought for City’s Kids,” Courier Post, Feb. 2, 2009
This article from the Courier Post focuses on the philanthropy of 20-year-old, native-born Camden resident, Jeffrey Jones, founder of Miracles Global, Inc. According to Jones, the purpose of the new nonprofit organization is “to collect, money or computers that will be given to Camden schools and eventually … to other ailing districts in the state and throughout the country.” While this article does not focus on teachers or students, it does focus on a member of the community (Jones) and his corporation through which he hopes to aid the students of the inner city. As is he says, "We're living in a globalized economy, a globalized world, and inner-city kids are being disconnected," he said. "They're at such an informational disadvantage."
Suburban: “East Longmeadow girls basketball team wins eighth straight game,” The Republican, January 30, 2009.
This article also doesn’t address students or teachers, directly, but does remind residents that East Longmeadow High School’s girls basketball team is now the number one girls basketball team in suburban West Massachusetts. The article also presents the rankings and scores of other teams in the region, as well as in other sports (hockey) and among preparatory schools. This article exemplifies many articles about suburban education by focusing on a product of education that is highly valued by that society.
Rural: “Parents: Cuts Will Hit Rural Schools Hardest,” Daily Press (Richmond, VA), January 27, 2009.
This article from the Daily Press, a newspaper out of Richmond, Virginia, addresses the effects of the dwindling economy on rural education. This article highlights how the state of Virginia has proposed eliminating all field trips from the budget of Matthews School (a community school in rural VA) as well as eliminating the positions of non-teaching staff (secretaries, janitors, and IT). Residents whose children attend the school are outraged, declaring that slashing field trips will diminish the quality of the education.
Music
Urban: Another Brick in the Wall
While this song does not directly mention that it takes place in an urban setting, the tone of the song suggests an abusive, totalitarian environment where students are no more than bricks that need to be hammered into place. In this song, the students are depicted as victims, while teachers are depicted as bullies. Given the rough, no-nonsense environment typically indicative of urban education, I feel this song can fit under this category.
Suburban: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
While this is a musical, and not a song, per se, I felt it would be appropriate to place it in this category, as no one song really captures to me the whole idea of the musical itself. Unlike the previous song, this set of songs is based in the school gym of a (presumably) suburban middle school, in which 6 quirky contestants are competing in a county spelling bee, while moderated by 3 equally-quirky teachers. Students in this musical are portrayed as being overly self-conscious, highly intelligent, and highly diverse in terms of their backgrounds. The teachers on the other hand are less uniform and more problematic: one is a former winner, re-living her glory days through the students, one is an apathetic ex-con, and the last is a nervous vice-principal who as feelings for the first teacher. While the play is clearly a satire of school, adolescence, and the characters in suburban school, it also represents a neat analysis of our frames of reference and how we view the education in suburbia.
Rural: Broken Heartland
Broken Heartland is a country song that depicts rural America as a place where everything is changing, and living is hard. The song focuses on a lone farmer whose children have left for college where they can get an education that will get them off the farm. The song also illustrates that rural America is being torn-up and put aside to make way for the hegemony of suburbia, evident by the foreclosure on the farmer’s land and the building of a new mall.
Generally, media that deals with urban education focuses on external conflicts from the community and how these act as social barriers, or hurdles, for students to negotiate in order to succeed in their lives. While these will often focus on a teacher or students, the main source of conflict is between the students’ lives in school and the demands of their lives outside of school. Generally, the external forces involve difficult choices for minors that could drastically dictate the course of their lives.
Suburban education as it is portrayed in the media dwells less on immediate external societal pressures — like working in a factory to support the family — and more on school-centric conflicts. Media that focus on suburban education tend to dwell on the conflicts endemic on students bound for college, on relationships, and on social participation (cheerleading, dancing, sports, or band). Regarding this facet of the media, the attention tends to not be on the external social status of the student, but the internal social status and how the student negotiates to the desired goal (college, a date, making the state competition).
Finally, rural education as it is portrayed in the media tends to be either an extension of suburban education, tends to focus on more traditional Christian values, abuse, or can be a blending of both urban and suburban issues juxtaposed against the under-developed regions of the United States. The theme that “townsfolk” of rural America are naïve, backwards, and bumpkins, appears as well.
