Unexpected Implications of Project

Photo: Students working on Iraq War group math project

Gutstein (2006) wrote that the following of the importance of a social justice pedagogy: "students themselves are ultimately part of the solution to injustice, both as youth and as they grow into adulthood" (p. 39). The unexpected implication of my social justice based math program was just that, my students developed into critical citizens who both wanted to discuss social justice issues and wanted to share their opinions, using the support of mathematics, with others in hopes of being part of the solution.

The student's began to develop a sociopolitical consciousness through discussions that sprang out of math lessons during the social justice based math units. In a teaching journal entry from March 21, 2008 I wrote the following concerning this shift:

Yesterday my students presented their final group projects for their immigration group project (The wall). What was most interesting was the discussions that ensued after presentations. The students were appalled at the cost and had all (seemingly) come to see it as unjust to the people of Mexico and the people living in border towns. I was surprised and gratified by these unexpected and important discussions. The students were really using math to understand a real world social justice issue.

The students engaged in learning about social justice issues and learned how to use mathematics as a tool for understanding and discussing complex real world issues. They began to see math as a valuable tool for understanding the world. In response to the interview question, "How has math helped you understand the world?," June Jacobs stated the following:

Math can help me understand it is because the math shows people and me what the real world is like, how much does this really add up to? You may hear a number of people being killed in Iraq and it doesn't seem as much but then when it's written out there in number form people look at it and say, 'that's ridiculous, that's an insane number, nobody should be dying that much in something like a war.' People pay more attention to it when they see it in that big number that's written out. (personal communication, June 3, 2008)

This shows that she was seeing math as a tool for understanding complex social justice issues. She clearly articulated how analyzing the numbers had helped her and could help others understand the human cost of the Iraq War.

Gutstein, E. (2006). "The real world as we have seen it": Latino/a parents' voices on teaching mathematics for social justice. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 8, 331-358. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ740244)

Specific Results from Student Interviews

The interviews I conducted with my students were fascinating and yielded the overall result of an increase in engagement due to the social justice based mathematics units. What follows are some specific questions I asked in the interviews and the student's responses.

In response to the interview question “What is your favorite way to learn math at school and why?” many students explained that they enjoyed the social justice based math units. Student 1 (personal communication, June 3, 2008) responded as follows:

I liked the group projects. I liked learning about all the different things that is happening around the world. And what we mainly talked about was all the prices and I also liked learning with ST Math and when you plan lessons for us.

Student 3 (personal communication, June 3, 2008) agreed:

My favorite way to learn math is the math group projects. I think those are really fun. I know they take a lot of time up but they are worth it to do because you get to work with other people and you get to research a lot and also using math.

Student 6, Student 10, Student 9, and Student 4 also said that their favorite way to learn math was when they worked in groups during the social justice based math units. Student 6 explained that she liked doing the group projects because “it’s not just me trying to figure it all out. I have people helping me.” Overall, six out of the nine students in my grade math class specifically said that their favorite way to learn math was in the small group projects I used in the social justice mathematics unit. A few also noted that they liked doing the research on the computer during the units.

In response to the interview question “How has your view or opinion of mathematics changed during these two units? Do you like math more or less after doing these two units or the same?” students either reported that they liked math more or that their opinion of math had not changed. One of the students whose opinion of math did not change, student 8 (personal communication, June 3, 2008) said the following: “My view or opinion of math hasn’t changed much because I’ve always been pretty good at math and it can be hard and frustrating at times.” Student 1’s (personal communication, June 3, 2008) opinion had changed and she said, “After the two units I like math more because I learned that you don’t just have to learn about like certain things. You can do a bunch of different things in math.” Student 6 (personal communication, May 29, 2008) also said that she liked math more after the units and gave some reasons for this change:

I think I like math more now because it seems more fun when we do these because you get to talk with your friends about it and it brings up a better discussion like if (Student 4) and I are at recess we would like bring up the discussion of the Iraq War and we’d spend the whole recess talking about that and we’d even come to class and we’d still be talking about it.

Overall, in response to this question 55.5% of the students in my math class stated that they liked math more because of the social justice mathematics units. The other 44.4% stated that their opinions about math had not changed. This shows that a majority of the student’s learned to enjoy math more because of the social justice based mathematics units. This is my best measure of student engagement, if students like math more they are also very likely to be more engaged in math.

The student interviews showed that students were engaged in the social justice mathematics units. The students approved of the units and hoped to do more in the following school year. Their enthusiasm was evident in their interview responses as I conducted the interviews and as I transcribed them.

Rusults Without Surprises

Photo: A student organizes her research on the War in Iraq

The data I collected via student surveys, student interview, student work samples, reflections, my teaching journal, parent surveys, and my professional development reflections revealed that my students were more engaged and more academically proficient in mathematics after the implementation of the two social justice based mathematics units described in earlier posts.

In short, the result of my study is that a Social Justice based mathematics program increases student engagement and achievement in mathematics.

These results were not surprising because it had always seemed obvious to me as a teacher that interesting real world based lessons, activities, and assignments would interest students more than traditional mathematics, which my students clearly did not care for. It also seemed very clear that if I could engage my students, they would learn the math and thus do better academically in mathematics. My results didn't surprise me because it just made sense that what I was doing would have a positive result for my students.

In future posts I will share some of my most interesting data. My students said some insightful things that I could not say better and I want to share them with you, my readers.

Data Collection Techniques

After implementing the two social justice mathematics units during spring 2008 I collected a great deal of data. As I was new to AR I didn't know exactly what would be most relevant so I collected everything I could think of.

