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.