Social Justice Conference in Mathematics Education

Social Justice Conference in Mathematics Education

On December 2-3, 2022, a special two-day conference on “Integrating Social Justice Issues in Mathematics Education: Sharing Teachers’ Learnings” was hosted jointly by the Ateneo Mathematics Department Didactics of Mathematics Research Group (DiMRG), and the Philippine Council of Mathematics Teacher Educators (MATHTED), Inc. The hybrid conference was held in Escaler Hall, drawing 65 onsite and 122 online participants. It sought to provide math educators with a new perspective: that of widening the purpose of math education to include responsible citizenship, and give educators channels to connect to one another, with the greater aim of supporting each other in this work.

The conference was the culmination of a year-long interdisciplinary project on "Teachers Exploring the use of Social Justice Investigations in Mathematics Teaching in the Philippines", funded by a University Research Council grant that began in January 2022. The Project involved a group composed of researchers from the DiMRG, the Department of Philosophy, external consultants from the Philippine Department of Education, and visiting professor Bill Atweh, who has done extensive work in the field.

The conference began with a thought-provoking keynote address by Eric “Rico” Gutstein, professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois, known for his work on integrating social justice in the mathematics classroom and his book, “Reading and Writing the World with Mathematics: Toward a Pedagogy for Social Justice”. Gutstein narrated his personal experience with using mathematics to help his students think critically about social issues they faced in their community. Gutstein then challenged the audience to use mathematics to help their own students analyze and understand social reality, to investigate what is going on in their lives, or in the world around them, and through the process, have a deeper understanding of mathematics, while “preparing to create, with others, a new and better world”.

Different ways to take on such a challenge were presented by high school mathematics teachers who had journeyed with the research team for almost 10 months. Each teacher talked about their own efforts to integrate their chosen social justice issues with their mathematics lessons: Diane Aniban (Access to Quality Health Care with Mathematical Modeling); Rolando Embudo (Unemployment with Amortization); Amabelle Hipolito (Access to Quality Education with Exponential Functions); Dale Pradel (Social Sensitivity with Sampling Techniques); and James Saludares (Poverty with Fractions, Decimals and Percentage). Queena Lee-Chua, professor of Mathematics at the Ateneo, also shared how she had incorporated service-learning into her college-level mathematics classes, and the effect this had on her students and the community they were working with.As the teachers shared about their struggles and reflected upon what they had learned from the experience, they showed that while the work to incorporate social justice issues in math education is no easy task, it is doable.

Such teachers’ agency in implementing a new, previously untried strategy to utilize math as a powerful tool to develop responsible citizenship was a theme in Bill Atweh’s plenary address. Atweh tackled the question, “Why worry about social justice in math education?” by arguing that if educators believe that math is powerful and important, and believe that social justice is also important, then math has a role in dealing with these social problems. Atweh challenged the notion that the learning of competencies was the main goal of mathematics education and advocated for the use of such mathematical knowledge to understand the world better and change it for the better.

Faculty members Ray Yap and Mia Fernando shared possible ideas on how to design and implement social justice activities. Participants were then given the opportunity to interact with one another in small groups as they brainstormed on possible social justice issues they could integrate with mathematics topics they were teaching. Lively conversations ensued as participants also discussed their anticipated challenges, and proposed steps they could take to integrate social justice upon their return to the classroom.

The conference ended with a panel discussion between Debbie Verzosa, MATHTED president, Bernadeth Daran and Rowena Azada-Palacios, led by Eden Delight Provido-Miro, chair of the Ateneo Mathematics Department. Daran pointed out that integrating social justice is not a deviation from the DepEd curriculum, as the list of 21st century skills it seeks to develop include social and cross-cultural skills; ethical, moral and spiritual values; as well as leadership and responsibility, which are oftentimes left untouched in math lessons. Like Gutstein, the panel pointed out that confidence and competence in learning how to teach critical math does not come immediately, nor easily: it entails much preparation, and work. Part of the process means going out of a teacher’s comfort zone and asking questions whose answers are unknown, or finding many answers to one question. Nevertheless, the time and effort spent on this iterative process of creation and refinement produces results that are well worth the effort, as students respond to the opportunity to use math to think about their world.

For many of the participants, the conference was an eyeopener: it was their first time to hear and talk about integrating social justice in the mathematics classroom. On the other hand, some participants realized that they had already begun to explore ideas related to responsible citizenship even before the conference, but just needed to deepen these ideas and make deliberate connections between the math content and the social justice issue they wanted to explore. Some participants expressed their fear of stepping into unchartered territory and the lack of time to prepare a social justice lesson, but were reassured that if they take small, well-planned steps, and find people to do it with, the work gets easier.

Overall, the conference provided for the beginning of an ongoing conversation between mathematics educators that will hopefully be a source of inspiration and support to all interested in helping their students critically explore issues that really matter.

-

Text and Photo: Maria Theresa Fernando