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Seeing culture and power in mathematical learning: toward a model of equitable instruction

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Abstract

This paper is centered on creating equitable opportunities for learners in mathematics education. Through observations of teacher practice, the paper seeks to theorize how teachers enact their dispositions toward mathematics instruction. These observed propensities, in relation to teachers’ aims for students to “take up their space” in and beyond the mathematics classroom, then inform a model of equitable mathematics instruction. Teachers’ dispositions are considered in relation to Mason’s discipline of noticing and Bourdieu’s notion of the symbolic violence of dominant discourses.

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Notes

  1. The school demographics at the time of the study were 24% African American, 9% Asian, 7% Filipino, 35% Hispanic or Latino, and 22% White, not Hispanic, students.

  2. This study examined the relation between reform-oriented mathematics teaching and classroom equity.

  3. The school demographics at the time of the study were 44% Black, 29% White, 15% Hispanic or Latino, 9% Asian or Asian American, and 2% other.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank William Penuel, Kris Gutiérrez, and Rochelle Gutiérrez for their helpful comments and feedback.

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  1. University of Colorado, 249 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Victoria Hand

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Correspondence to Victoria Hand.

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Hand, V. Seeing culture and power in mathematical learning: toward a model of equitable instruction. Educ Stud Math 80, 233–247 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-012-9387-9

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