Film
Urban: Hoop Dreams
Hoop Dreams is the story of two boys from the Cabrini Green projects in Chicago who are recruited to St. Joseph’s High School in the Chicagoland suburbs to participate in St. Joe’s outstanding Basketball program. While some might argue that this is less a movie about urban education, and more one about the struggle of two inner-city youths as they negotiate school-life in the suburbs, I argue that as it is about two students from the inner city, each of whom deals with a wealth of extracurricular activities pertaining to their lives in Chicago amidst attending school and experiencing the wealth of activities therein related, that it can be classified as a film about urban education.
Suburban: Ping Pong
Having not attended school in Japan, I wasn’t sure if this was set in the city or in a suburb. However, as this movie is more concerned with two students and their time on the school ping pong team, I felt that it was more indicative of suburbia, than of urban life. In this movie, Peco is a brash high school ping pong player with a lot of spirit and talent, but no discipline. His close friend, Smile, is also on the team, and is much better than Peco, but lacks his friend’s enthusiasm: It’s just a game to him. In this movie, their coach tries to inspire Smile, but after much enthusiasm discovers that he has a better chance of inspiring him by treating him as a person, and less so as a student.
Rural: The Music Man
The Music Man is the story of con man Professor Harold Hill who arrives in the quiet Iowa town of River City under the guise of a band leader. His goal: To sell uniforms and band instruments to the town, and skip out with the profits. In this musical-turned-movie, the Iowans are seen as gullible, but also conservative Christians who fear the results of gambling. There isn’t a lot of education or formal teaching going on in this movie, short of piano lessons as given by local librarian Marian Paroo, we do see Hill inspiring many youths to join his band.
Television
Urban: The Wire, Season 4
Similar to Hoop Dreams in terms of problems the students encounter at home, season 4 of The Wire delves into the lives of four boys living in the slums of West Baltimore and new teacher, Prez, who tries to reach his students. Unlike the TV shows depicting suburbia or rural America (see below), the stakes in The Wire are higher: This show follows the lives of these four boys as they are lured into the drug trade and the ramifications these choices will have not only for them, but for the lives of those that intersect with their own.
Suburban: Saved By the Bell
Saved by the Bell is an idyllic show from the early 90s that focuses on a multicultural cast of teens attending a high school in middle-class, suburban America. Unlike most movies, the show is more student-centric, focusing on the hijinks of Zack and his friend Screech, their friends A.C., Jessie, Kelly, and Lisa, and their oft run-ins with Mr. Belding, the Principal of Bayside High School. Although teachers do appear in this show, they do little to propel conflict which generally occurred between Zack and AC, Zack and Mr. Belding, or as a result of a date gone awry.
Rural: 17 Kids and Counting
17 Kids and Counting is one of many reality TV shows that allow viewers to peer into the day-to-day lives of the Duggar Family, a 19-person family in rural Arkansas. While the show focuses more on family life than on school education, the show does on occasion present the Duggars home schooling and interviews the children and their mother, Michele, on their views of home schooling. During these interviews it is clear that the children are fully indoctrinated into their insular and orthodox lifestyle, and that their parents limit what media their children are allowed to experience.
News
Urban: “Computers Sought for City’s Kids,” Courier Post, Feb. 2, 2009
This article from the Courier Post focuses on the philanthropy of 20-year-old, native-born Camden resident, Jeffrey Jones, founder of Miracles Global, Inc. According to Jones, the purpose of the new nonprofit organization is “to collect, money or computers that will be given to Camden schools and eventually … to other ailing districts in the state and throughout the country.” While this article does not focus on teachers or students, it does focus on a member of the community (Jones) and his corporation through which he hopes to aid the students of the inner city. As is he says, "We're living in a globalized economy, a globalized world, and inner-city kids are being disconnected," he said. "They're at such an informational disadvantage."
Suburban: “East Longmeadow girls basketball team wins eighth straight game,” The Republican, January 30, 2009.
This article also doesn’t address students or teachers, directly, but does remind residents that East Longmeadow High School’s girls basketball team is now the number one girls basketball team in suburban West Massachusetts. The article also presents the rankings and scores of other teams in the region, as well as in other sports (hockey) and among preparatory schools. This article exemplifies many articles about suburban education by focusing on a product of education that is highly valued by that society.
Rural: “Parents: Cuts Will Hit Rural Schools Hardest,” Daily Press (Richmond, VA), January 27, 2009.
