{"id":1004,"date":"2017-08-17T16:51:59","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T20:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/inclusionexclusion\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2017-08-27T15:10:20","modified_gmt":"2017-08-27T19:10:20","slug":"discussing-justice-on-the-first-day-of-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/inclusionexclusion\/2017\/08\/17\/discussing-justice-on-the-first-day-of-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussing Justice on the First Day of Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have written in other public fora that math is not apolitical<\/a>, that the implicit messages in our silence on these issues is damaging to students<\/a>, \"\"<\/a>and that mathematics has particular bigoted elements in its history and present framing that we must engage actively<\/a>. In light of the attention being drawn to white supremacy and the related terrorism in part due to last weekend’s events in Charlottesville, I am planning on opening the discussion of these themes on my first day of class next week. In this post, I will discuss 10 ideas for starting this conversation<\/a>, explain 3 more detailed lesson plan case studies<\/a>, and list resources shared with me by others<\/a>. Readers are encouraged to comment with their own ideas<\/a>, so the list of resources will grow.<\/p>\n

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Some people, including both students and educators, have suggested that math class is not compatible with discussing justice or diversity. While I reject this assertion and think I’ve refuted it in the links above, I am left without many established models for doing this work. There already exist useful resources lists for doing this kind of work under the hashtags like #CharlottesvilleSyllabus<\/a> or #CharlottesvilleCurriculum<\/a>, but most of these tools are for general purposes once the topic is opened. Given the perceived disconnect between math and discussions of identity and equity that some of my students bring to class, I am instead trying to open this conversation in a way that is specific to math. In particular, I think I am more likely to be effective in this work if I can help my students see these discussions as naturally connected to and appropriate for my courses.<\/p>\n

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JMM panel on Hidden Figures<\/p><\/div>\n

In this post, I’m going to describe the kernels of ideas I have for this opening connection. I am definitely not the expert in either making these connections or leading the opened discussions, but I have ideas that might be useful. I encourage you to comment below in order to share other kernels.<\/p>\n

My context is specific and peculiar, as is each of ours. In an effort to support generalizations of these ideas, I’m going to organize them around the aspect of the course\/discipline that I’m connecting with justice or bigotry.<\/p>\n

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\nPedagogy and course design:<\/strong> I’m going to explain the way I think learning works, so I can easily mention that part of the decision-making process involves thinking about whether it disenfranchises some students. Similarly, the work in my classroom is going to be powered by collaborative effort on tasks that are too challenging for individuals and that require multiple perspectives for optimal outcomes. In other words, this course requires diverse perspectives and will demonstrate that this outcome is more than the sum of its parts, and so is our society.<\/p>\n

Diversity in the discipline:<\/strong> Several groups of people are underrepresented in our discipline. I can connect this issue to my students’ futures, talking about what we can do to address this problem, starting with our classroom. With the visibility of the film Hidden Figures, there’s also a chance that students are aware of the need to look for mathematical expertise outside of the ranks of white men. Profiling a particular mathematician (and assigning students to do other profiles during the term) opens the door on discussions of the barriers placed before some people based on demographics.<\/p>\n

History of the discipline:<\/strong> Proof writing is revisionist history, and the western view of math as ahistorical implicitly supports white and male supremacy by making other contributions invisible. Talking about the disciplinary narratives can open up that discussion. I think that the racism and intellectual imperialism themes in The Man Who Knew Infinity are particularly powerful and may be accessible through clips of the film. Similarly, there are historical figures in math who used to loom large<\/a> but whose legacies are being reconsidered<\/a>; talking about these movements offers a connection to the movements that seek to move statues of Civil War generals from pedestals to more thoughtful critiques.<\/p>\n

Equitable access for students:<\/strong> College is seen as a bottleneck for people who seek prosperity and other forms of respect, and math is seen as a further bottleneck within this context. Reframing the course around success for all is an opportunity to counter the supremacists’ claim that access for more people would mean either lower standards for all or fewer resources for those who are privileged by the status quo.<\/p>\n

