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Mathematics, Power, and Language:Implications from Lived Experiences toEmpower English LearnersLida J. Uribe-Flóreza, Blanca Araujoa, Mark Franzaka & JeanetteHaynes Writera

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To cite this article: Lida J. Uribe-Flórez, Blanca Araujo, Mark Franzak & Jeanette Haynes Writer(2014) Mathematics, Power, and Language: Implications from Lived Experiences to Empower EnglishLearners, Action in Teacher Education, 36:3, 234-246, DOI: 10.1080/01626620.2014.917365

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Action in Teacher Education, 36:234–246, 2014Copyright © Association of Teacher EducatorsISSN: 0162-6620 print/2158-6098 onlineDOI: 10.1080/01626620.2014.917365

Mathematics, Power, and Language: Implications fromLived Experiences to Empower English Learners

Lida J. Uribe-FlórezBlanca AraujoMark Franzak

Jeanette Haynes WriterNew Mexico State University

Because the English learners’ (ELs) population is growing in the United States, teacher candi-dates should be provided with experiences that prepare them to effectively teach and empowerlinguistically/culturally diverse students. Teacher candidates should be provided with opportunities tolearn skills that engage ELs in mathematics. In this article the authors present three lived experiencesand analyze how these experiences disempowered/empowered ELs in mathematics classrooms. Thefirst experience reflects a situation of a high school EL student in which she perceived a competitionwith her teacher. The second experience reveals the unintentional message a bilingual elementaryschoolteacher communicated when teaching a mathematics lesson. The last experience portrays theimplementation of a critical math/social studies day in an elementary school that was intended toprovide support to all students. However, after a critical reflection on these experiences we identifyour failure of empowering ELs. The authors invite the readers to be aware of ELs’ emotional andcognitive needs to really feel empowered in the mathematics classroom.

INTRODUCTION

English learners (ELs) are a growing population in our schools. In 2011, the number of ELs inthe United States was estimated to be 5.3 million (National Clearinghouse for English LanguageAcquisition, 2011). According to Payan and Nettles (2006) the student population participatingin English language learner (ELL) programs nationwide was 10.5%. Approximately 79% of ELsare Spanish speaking and most are U.S. born. The growth of ELs across the nation is significant,and in 24 states the growth rate over the period from 1994 through 2005 ranges from 100% to714% (Payan & Nettles, 2006). Based on these data, it is imperative that ELs are provided witheducational experiences that support their empowerment to succeed in life and school.

Academic data reveal that ELs lag behind their peers in academic achievement (NationalClearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, 2011). Due to educational inequities ELs con-tinue to be underserved, often attending low-quality, underperforming schools that are staffed

Correspondence should be addressed to Lida J. Uribe-Flórez, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, New MexicoState University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA. E-mail: ljuribe@nmsu.edu

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MATHEMATICS, POWER, AND LANGUAGE 235

with high numbers of noncredentialed teachers (Sheets, Flores, & Clark, 2011). According to the2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (U.S. Department of Education, 2011), only12% of students identified as ELs scored “at or above proficient” in mathematics in the fourthgrade and only 5% were proficient in the eighth grade as compared with 42% and 35% of non-ELstudents in fourth and eighth grade, respectively.

These data reflect troubling situations that ELs encounter in their mathematics classroomswhen they are not empowered in their learning. In this article we discuss ways in which to supportELs in mathematics classrooms. We then present three lived experiences of ELs in mathematicsclassrooms and analyze how these experiences disempowered or empowered ELs. We concludeby discussing what we, as teacher educators, learned from these experiences. We share our reflec-tions with the intention to engage the readers to critically reflect on actions that empower ordisempower ELs in classrooms.

SUPPORTING ELs IN MATHEMATICS CLASSROOMS

How are we supporting ELs to be empowered in mathematics classrooms? All students,regardless of their individual backgrounds, should be provided with the opportunity to learnmathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2000, 2008) because math-ematics knowledge and skills provide access to educational and economic power (Gutstein,2006). The NCTM (2008) and the Common Core State Standards of Mathematics (CCSS-M)(Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) stress that students whose first language is otherthan English should be supported in the learning of mathematics according to their particularneeds. Therefore, students whose first language is not English should not be penalized because oflanguage (Khisty, 1995); instead, they should be supported while learning mathematics. However,research shows that many ELs are confronted with learning situations in mathematics classroomsthat limit their possibilities to succeed inside and outside the classroom (Gutstein, 2006; Khisty,1995; Meyer, 2000; Sharkey & Layzer, 2000).