To determine whether student's had become more engaged in mathematics I collected the following data:

• Post-survey
• Post-interviews (all students)
• Student work (math notebooks and final group projects)
• Student reflections
• My teaching journal
• My professional development reflections
  
• Parent surveys

To determine whether students were becoming more academically more proficient in mathematics I collected the following data:

• Spring 2008 CST results
• Student grades

In my next post I will talk about some of my most relevant results and the conclusions I was able to draw from them.

The Second Social Justice Based Mathematics Unit: The Iraq War

Photo 1: Map of the Middle East used in lesson during Iraq War unit



Photo 2: Me teaching during Iraq War unit

After completing the unit on immigration, which I promise to talk about more in a later post, I asked my students to brainstorm ideas for our next social justice based mathematics unit. First we talked about what social justice meant and then we did a brainstorm. After coming up with a list of viable ideas students did a blind vote to choose their focus area. They chose the War in Iraq.

My thoughts were that this was a huge topic but that I could guide them in any direction I wanted and that information was likely to be readily available. Once I knew the topic I started designing their group project. I set it up much like the first project on immigration and they had the same group roles that I shared in my last post. I made some changes to the structure for completion of the project. I laid out more specifics on what each student had to do to get their final project grade. I also considered the California state standards that I needed to cover before the end of the year and made plans for lessons to support the standards.

The final project that I asked students to complete in their small groups was as follows:

Overview of Project

1. Each group will conduct research and use mathematics to determine the costs of the War in Iraq, from both a monetary and a human perspective. Students will use mathematics (graphs, tables, ratios, percentages, etc.) to calculate and display the costs of war (both monetary and human). Groups should look at the costs from both the perspective of the Unites States and Iraq.
   
2. The groups will research, discuss, calculate and display the costs of the War in Iraq in comparison to other governmental costs (schools, healthcare, social security, etc.).
   
3. The groups must create their own budget for the United States. They should both show their budget in a visual display and explain why they believe their choices for allocating the taxpayers money is of high quality and should be adopted.
   

Final Project

The final project must include writing, art, and math. It can be done in the form of a PowerPoint, PhotoStory, Movie, or with a poster board and oral presentation. It can also be a combination of all of the above options. Please be creative in how you present the information you collect and prepare. If you have another idea for how to present your group's work let me know and we can discuss it as an option. There must be an oral or interactive component in the presentation. The presentation must address all three areas of focus and be of high quality.

Grades

Grades will depend upon both the group's final presentation and each student's individual work in their math notebook. Each student will receive two grades: one for their individual contributions and the other for the group's final project.

The students were very excited about this project because it was a topic of their choice. They really wanted to know about the War in Iraq. I worked very hard throughout this unit, as I had in the last, to include multiple perspectives. This was particularly important because I quickly determined that most or all of my students were against the war in Iraq. I made it my mission to bring in other perspectives during the unit. It wasn't hard. In fact, I'd say it was very fun! I'll share more about this later.

Group Work Structure

Photo 1: Students during a lesson during the immigration unit.

Photo 2: Group work.

During the social justice based math units I wanted each student in each group of three to be contributing an equitable amount of work. To this end I created a group structure that included three specific jobs. The students chose their jobs at the beginning of each of the two social justice based math units. The reason I chose this structure was that I read research showing that group work is only effective when it is deliberately and carefully structured. Students were expect4ed to hold regular group meetings. I attended many of their group meetings and gave them periodic grades on what I saw at these meetings. The grades I gave were based on their level of active participation in their groups process.

The group structure I used is as follows:

Leader: Organizes group, focuses and facilitates discussion, and supports other group members in completing their individual and group assignments on time. The leader makes sure all other students are doing their group jobs well and reminds them of duties they are forgetting. At the first group meeting, the leader meets with group to develop the plan for completion of project at the beginning of the project.

Researcher: In charge of researching the finer points of the topic of the project. The researcher uses resources (library, Internet, etc.) to find information about the topic. Other students may do this as well but it is the Researchers job to keep track of what has been learned and explain to the group how it applies to the final project goal. They present their findings and make assignments for future research (to be conducted by themselves or others) at each group meeting. They keep a bibliography of all the sources they use in their math notebook.

Mathematician: The mathematician keeps track of all of the mathematical work involved in the project. They are in charge of seeking outside help (parents, teachers, mathematicians) if needed by the group. They present their findings/progress and make assignments for future mathematical operations at each group meeting. They present their and others progress and needs in this area at each group meeting.

The First Social Justice Based Mathematics Unit

Photo: Student work in math journal from immigration unit.

My first social justice based mathematics unit that I taught with my 6th-7th grade students was focused on immigration. I chose immigration for a variety of reasons. First of all, I knew that it was a hot topic that we would be able to find information about on the internet. Secondly, it was an area my students knew little about and I wanted to open a window for them to see into another reality. Finally, I could find books to connect what I was doing in math to literature as well.

I decided that my unit would have a major project that the students worked through in small groups. For the immigration unit I decided to have students determine the cost of the proposed wall between the United States and Mexico-along the border. They would have to determine the appropriate building materials through research and the price for the materials. They would have to include cost of human labor, cost of any rentals of equipment, cost of materials, and tax. Their final project had to include both audio and visual components and clearly explain the materials, costs, and labor needed to build their version of the wall. The final project also had to include a thorough discussion of the students beliefs about whether the wall is just or not.

The project was scaffolded for student success. They were to work in small groups (3 students/group). In each group each student had a specific role. I will discuss the roles in more detail in a future post. The goal of having specific roles was to make sure that all students were engaged in the group process. Students were to meet with their groups and myself twice a week and they had specific due dates for specific steps they had to complete on the way to their final project.

During the unit I taught frequent mini-lessons to cover the math standards they needed to complete the project. These included lessons on unit conversions, geometry, decimals and fractions, and some more basic math reviews as needed.