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Activities for Enacting Equity in Mathematics Education Research

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Abstract

This interactive essay serves as a research companion to support the reader in thinking and talking about equity in research design, implementation, and reporting in post-secondary mathematics education. The terms equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice have entered the mathematics education research lexicon. Yet, researchers continue to face significant challenges in gaining a nuanced understanding of the various ideas associated with these words and how those ideas are consequential for research. The authors describe and illustrate tools for making sense of (and making sense with) “equity” as an essential component of research. The tools focus on self-aware communication, an essential component of enhancing mathematics education research with an equity lens. The authors offer a set of reflective questions, outline the call for courageous conversations in mathematics education research, and provide a tool for engaging in such conversations. The piece closes with suggestions for further reading and prompts for related challenging conversations about equity in rigorous research in post-secondary mathematics education.

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Notes

  1. Rather than discuss the political semantics of using the terms “color blindness” and “colormute,” we have left the original authors’ uses in quotes.

  2. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer.

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Acknowledgements

Our profound thanks go to the colleagues who contributed their time and energy to conversations and reviews of drafts of this essay and to the patient and immensely helpful reviewers of the manuscript as it was prepared for publication. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. DUE-1625215 and DUE-1432381.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA, 94132, USA

    Shandy Hauk

  2. WestEd, 730 Harrison St, San Francisco, CA, 94107, USA

    Shandy Hauk & Katie Salguero

  3. University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd, Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA

    Allison F. Toney

  4. Katy, TX, USA

    April Brown

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Correspondence to Allison F. Toney.

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Hauk, S., Toney, A.F., Brown, A. et al. Activities for Enacting Equity in Mathematics Education Research. Int. J. Res. Undergrad. Math. Ed. 7, 61–76 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-020-00122-9

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