In considering the purposes of mathematics education Schoenfeld (2004) asks, “Should math-ematics be seen as a democratizing force or as a vehicle for maintaining the status quo?” (p. 253).Mathematics is usually perceived as neutral, objective, and absolute (e.g., Atweh & Brady, 2009;Borba & Skovsmose, 1997; Tate, 1994). However, positioning mathematics as neutral creates abelief of mathematics as devoid of politics (Sriraman & Steinthorsdottir, 2007), harmless, inno-cent, and without effect on society (Skovsmose, 1997). The traditional neutral point of view ofmathematics education supports a skills-based, decontextualized methodology (Battista, 1999;O’Brien, 1999) stripped of students’ lived experiences (Martin, Gholson, & Leonard, 2010).

The stripping of lived experiences includes the denial and eradication of students’ home lan-guages and the knowledge embedded in those languages. The “neutral” goal is to educate studentsto produce correct answers to narrowly constructed problems (Borba & Skovsmose, 1997; Tate,1994) through mindlessly repeated algorithms (O’Brien, 1999), with work to be done individu-ally (Woodrow, 1997). Battista (1999) described it as “an endless sequence of memorizing andforgetting facts and procedures that make little sense to them” (p. 426). Several researchers deemthese practices as undemocratic and harmful (Atweh & Brady, 2009; Noddings, 1993), like “along term hidden illness that gradually incapacitates its victims” (Battista, 1999, p. 426).

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236 LIDA J. URIBE-FLÓREZ ET AL.

Most educators believe that teaching mathematics to ELs is about implementing new teachingmethods, buying/using new software, and that there is an easy way to help students to under-stand the mathematics content (Moschkovich, 2012). However, the needs of ELs in mathematicsclassrooms are related not only to the mathematics content but also to empowerment in succeed-ing inside and outside the classroom. Educators must be aware of the emotional and cognitiveneeds as well as the situations that ELs encounter while learning mathematics (Celedón-Pattichis& Ramirez, 2012). When heritage language ability is positioned as “language disability” andstudents are marked as not having mathematical learning potential on equal footing with theirEnglish speaking peers, the mathematics classroom becomes oppressive.

ELs require teachers who understand their needs in learning the English language and whoprovide the support needed to maintain and develop their heritage languages. Evidence shows thatthese students can outperform their peers when programs and policies supporting these processesand needs are in place (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2010).

As the number of ELs continues to increase in public schools, the success of these studentsdepends on the teachers’ knowledge of how to effectively address students’ academic, emotional,and linguistic needs. Several scholars have addressed teachers’ understanding of how to workwith linguistically diverse children (Arias & Poynor, 2001; Commins & Miramontes, 2006; dela Piedra, 2007). Arias and Poynor (2001), for example, called for the infusion of cultural andlinguistic traditions of students into the curriculum as an enactment of valuing and respecting thediversity of the students. de la Piedra (2007) addressed teachers making connections of students’life experiences, language use, and identities to the academic context. These connections and theinclusion of students’ cultures are recommended due to the fact that their cultures (language,behaviors, beliefs and values) are usually different than the mainstream culture (Ariza, 2010).

In today’s classrooms, teachers must know about working with ELs and language acquisition.In this way, ELs will have access to content and language knowledge that promotes their success.Making connections between the students’ cultures and the curriculum by valuing what studentsbring with them from home is of great importance. In addition, research has indicated differentstrategies available to empower ELs with mathematics such as organizing instruction in a way thatis meaningful, promoting challenging activities and higher order thinking, planning instructionalactivities to account for language proficiency, and promoting dialogue to engage students in thelearning process (Commins & Miramontes, 2006; Minaya-Rowe & Ortiz, 2010). Some of thesestrategies include demonstrations, illustrations, and real experiences working in small groupscollaboratively, and participating in authentic communication (Haynes, 2010; Lessow-Hurley,2013). We must not forget, however, that these strategies should be implemented with respect tothe languages students bring to the class.

