{"id":3199,"date":"2017-11-07T00:47:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T05:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/?p=3199"},"modified":"2017-11-07T00:47:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T05:47:27","slug":"math-education-researchers-deserve-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/blogonmathblogs\/2017\/11\/07\/math-education-researchers-deserve-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"Math Education Researchers Deserve Respect"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what has become sadly routine, right-wing news sites started publishing inflammatory articles about a professor whose work they don\u2019t like about two weeks ago. (I am not linking to their stories in this post because they contribute to this scholar\u2019s harassment.) In this case, it was a math education professor at UIUC, Rochelle Guti\u00e9rrez. Her <\/span>faculty profile<\/span><\/a> begins, \u201cDr Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019 scholarship focuses on equity issues in mathematics education, paying particular attention to how race, class, and language affect teaching and learning.\u201d She is being harassed because in a chapter of a book about math education<\/a>, she wrote that mathematics teaching can reinforce white supremacy and that math has a level of unearned privilege in society, just like whiteness does.<\/span><\/p>\n

I understand why some mathematicians have had negative reactions towards these statements. Is she calling us racist? We\u2019re good people! We\u2019re not racists. Math isn\u2019t white. By saying that it is tangled up in whiteness, she’s showing us that she\u2019s the Real Racist! One of my best mathematician friends is black\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

If someone wandered into an algebra seminar and said everything in it was wrong because a group doesn\u2019t have to have inverses because any collection of anything is a group, mathematicians wouldn\u2019t take their criticism seriously. They would (kindly, I hope) explain that mathematicians use a particular technical definition for that word and that the person needed to learn a little more about the foundations of the subject before lobbing criticism at seminar speakers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most mathematicians do not have much training in education or social science research. We don\u2019t always know the terminology, assumptions, or methods in those fields. It\u2019s arrogant to assume we can swoop in and understand education researchers\u2019 work better than the researchers themselves do, especially when our understanding is based on a few inflammatory news articles. Mathematicians absolutely should participate in discussions about math education research and practices, but we should do so with humility and a willingness to do some background research.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of a knee-jerk reaction about Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019 work, what if we (and by <\/span>we<\/span><\/i> I mostly mean mathematicians who are who are not from racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in math or who feel defensive about the idea of white privilege in math) started with the assumption that she has thought about and studied these questions for a long time and probably isn\u2019t a quack? What if we started by assuming people who study math education know more about it than research mathematicians who don\u2019t study math education, that they, like mathematicians, are experts in their fields? Once we do that, how can we learn more about Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019 work and what can we do to help her and other scholars who become the targets of harassment campaigns?<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad you asked! In the weeks since Dr. Guti\u00e9rrez became a target, many math and math education bloggers have blogged and tweeted (using the hashtag #<\/span>IStandWithRochelle<\/span><\/a>) about race and equity in math education, particularly Dr. Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019 work. Here are some of the articles I have seen. I urge you to read them with an open mind and, even if you disagree with them in the end, try to contribute to the discussion about these issues without feeding into the harassment machine. <\/span><\/p>\n

Get up to speed on #IStandWithRochelle with <\/span>this post from the newly launched Equity Mathematics Education blog<\/span><\/a>, which also shared <\/span>this statement of support for Dr. Guti\u00e9rrez from Deborah Ball<\/span><\/a>, math education researcher and president of the American Education Research Association.\u00a0<\/span>At the AMS inclusion\/exclusion blog, Brian Katz also wrote about this incident in his post Complicit Function Theorem<\/a>. (His post includes a link to an earlier i\/e post about\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez’ work<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Math teachers and math education professors who have been influenced by Dr. Guti\u00e9rrez’ work have written in support of her. Jennifer Dao<\/a>\u00a0worked with\u00a0Dr. Guti\u00e9rrez starting as an undergraduate and writes, “This is the professor who embraces the beauty of mathematics, strives for equity in mathematics education, and recognizes the politics surrounding the teaching of mathematics.” Jose Vilson reminds us that math was never neutral<\/a>. Matt Felton-Koestler defines some terms<\/a> and writes a about math and white privilege in a post on his blog. Trevor Warburton writes that<\/a> “Dr.\u00a0Guti\u00e9rrez\u2019s influence on my work is without equal” and describes some of his reflections about whiteness in math education and her generosity to him when he was starting his dissertation work in math education.<\/p>\n

As I wrote at the top of this post, harassment campaigns like this are becoming more and more common. Inside Higher Ed published an article about <\/span>how to support academics under attack two years ago<\/span><\/a>, and it is still relevant.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In what has become sadly routine, right-wing news sites started publishing inflammatory articles about a professor whose work they don\u2019t like about two weeks ago. (I am not linking to their stories in this post because they contribute to this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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