closer to fair: social justice in mathematics mathematics for social justice dr. david t. kung st....

Closer to Fair:

Social Justice in Mathematics

Mathematics for Social Justice

Dr. David T. Kung

St. Mary's College of Maryland

(’00 Gold Dot)

Two ActsAct 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics

How can we make our classrooms / institutions / profession more just?Act 2 – Mathematics of Social Justice

How can we teach students to fight for social justice now and in the future?

Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics

Imagine this is a math class on your campus. The professor is teaching Calculus. The mostly white students sit quietly listening/texting/sleeping. A student walks in late.

Where does the student sit?

… the student is: President of the Math Club? an African-American male who never talks to

the other students? a 50 year old, Hispanic woman, returning to

college to be a high school teacher? a first-generation woman, who wasn’t sure if

she wanted to be a math major?

Where does the student sit if…


Equal treatment of students

≠

Equal Experience for students

“Dave doesn’t treat his students equally, he treats them fairly.”

- anonymous student

Equal vs. Fair



Q: How are we doing keeping students in STEM?

Source: NSFBachelor's degrees awarded, by field, citizenship, and race/ethnicity of recipients: 1995–2004www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf07308/content.cfm?pub_id=3633&id=2

1987

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

Science Degrees as Proportion of All Undergraduate Degrees

Biology

Chemistry

Comp. Sci.

Math

Physics

Engineering

Year

Pe

rce

nt

of

All

De

gre

es

Q: How are we doing with women in STEM?


19

87

19

89

19

90

19

91

19

92

19

93

19

94

19

95

19

96

19

97

19

98

20

00

20

01

20

02

20

03

20

04

20

05

20

06

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

Gender of Undergraduate Majors - by Field

All Fields

Science & Eng.

Biology

Chemistry

Comp. Sci.

Math

Physics

Engineering

Year

Pe

rce

nta

ge

of

Wo

me

n

Q: How are we doing with minorities in STEM?


1987

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

18.0%

20.0%

Underrepresented Majors - by Field

All Fields

Science & Eng.

Biology

Chemistry

Comp. Sci.

Math

Physics

Engineering

Year

Pe

rce

nta

ge

of

Un

de

rre

pre

se

nte

d S

tud

en

ts

1987

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

Demographics of Mathematics Majors

All Underrepresented Minorities

Black, non-Hispanic

Hispanic

HBCU

Year

Per

cen

tag

e o

f al

l Mat

h M

ajo

rs

Q: How are we doing with minorities in math?


13.4%

14.8%

Why do minority students fail in Calculus?

(Uri Treisman, UC-Berkeley, 1970’s)

Common guesses: Poor preparation Lack of motivation Lack of family support Socio-economic forces

Data: These guesses are all wrong.


Stereotype Threat (Steele & Aronson)

Q: What affects underrepresented students’ performance?

A: The thought that they are underrepresented.


What do the data say?

We lose women and minorities in math and the science at every step of the pipeline from middle school through professorships, even when controlling for: preparation Motivation


The problem isn’t them, it’s us.


What can we do in college math departments? Take responsibility for how students

experience your classroom Be aware of gender/race issues Emerging Scholars Programs Women in math programs (Carleton,

Nebraska, Georgetown) Get your students to support each other Be a mentor


Lessons of Emerging Scholars Programs Students rise to meet academic challenges Social interactions impact academic

performance

Intermission

Two ActsAct 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics

How can we make our classrooms / institutions / profession more just?Act 2 – Mathematics of Social Justice

How can we teach students to fight for social justice now and in the future?

Sample Activity:

Annual Hospital Report

Administrator: 90% of patients who spend the night check out within a week.

Nurses: 80% of the patients in the hospital right now have been here over a year!

Can they both be right?

Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice

Both can be right!

Similar statistics hold for people:• welfare• unemployed• without health insurance

Your agenda determines the statistics you use!


What our students need:

Global Temps and

CO2 emissions

positively correlated

(corr. coeff. = 0.86)

What does this

mean?