BILINGUALISM AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

In most schools the aim of bilingual programs is for students to acquire English. Even two-way bilingual programs view students who are developing English as being deficient and treatthem as if they were two monolingual children in one (García, 2014). Schools view bilingualismas two separate language systems instead of viewing it as a two-way system. The concept oftranslanguaging should instead be embraced. Translanguaging refers to a dynamic and flexible

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use of both linguistic resources and includes bilingual practices that challenge monolingual bias(García, 2012, 2013, 2014; Hornberger & Link, 2012; Williams, 1994).

Translanguaging does not propose that students keep both languages separate as has beenupheld by many bilingual education programs (Adelman-Reyes & Kleyn, 2010; Collier &Thomas, 2005; Gomez, Freeman, & Freeman, 2005; Lesson-Hurley, 2013; Valdés, 2003). On thecontrary, translanguaging proposes the mixing of languages allowing bilinguals to call uponsocial features adapting their languaging to suit the immediate task at hand (García, 2014).Translanguaging is the bilingual pedagogical practice where students hear or read in one languageand then develop their work in the other language (Hornberger & Link, 2012).

Although translanguaging allows students to become fully bilingual, most schools continueto support a monolingual and assimilationist education in which one language is deemed supe-rior to the other. García (2014) describes four approaches used in schools, shown in Table 1,the first three perpetuate this “superior” perspective. The flexible multiple approach featurestranslanguaging and rejects the assimilationist approach.

In the flexible multiple approach students are encouraged to use their entire linguistic reper-toire to make sense of the content; unfortunately this approach is rarely used in schools (García,2014). Using this approach we can support EL empowerment in classrooms by valuing alllanguages equally. Baker (2006) stated that translanguaging has four potential advantages: It pro-motes a fuller understanding of subject matter, it develops literacy in the students nondominantlanguage leading to full bilingualism, it facilitates home and school cooperation, and it can assistlearners to develop their second language ability concurrently with content learning.

Learning content in a second language is not an easy task. Cummins (1999) explained thedifference in learning a new language in academic settings and nonacademic settings throughbasic interpersonal communications skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency(CALP). BICS refers to the language students need to function in social situations, whereas CALPis the specialized language needed to write, read, listen, speak, and understand in academic con-tent areas (Cummins, 1999). While developing language skills in academic settings, learnerswork on understanding vocabulary related to the subject, however, if teachers do not possessknowledge regarding second-language acquisition or strategies to support students, teachers canharm or delay the students academically (Téllez & Waxman, 2006). Using the flexible multiple

TABLE 1Bilingual Approaches

Approaches Description

The convergent monoliterateapproach

Written text is only in the dominant language and uses the two languages in oralcommunication to transact with the text

The convergent biliterateapproach

Uses two languages in oral communication to transact with written texts in twolanguages but minority practices following majority practices

The separation biliterateapproach

Uses one language or the other to transact with a text written in one language or theother according to sociocultural and discourse norms

The flexible multiple approach Uses the two languages in communication to transact with texts written in bothlanguages and in other sources according to a bilingual flexible norm, capable ofintegration and separation.

Source: Adapted from García (2014).

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approach and allowing translanguaging in class could help reduce the cognitive load required tolearn content in a new language.

LIVED EXPERIENCES

To illustrate the needs of ELs beyond only teaching mathematics content, in the following weshare three lived experiences that occurred in the context of teaching and learning mathematics.The first lived experience reflects a situation an EL experienced in a high school mathematicscourse that resulted in her feeling that mathematics instruction was a competition between her andthe teacher. The second lived experience reveals the unintentional message a bilingual elementaryschoolteacher communicated to his students with a slight change in his teaching when he taughta mathematics lesson. The first two experiences provide examples of events that disempower ELsin mathematics classrooms. The last experience portrays the planning and implementation of acritical mathematics/social studies day in an elementary school that provides a strong exampleof mathematics as a mechanism for students to connect to understand and change the world, yetthe educational experience still failed to value the students’ linguistic diversity. The three livedexperiences reflect situations in which we failed to support ELs in critical ways, yet as teachereducators we have reflected and dialogued on the situations and learned to be pedagogicallyconscious of the emotional and cognitive needs of our students.

Lived Experience 1: I Quit, You Win!