This article from the Daily Press, a newspaper out of Richmond, Virginia, addresses the effects of the dwindling economy on rural education. This article highlights how the state of Virginia has proposed eliminating all field trips from the budget of Matthews School (a community school in rural VA) as well as eliminating the positions of non-teaching staff (secretaries, janitors, and IT). Residents whose children attend the school are outraged, declaring that slashing field trips will diminish the quality of the education.
Music
Urban: Another Brick in the Wall
While this song does not directly mention that it takes place in an urban setting, the tone of the song suggests an abusive, totalitarian environment where students are no more than bricks that need to be hammered into place. In this song, the students are depicted as victims, while teachers are depicted as bullies. Given the rough, no-nonsense environment typically indicative of urban education, I feel this song can fit under this category.
Suburban: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
While this is a musical, and not a song, per se, I felt it would be appropriate to place it in this category, as no one song really captures to me the whole idea of the musical itself. Unlike the previous song, this set of songs is based in the school gym of a (presumably) suburban middle school, in which 6 quirky contestants are competing in a county spelling bee, while moderated by 3 equally-quirky teachers. Students in this musical are portrayed as being overly self-conscious, highly intelligent, and highly diverse in terms of their backgrounds. The teachers on the other hand are less uniform and more problematic: one is a former winner, re-living her glory days through the students, one is an apathetic ex-con, and the last is a nervous vice-principal who as feelings for the first teacher. While the play is clearly a satire of school, adolescence, and the characters in suburban school, it also represents a neat analysis of our frames of reference and how we view the education in suburbia.
Rural: Broken Heartland
Broken Heartland is a country song that depicts rural America as a place where everything is changing, and living is hard. The song focuses on a lone farmer whose children have left for college where they can get an education that will get them off the farm. The song also illustrates that rural America is being torn-up and put aside to make way for the hegemony of suburbia, evident by the foreclosure on the farmer’s land and the building of a new mall.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Frames of Reference
When I think of teachers, I do not think of community leaders, or of role models. I do not think of all the varied problems with which they must face daily, or of the tremendous responsibility that they wield. Instead, when I think of teachers, what comes to mind is not their great abilities, but their lack thereof. As a student, however, I did not harbor any such feelings. At that age, teachers were paragons of the community — they were the standards by which the community should elevate itself. Anyone who took it upon herself to teach another should be applauded for her philanthropy and selflessness. All of this changed, however, when I became an editor of mathematics.
As an editor, I discovered that most teachers are not the paragons of ability I had originally believed. It was like the day I had discovered that Santa Claus was not real. I was mortified. To my chagrin, very few teachers of math actually know the math they teach. In the realm of mathematics, many teachers cannot find pi on a number line, let alone understand the concept of irrational numbers— those of nonterminating, nonrepeating decimals. Many have trouble understanding the difference between fractions, rates, odds, and percents, further lacking the facility to explain this difference to students. Most teachers specialize in teaching, not mathematics, and so know little more of the subject than their students. This allows for conceptual misunderstandings which when transcended to their students, expounds errors further. Since coming to Montclair State, I have discovered this is not true for all teachers of math, yet the reality is clear: Teachers are no more special than any other specialized group of professionals — some know the field better than others; to be an exemplar of the group requires work, patience, and desire.
Unlike my view of teachers, I view school and students with more of a balanced frame. In an ideal world, school is the stage upon which the future (students) begins. It is a crucible into which students arrive with preconceived notions, where these students challenge orthodoxies, and are challenged by tenants that may run orthogonally to their own views; as graduates, these students exit as young leaders ready assume their responsibilities in civilian life. From my experiences as a student, however, school is far more complicated. While schools can be benevolent centers of possibility, they are also troubling locales where bureaucracy rules, where internal politics can prevent the occurrence of good teaching, and where strife between administrators and unions can interfere with the main purpose of the institution — the education of the student. Open a local newspaper sometime, or stop to talk to the disgruntled teachers picketing outside the local train station; schools, despite their austere appearance are centers for internal brouhahas and political scrimmages.
At the same time, students are a complicated lot. Amid all their potential, there is equally the likelihood that they may turn to vice, to crime, or to apathy. Middle school and high school are self-conscious periods in students’ lives. For me, middle school was a period of fights, of visiting the principal’s office, and meeting with the school counselor. High school was about discovering who I was and what I wanted from life. Both were periods of great transition. Truly, students’ search for meaning to life and their part in it begins here. They want desperately to belong to something of their own making or choice. At the same time, they are unsure if they can trust the opportunities presented at school. Some students seize these opportunities with great excitement. Others examine them hesitantly, skepticism eliminating their curiosity. Many depart school, drawn away by more appealing —or necessary— opportunities that lie outside of the realm of academics. Taken altogether, it is an upsetting picture.
