Anti-racist mathematics

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Anti-racist mathematics is a branch of education reform theory that attempts to form an anti-bias curriculum in mathematics. It emphasizes the sociocultural context of mathematical education and suggests that the study of mathematics in Western societies has traditionally exhibited racial or cultural bias. While 'anti-racist mathematics' and 'ethnomathematics' scholars share the assumption that any given mathematical understanding or practice is a product of a particular culture, the forms of their scholarship differ considerably and should not be confused with one another.

1 Purpose
2 Criticism
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Purpose

Anti-racist mathematics is primarily concerned with the way in which mathematics is taught, although it also examines the contents of the curriculum in as much as this might reasonably differ from universally acceptable mathematical education. An anti-racist approach to mathematics education could include any or all of the following:

Discussion of the mathematical knowledge of ancient civilisations outside of Europe, and non-European contributions to mathematical knowledge and discovery.
The avoidance of racial stereotyping when forming and communicating expectations of pupils' attainments in mathematics.
The avoidance of racial stereotypes or cultural bias in classroom materials, textbooks, coursework topics and examination questions.
Effective and unprejudiced methods of distinguishing between the merits of individuals. In particular, by ensuring equal exposure to examinable learning materials and opportunities as well as standardised examination methods. In this case, it would be highly prudent to ensure a method of examination that is public and open to cross-examination (certainly by ensuring that complaints and ambiguities in either examination methods or marks are dealt with openly [publicly] and in a non-secretive way). Clearly repeat examinations are less likely to misrepresent mathematical abilities.

Proponents of anti-racist mathematics believe that anti-racist education programs have the potential to correct imbalances and to have beneficial results on test scores and examination results in some minority groups.

[edit] Criticism

An early critic of anti-racist mathematics was then-current UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who said in her address to the Conservative Party Conference in October 1987: "Children who need to be able to count and multiply are learning anti-racist mathematics, whatever that is."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Woodrow, D. (1989). Multicultural and anti-racist mathematics teaching. In P. Ernest (Ed.), Mathematics teaching: The state of the art (pp. 229-235). London: Falmer.
Cotton, A. (1990). Anti-racist mathematics teaching and the national curriculum. Mathematics Teaching, 132, 22-26.
Levidow, L. (1987). Racism in scientific innovation. In D. Gill and L. Levidow (Eds.), Anti-racist science teaching (pp. 43-58). London: Free Association.
Vance, M. (1987). Biology teaching in a racist society. In D. Gill and L. Levidow (Eds.), Anti-racist science teaching. (pp. 107-123). London: Free Association.
Young, R. M. (1987). Racist society, racist science. In D. Gill and L. Levidow (Eds.), Anti-racist science teaching. (pp. 16-42). London: Free Association.
Mears, T. (1986). Multicultural and anti-racist approaches to the teaching of science in schools. In J. Guadara, C. Jones and K. Kimberley (Eds.), Racism, diversity and education (pp. 154-166). London: Hodder and Stoughton.
The Politics of Anti-Racist Mathematics in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Political Dimensions of Mathematics Education, (Ed. R. Noss), Institute of Education Publications, University of London, 1990.
The Politics of Anti-Racist Mathematics, European Education Journal, July 1994, pp.67-74
Harding, Sandra. The Science Question in Feminism. 1986.