Talk:Anti-racist mathematics
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[edit] Info
The book "Science Question in Feminism" by Sandra G. Harding is a sort of precursor to all this. It contains the following explanatory quote:
- If we are not willing to try to see the favored intellectual structures and practices of science as cultural artifacts rather than as sacred commandments handed down to humanity at the birth of modern science, then it will be hard to understand how gender symbolism, the gendered social structure of science, and the masculine identities and behaviors of individual scientists have left their marks on the problematics, concepts, theories, methods, interpretations, ethics, meanings, and goals of science.
That's a chewey sentence to parse, but the gist is that "intellectual structures and practices of science" are "cultural artifacts", not laws of nature, and sexism has affected the "concepts, theories, methods. . . and goals of science."
Anti-racist math is sometimes called ethnomathematics, and proponants sometimes call themselves ethnomathematicians. And here is the Ethnomathematics Digital Library. And here is a book on the topic. It seems to teach a sort of sociology and history of math along with math concepts. You learn addition, but you learn how different indiginous cultures taught addition. It also focuses on visual math (7 X 9 is a rectangle 7 dots wide and 9 dots deep), rather than numerical math.
- that last is obviously a good thing. Considering how badly math is taught in the US, maybe a dollop of anti-racist math is just what we need -- if judiciously applied.
Here's a word from a detractor:
- "The practical effect," Klein says, "has been watered-down math books that overemphasize inductive reasoning (like continuing visual patterns), because this is supposed to be good for women and minorities, and de-emphasizing deductive reasoning and mathematical proofs, which is the heart of mathematics, because that supposedly favors white males. . . ."
Here's a quote that might help, from a poorly-written news story.
- "I think of [multicultural education] as a set of practices that confront the various forms of racism and institutionalized racisms that do exist in schools, as well as the larger society, and thinking of ways of breaking down and deconstructing forms of racism," Christine Sleeter, professor emeritus at California State University at Monterey Bay and co-editor of "Multicultural Education, Critical Pedagogy, and the Politics of Difference," said. "I think that a whole lot of people are fumbling around with, 'what are the issues?'"
- "One of the ways I would apply anti-racist education to math is to ask, 'why is it that, generally speaking, white kids get better access to upper-level math learning than low-income kids and kids of color?'" Sleeter said. "[And] in what ways might math and science serve as tools for understanding and dealing with various social issues?"
Also, Newton, Massachusetts got some unwanted publicity when re-writing their math curriculum. They were already in a bit of a bind because black students were failing at a higher rate than white students, and charges of racism were being directed at the school. So the new math curriculum was written to emphasize "Newton's commitment to active anti-racist education". The first priority for the class was listed as "Respect for Human Differences - students will live out the system wide core of 'Respect for Human Differences' by demonstrating anti-racist/anti-bias behaviors. Students will: Consistently analyze their experiences and the curriculum for bias and discrimination; Take effective anti-bias action when bias or discrimination is identified; Work with people of different backgrounds and tell how the experience affected them; Demonstrate how their membership in different groups has advantages and disadvantages that affect how they see the world and the way they are perceived by others..." Priority two was actually teaching math.
Needless to say, the conservative press went into a feeding-frenzy over this. (It's a story that makes Massachusetts liberals look really dumb.) Newton insists that teaching math was always the first priority of math class, despite what the curiculum said, and they chalk it up to an anti-liberal witch-hunt.
Feel free to use any of this in the article. I'm not gonna mess with it, personally. – Quadell (talk) (sleuth) 04:52, August 3, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] examples
Can anyone add examples about how an anti-racist math book or math class would differ from those which are not anti-racist? That might help with the difficulty in understanding.
[edit] Still confusing
I am about as far to the left as it is possible to be, but I have no idea what this article is talking about; it strongly needs to be clarified. Does this have to do with statistics saying that minorities do worse in mathematics than straight American-born white folks do? Does this have to do with word problems using examples that are ethnically specific? It really needs to explain better. I'm also a bit concerned that most responses to similar issues raised on the talk page have been unhelpful and even a bit hostile. 9 references or not, this article needs clarification. Atropos 03:25, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] editing a dying article
I. While there seems to be a great deal of controversy about whether or not this article should exist, I think it is at least proper that we edit what we do have. For instance, the opening lines are choppy and in no way give a real account of what anti-racist mathematics is: "Anti-racist mathematics is a branch of education reform theory in countries such as the U.S. and the UK, which attempts to form an anti-bias curriculum in mathematics. It emphasizes the sociocultural context of mathematics education and suggests that the study of mathematics (as it is traditionally practiced in western societies) does exhibit racial or cultural bias." It is not necessary to mention the US and the UK in the definition of the branch. While this is important information, it breaks up the sentence and puts too much emphasis on the geographic origin of the theory. I would like to suggest mentioning the countries later in the article, but at this time, I am just going to remove them because it will make the lead more coherent. The second sentence is terrorized by the words in parentheses and needs to be set free so that we can see exactly how wordy it is. I think it would be better severed if written: "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."
II. Lets work on some sources; Who actually practices or supports this theory and under what pretense? The lead needs to cite at least one major proponent of anti-racist mathematics or everyone will continue to take the entire article as a joke. In fact, other than in the list of sources, there are no names given in the entire article that would suggest that this is an area of study that should be taken seriously.The article can't make statements like "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" without giving us any indication of who these proponents are. Moreover,the bulleted points under "purpose"...did these statements appear from nowhere? Who decided that these are the staples of anti-racist mathematics? They should be credited to a source or should be removed as they make claims that can't be added to a encyclopedic article without giving too much power to the author.
III. The criticism section can not contain arguments for the subject The sentence beginning "However" seems to try to refute the main argument given in the criticism section and the whole thing seems to set up merely to be proven incorrect: "However, others dispute there is actual evidence to suggest Newton is practicing "anti-racist mathematics" and pointed out that Newton's eighth-graders demonstrated improved mathematical abilities on standardized tests." ---Who are these "others"?
IV. The Duh factor. This article doesn't give any information about the subject that can be considered an intelligent argument. The main statement that math is not taught the same way everywhere is painfully common sense, and there are no real claims of racism citing specific examples. As it stands, it seems to be an argument for the standardization of education in mathematics so that the human element of grading can not influence test scores...but that in no way implies racism. Thus the whole article needs to be given new facts, renamed, or removed all-together.Mrathel 04:08, 19 June 2007 (UTC) p.s. can someone tell me how to fix my text to stay within a certain margin?
[edit] Criticism section
strictly speaking, the Thatcher quote is not a criticism. Saying "whatever that is" does not really constitute a criticism, it just suggests a negative/dismissive attitude. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.10.12.48 (talk) 12:59, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