(www.skepticalscience.com)


http://www.skepticalscience.com/

What we give them:


What our students need:

McCain: "Sen. Obama's secret that you don't know is that his tax increases will increase taxes on 50 percent of small business revenue.“

Obama: "Only a few percent of small businesses make more than $250,000 a year. So the vast majority of small businesses would get a tax cut under my plan." "98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000"

Can you reconcile these statements or is one of them lying?


What we give them: Precalculus (toward what end?) Consumer Math (student = consumer) Watered-down hard math (4th dim., infinity)



Another way:

Mathematics for Social Justice

(math to improve the world)


Math for Social Justice Models: Writing-intensive First Year Seminar (Lisa

Marano) Service Learning (Rob Root) Survey of Math Course w/ Projects (me) Statistics (Lily Khadjavi) Incorporating SJ issues into existing classes

(climate change calculus – Tom Pfaff)

Overview of Math for Social Justice (MFSJ) Other implementations SMCM

Sample Activities Correlation (fast food and obesity) Lorenz Curve / Gini Coefficient (wealth

distribution)

Brainstorming activities Add social justice issues to your class Issues – find the math Math content – connect it to issues

Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice

Math 131 - Survey of Mathematics: Mathematics for Social Justice

(TR, 2pm, Kung)

In this section of Survey we will use mathematics to better understand justice, fairness, and equality. Then we will use that new knowledge to improve the world.


Math for Social Justice goals: Develop the ability to question numbers Develop the inclination to question numbers Knowledgably participate in our democracy Be an effective activist Positive last math course


Math for Social Justice course topics: Quantitative literacy Large Numbers Percentages Statistics Distributions (wealth, health care spending, etc.) Surveys Voting Financial mathematics


What the Numbers Say, Niederman & Boyum

10 Habits of Highly Effective Quantitative Thinkers

1. Only Trust Numbers

2. Never Trust Numbers

3. Play Jeopardy (what

question does the # answer?)

4. Pareto’s Law

…


Reading the News

Idea: practice questioning numbers (inclination)

Early in Semester: A’s: post article, highlight numbers B’s: post questions about the numbers

End of the Semester: A’s: post article, questions B’s: use outside resources to answer those

questions


Semester Projects: Use Math to Improve the World

Proposal: each student proposes a project, pitches it to the class

Voting: students rank top 10

Groups of 2-4 carry out project, write paper, present work.


Semester Projects:

Ideal: use math to improve the world

Examples: solar water heating on dorms free trade products in coffee shop campus composting program fair funding of public schools video game about credit cards


Questions on Math for Social Justice Classes?

(at SMCM or elsewhere)

Coming soon… Sample activities Brainstorming your own activities


Sample Activities:

Fast Food and Obesity Lorenz Curves and Gini Coefficents


Gini Coefficient: 0.2479

Lorenz Curve for SMCM Salaries

Gini Coefficients Across the World

Source: Wikipedia

Gini Coefficients Around the World

National Center for Policy Analysis http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st261?pg=7

Brainstorm your own activities:

How could you add social justice content into your current classes?

What social justice issues are important to your students? What mathematics could you leverage with those issues?

Take a particular mathematical topic. Find a social justice angle that addresses this topic.


Resources: Tom Pfaff’s Sustainability Page

(faculty.ithaca.edu/tpfaff/) Creating Balance Conference (Oct. 2010)

(creatingbalanceconference.org/) Gapminder (www.gapminder.org/)


http://faculty.ithaca.edu/tpfaff/



http://creatingbalanceconference.org/

http://www.gapminder.org/

Gapminder (www.gapminder.org/)


http://www.gapminder.org/

Rich topics: Climate change Oil production / peak oil Incarceration rates Wealth distribution Finance (credit cards) Environmental racism Renewable energy / payback times Local issues


Brainstorm your own activities:

How could you add social justice content into your current classes?

What social justice issues are important to your students? What mathematics could you leverage with those issues?

Take a particular mathematical topic. Find a social justice angle that addresses this topic.


Thanks!

Questions? Comments?

[Email: [email protected]]


closer to fair: social justice in mathematics mathematics for social justice dr. david t. kung st....

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