Mayra was a student in Mr. Mark Franzak’s high school geometry class with notable academicstrength. She also was a bilingual student whose conversational English (BICS) masked herdifficulties with academic English (CALP) (Cummins, 1999). As a teacher experimenting withdifferent forms of assessment, Mr. Franzak gave the class an in-depth project rather than a testas a summative assessment at the end of a unit on triangles. The assignment was conceived asa type of capstone project, which required the application of mathematical knowledge, synthe-sis of multiple ideas, and a comprehensive essay in which students verbally detailed the work,supporting mathematics, and conclusions drawn from the experience. The essay component ofthe project was essential for students to show that they were able to do more than rote calcula-tions. Although not specifically stated, all students understood that the paper was to be writtenin English, as Mr. Franzak did not speak Spanish, nor provided any resources to support Spanishspeakers in the class. Mr. Franzak unknowingly erected a significant barrier to Mayra’s successthrough the de facto establishment of an English-only environment (Haynes, 2010). The projectwas broken into multiple parts that when combined provided the proof of an astounding aspectof equilateral triangles—the sum of the distances from any point in the interior to each of thethree sides was always the same, known as Viviani’s theorem. Mayra worked diligently on theproject, and when it was due, she turned in a well-detailed solution to each part. It was clearthat she had mastery over the mathematical foundations and procedures applicable to each sec-tion of the project. However, she had not connected the pieces to make the final conclusion. Mr.Franzak read through her work and returned it to her the next day with the suggestion that shehad everything in place and just needed to tie it together. In essence, Mr. Franzak left the origi-nal assignment intact, rather than modifying it to appropriately support Mayra’s efforts (Abedi,

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Huie Hofstetter, & Lord, 2004; Haynes, 2010). Twenty-four hours later she submitted to him herrevised assignment that included only four additional words, “I quit. You win.”

This experience occurred early during Mr. Franzak’s career, at a time when his pedagogystemmed from traditional approaches to mathematics and did not acknowledge the need to sup-port English learners. Although unintentional, Mr. Franzak created a classroom environment inwhich a number of obstacles served to deter Mayra from gaining access to content and furtherdisempowered her as a mathematics student (Martin et al., 2010; Meyer, 2000). Mayra existedas a multilingual student in a monolingual classroom. Although other students in the class spokeSpanish fluently, the aspects of the classroom experience interrupted the support that Mayra mighthave had. Instruction was based in a typical lecture format. Students sat in rows, and in a teacher-centered model, almost all interactions were between individual students and Mr. Franzak, andalways in English. Student-to-student interaction was minimal, partly based in Mr. Franzak’sadherence to a notion of student performance on an individual basis. Not only was there noimplementation of a bilingual model of education (e.g., García, 2014), access to knowledge viaher heritage language (Moschkovich, 1999) was hindered. Mayra did not have the opportunity towork with other students, to interact with other students or Mr. Franzak in Spanish, build her ownunderstanding of the content in organic ways, or to express her understanding in the language inwhich she was most fluent. The structure of the class negated her cognitive and emotional needs(Celedón-Pattichis & Ramirez, 2012), particularly through the restriction on Mayra’s ability toengage in translanguaging (García, 2014; Hornberger & Link, 2012). Subsequent to this experi-ence, Mayra continued to do the daily work in class, but when asked to support her work withverbal or written explanations she quickly shut down.

Analysis. In four words, Mayra communicated to Mr. Franzak what he had never under-stood: that she was engaged in a battle to gain knowledge, and that he held the ultimate powerto determine her success in that fight. English learners enter the classroom in an atmosphere ofdifferentiated power. Problematic in Mayra’s situation was Mr. Franzak’s lack of understandingof the need to support ELs in mathematics. At this time in his career, he had received no trainingor professional development regarding linguistic diversity (Meyer, 2000; Reeves, 2006) and wasunaware of the extent to which mathematics is not universally accessible to English learners in amonolingual environment. Teachers hold the power to determine what content will be offered foracquisition, what methods students will use to obtain it, what evidence will suffice to demonstratesuccessful acquisition, and what barriers to acquisition will be erected or removed. Even thoughthe actions of Mr. Franzak were well intended, by setting high expectations for achievement ofMayra as an individual, the consequences of his decisions served to worsen the situation (Sharkey& Layzer, 2000). These aspects situated Mayra in a position of disempowerment through inter-rupted negotiation of content, methods, evidence, and language. Ultimately through decisionsthat Mr. Franzak made and instituted with the bestowed power of the teacher, Mayra reached herbreaking point.