At the heart of all these topics —teachers, students, and schools— is the urban center. Referred colloquially as the inner city, Random House Dictionary defines this area as “an older part of a city, densely populated and usually deteriorating, inhabited mainly by poor, often minority, groups.” It is more than that. It is the culture where students live, where the school resides, where teachers work. It is the society where teachers and students come together under the auspices of a school. It is full of possibility, even if it exists amid congestion, crime, broken homes, and low-income families.
Examining all these factors together, one might assume that I would shy away from teaching in the inner city — many of its teachers lack the necessary education to enable learning, the schools do not engender learning, the student drop-out rate is staggering, and the neighborhood has been abandoned by the municipality to drug lords, gangs, and other vices. It paints a grim picture, indeed.
Knowing that teachers in the inner city may be ill-prepared to teach, you might guess that I would look down upon my cohorts in teaching. On the contrary, I see it as a call to aid my future peers in teaching. As a fellow teacher, I hope that I can be the peer whom they can call upon to garner a better understanding of mathematics, while also learning from them what it is to be a teacher. After all, no amount of theory and methods can completely prepare a pre-service teacher for actual service. Further, I know that my opinion of teachers will propel me to be a better teacher in terms of instruction, accessibility, and support of my students. This leads me to my feelings on students and how I will interact with them.
Knowing of the struggle that many students face in secondary school, I see it as my duty as an enabler of learning to provide content and an atmosphere conducive to their needs. It is my feeling that many students turn from school due to inaccessibility and lack of structure. Not only does much of school seem irrelevant, it does not address their needs. When your parents are absent, and your younger sister is pregnant, homework seems trivial, especially if it has no relation to you, and seems to provide you with little assistance to your troubles. Without the necessary support from their teachers, it is no wonder students drop out.
It further seems necessary to negotiate a fair structure and topics with students. Mathematics is generally considered the hardest of subjects, mostly due to its inaccessibility. It is a language that never gets the same level of attention in its mastery as English or Spanish. Due to this lack of facility, many students “check out.” They decide that it is too difficult to learn. Who can blame them? Most textbooks and instruction show no relation to the real world. It is all about symbols and numbers. It is all about people getting on-and-off a pair of trains, each traveling 60 miles per hour in opposite directions. What does this have to do with their lives? I feel it my duty to make that connection with students. Math is more than just irrelevant facts and common story structures. It is a way of thinking. Therefore, it is my duty as a teacher to negotiate with my students what we study in mathematics within a natural frame such as algebra, or geometry, or trig. It is further my duty to bring meaning to the subject so that they might see how it relates to their lives, and how knowing it can provide them with an added edge in life.
Taken together, I believe that these assumptions and beliefs will help force me into a nurturing professional that strives to make mathematics accessible, meaningful, and useful. It will force me to create classrooms that are reflections of the society that my students will someday help to create. It is my hope that these will be unique classrooms where my students will engage in projects that relate both to mathematics and to their lives, enabling them not only to appreciate mathematics’s place in the world, but also arming them with the tools they will need to be active, thinking members of society.
As an editor, I discovered that most teachers are not the paragons of ability I had originally believed. It was like the day I had discovered that Santa Claus was not real. I was mortified. To my chagrin, very few teachers of math actually know the math they teach. In the realm of mathematics, many teachers cannot find pi on a number line, let alone understand the concept of irrational numbers— those of nonterminating, nonrepeating decimals. Many have trouble understanding the difference between fractions, rates, odds, and percents, further lacking the facility to explain this difference to students. Most teachers specialize in teaching, not mathematics, and so know little more of the subject than their students. This allows for conceptual misunderstandings which when transcended to their students, expounds errors further. Since coming to Montclair State, I have discovered this is not true for all teachers of math, yet the reality is clear: Teachers are no more special than any other specialized group of professionals — some know the field better than others; to be an exemplar of the group requires work, patience, and desire.