Content:<\/strong> If I’m going to consider an application or foundational example from the course, the context could just as easily be about topical issues. Reason quantitatively or statistically about incarceration rates; model rates of change in family wealth; consider the logical structure of a statement about racism; talk about important challenges in the world that require the skills from your course. Vi Hart<\/a> has some nice videos that use mathematical concepts to discuss current events.<\/p>\n

Personal experience with the discipline:<\/strong> Lots of us have struggled with math and felt that the system rejects us, and the rest have seen this system treat someone we care for terribly. My graduate program was notably more diverse than others, in part because of efforts by faculty like Karen Uhlenbeck, but I have plenty of stories of fellow grad students being treated as incompetent based on gender or race and birth country.<\/p>\n

Institutional history and local data:<\/strong> My students find local data and stories specific to this institution to be particularly compelling. We are significantly more diverse than we were even five years ago, though there certainly have been racist backlash events on campus. This year, we have a huge increase in the size of our international student population. I could engage the college-wide common readings and the institutional mission statement. In terms of a historical, mission-centered story, this Lutheran-affiliated college had an interesting reaction to the Scopes “monkey trial”: college leadership announced that taking their faith seriously meant looking at the world rather than assuming they knew it, so they established a department of Geology. I’m sure there’s a way to use this story to make space to discuss rejecting domestic terrorism today.<\/p>\n

Policy statements:<\/strong> Leading professional organizations, including the MAA, AMS, CMBS, and NCTM, have made statements either overtly about equity and justice in our field or that are grounded and justified by these concepts. Discussing these or quoting them on a syllabus is a powerful way to connect a conversation from one classroom with larger disciplinary norms.<\/p>\n

Epistemology of the discipline:<\/strong> Viewing math as universal and absolute is a double-edged sword. Overtly, it suggests that all are welcome in math regardless of demographics and identity. In practice, this also means that the identity of white and male has been allowed to step into the position of “normal” without question or resistance (or even being seen as a step) while caring about or having any other identity is excluded, making the environment hostile. If the universality is shifted back to the ability of anyone to make arguments with the awareness that these arguments are judged and valued by groups of people, we can perhaps help math live up to its utopian ideals. The false equivalencies of the status quo and this intentional reformulation has strong parallels to the corruption of the founding ideals of the United States by white nationalists and their reformulation by more progressive thinkers (including James Baldwin’s excellent “The Fire Next Time”<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Other course components:<\/strong> Put these ideas in the syllabus and make sure the students read it. Send a pre-course reading, but make sure you scaffold students in reading it. Survey your students; even asking students their pronouns signals that you resist normative oppressions. Ask them to write a MathBiography about their experiences with and identity in math. Embed ongoing reading and reflection in the course. I would suggest “Teaching Mathematics with Women in Mind”<\/a> and the Myth of Genius<\/a> for gender and have heard good things about “Weapons of Math Destruction”<\/a>. I would also recommend this presentation by Dave Kung<\/a> about diversity in the discipline, perhaps more for us than for students. My list of readings for students related to race is sadly thin.<\/p>\n

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Before I conclude with three lesson plans as case studies, I need to make two points:<\/p>\n

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  1. I am tenured and I present as a white male to students who have just met me. My actions (or my silence through inaction) is filtered through this positioning. My privilege gives me a strong position from which to insist that we discuss these issues, my positioning may mean that the students who most need to rethink their privilege might listen to me because they think I may be like them, and my silence (were I to choose it) would be validating for the status quo and hurtful to those who most need support. These factors are different for different faculty, and I am certain that these differences impact instructors’ options for engaging these topics.<\/li>\n
  2. The ideas above vary in goal and depth of engagement with issues of identity, justice, and bigotry. Some send strong signals to vulnerable students that you are an ally but may slip past other students unnoticed. Some help establish classroom norms that resist bigotry but function without overt reference to white\/male supremacy as they go forward. Some bring students’ thinking to the surface or even seek to teach\/change them actively. My sense is that we want all of these elements in our courses and that we want them spread intentionally across the course for sustained impact. I do think that the distribution will depend on the context.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Case A: 1+1=2<\/strong><\/p>\n

    One of the derisive comments on some of my previous writing used “1+1=2” as an example of a patently, in the commenter’s mind, apolitical math, trying to show that I was off base. I disagree.<\/p>\n