Unlike my view of teachers, I view school and students with more of a balanced frame. In an ideal world, school is the stage upon which the future (students) begins. It is a crucible into which students arrive with preconceived notions, where these students challenge orthodoxies, and are challenged by tenants that may run orthogonally to their own views; as graduates, these students exit as young leaders ready assume their responsibilities in civilian life. From my experiences as a student, however, school is far more complicated. While schools can be benevolent centers of possibility, they are also troubling locales where bureaucracy rules, where internal politics can prevent the occurrence of good teaching, and where strife between administrators and unions can interfere with the main purpose of the institution — the education of the student. Open a local newspaper sometime, or stop to talk to the disgruntled teachers picketing outside the local train station; schools, despite their austere appearance are centers for internal brouhahas and political scrimmages.
At the same time, students are a complicated lot. Amid all their potential, there is equally the likelihood that they may turn to vice, to crime, or to apathy. Middle school and high school are self-conscious periods in students’ lives. For me, middle school was a period of fights, of visiting the principal’s office, and meeting with the school counselor. High school was about discovering who I was and what I wanted from life. Both were periods of great transition. Truly, students’ search for meaning to life and their part in it begins here. They want desperately to belong to something of their own making or choice. At the same time, they are unsure if they can trust the opportunities presented at school. Some students seize these opportunities with great excitement. Others examine them hesitantly, skepticism eliminating their curiosity. Many depart school, drawn away by more appealing —or necessary— opportunities that lie outside of the realm of academics. Taken altogether, it is an upsetting picture.
At the heart of all these topics —teachers, students, and schools— is the urban center. Referred colloquially as the inner city, Random House Dictionary defines this area as “an older part of a city, densely populated and usually deteriorating, inhabited mainly by poor, often minority, groups.” It is more than that. It is the culture where students live, where the school resides, where teachers work. It is the society where teachers and students come together under the auspices of a school. It is full of possibility, even if it exists amid congestion, crime, broken homes, and low-income families.
Examining all these factors together, one might assume that I would shy away from teaching in the inner city — many of its teachers lack the necessary education to enable learning, the schools do not engender learning, the student drop-out rate is staggering, and the neighborhood has been abandoned by the municipality to drug lords, gangs, and other vices. It paints a grim picture, indeed.
Knowing that teachers in the inner city may be ill-prepared to teach, you might guess that I would look down upon my cohorts in teaching. On the contrary, I see it as a call to aid my future peers in teaching. As a fellow teacher, I hope that I can be the peer whom they can call upon to garner a better understanding of mathematics, while also learning from them what it is to be a teacher. After all, no amount of theory and methods can completely prepare a pre-service teacher for actual service. Further, I know that my opinion of teachers will propel me to be a better teacher in terms of instruction, accessibility, and support of my students. This leads me to my feelings on students and how I will interact with them.
Knowing of the struggle that many students face in secondary school, I see it as my duty as an enabler of learning to provide content and an atmosphere conducive to their needs. It is my feeling that many students turn from school due to inaccessibility and lack of structure. Not only does much of school seem irrelevant, it does not address their needs. When your parents are absent, and your younger sister is pregnant, homework seems trivial, especially if it has no relation to you, and seems to provide you with little assistance to your troubles. Without the necessary support from their teachers, it is no wonder students drop out.
It further seems necessary to negotiate a fair structure and topics with students. Mathematics is generally considered the hardest of subjects, mostly due to its inaccessibility. It is a language that never gets the same level of attention in its mastery as English or Spanish. Due to this lack of facility, many students “check out.” They decide that it is too difficult to learn. Who can blame them? Most textbooks and instruction show no relation to the real world. It is all about symbols and numbers. It is all about people getting on-and-off a pair of trains, each traveling 60 miles per hour in opposite directions. What does this have to do with their lives? I feel it my duty to make that connection with students. Math is more than just irrelevant facts and common story structures. It is a way of thinking. Therefore, it is my duty as a teacher to negotiate with my students what we study in mathematics within a natural frame such as algebra, or geometry, or trig. It is further my duty to bring meaning to the subject so that they might see how it relates to their lives, and how knowing it can provide them with an added edge in life.
Taken together, I believe that these assumptions and beliefs will help force me into a nurturing professional that strives to make mathematics accessible, meaningful, and useful. It will force me to create classrooms that are reflections of the society that my students will someday help to create. It is my hope that these will be unique classrooms where my students will engage in projects that relate both to mathematics and to their lives, enabling them not only to appreciate mathematics’s place in the world, but also arming them with the tools they will need to be active, thinking members of society.
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