Similar to other mathematics educators, at the time, Mr. Franzak was minimally prepared andlargely unaware of the need to support ELs (Reeves, 2006). Later in his career, Mr. Franzakevolved his pedagogy to become more equitable, addressing aspects of his classroom decisionsthat had served to marginalize students such as Mayra. In retrospect, changing from a teacher-centered model, to a student-centered model was significant in establishing the classroom asa learning community (Garrison & Kerper Mora, 1999). Collaborating with Spanish speaking

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colleagues to provide multilingual support on assessment items (Abedi et al., 2004), and incorpo-rating student–student interaction from Spanish speaking students (García, 2014; Hornberger &Link, 2012) helped to create an atmosphere in which students’ first language is seen as a resourcerather than an obstacle validates students as equal members of the class, and begins to addressissues of accessibility based upon language (Moschkovich, 1999). The use of manipulatives,graphical and symbolic representations, context, and vocabulary support to enhance the devel-opment of conceptual mathematics also provide opportunities to solidify learning in mathematics(Garrison & Kerper Mora, 1999). These aspects of changing the structure of the mathematicsclassroom may have provided Mayra the network through which she would have seen herselfas capable and successful, rather than one fighting a losing battle based largely on her ability tonegotiate a terrain filled with obstacles to English learners.

Lived Experience 2: Mathematics is English Only!

Following Joseph, a teacher candidate, into his student teaching classroom, Dr. Jeanette HaynesWriter watched him teach and interact with his fifth-grade, bilingual students three times over thesemester during formal observations. Joseph’s presence in the classroom was one of an engagedteacher, in-sync with each one of his students. The students were active in the learning processeach time Dr. Haynes Writer visited and were always energetic in raising their hands and answer-ing Joseph’s questions as he was teaching. Observing Joseph with the students during a readingperiod, Dr. Haynes Writer noted that Joseph and the students switched back and forth fluidly fromSpanish to English and back again as they read or spoke to each other. During the next observationwhen Dr. Haynes Writer visited, Joseph was teaching mathematics. She watched as the studentslistened to his instructions while he was writing the problems on the plastic sheet so the numbersand mathematical symbols were made visible on the screen in front of them from the overheadprojector. Today was different from the last observation—today Joseph only spoke in English.

After each observational visit, Joseph and Dr. Jeanette Haynes Writer debriefed his teaching:what he felt worked and what he might do differently next time. She asked him why he spoke onlyin English when teaching the mathematics lesson. Joseph was unaware that this had occurred. Sheasked him, “What message might you be giving to the students?” Joseph thought a moment andreplied, “That you have to speak English to do mathematics.”

Analysis. According to Valencia (1997), deficit thinking results in “positing that the stu-dent who fails in school does so because of internal deficits or deficiencies” due to “limitedintellectual abilities, linguistic shortcomings, lack of motivation to learn, and immoral behav-ior” (p. 2). Mathematics teachers consciously or unconsciously, such as Joseph, provide studentswith messages regarding self-worth and academic potential. In this case, these students, whoseheritage language was Spanish, were pedagogically “told” that one must be fluent in English toacquire mathematical knowledge and perform mathematics activities and that their heritage lan-guage was a deficit for them. In his English-only mathematics teaching, Joseph also moved frombeing a teacher in relationship with students to one in an authoritarian position in which studentshad little influence over their own education (Noddings, 1993; Tate, 1994), and by using onlyEnglish, had little access to the mathematical concepts and knowledge. The emotional and cogni-tive needs of the ELs in this classroom were not being supported by the teacher. UnintentionallyJoseph was placing the EL students in a disadvantaged environment during mathematics class

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as compared to their English speaking peers. Although in other subject areas Joseph valued theuse of bilingualism and translanguaging, it was evident that for mathematics Joseph kept bothlanguages separate giving priority to one language over the other not valuing students’ heritagelanguage. This experience falls in line with establishing English as the superior language, andby removing the bilingual component for mathematics instruction, strips ELs of their potential toacquire this knowledge thereby disempowering them (García, 2014; Haynes, 2010).

Lived Experience 3: Mathematics in Context: Learning about Great Barrier Reef

Southwest Elementary is a Spanish/English dual-language school that contains two classes pergrade level with one class being bilingual (English/Spanish) and the other English only. It isone of three schools that work closely with New Mexico State University by allowing teachercandidates to participate in a practicum experience before their semester of student teaching.

Dr. Uribe-Flórez and Dr. Araujo worked with teacher candidates placed at SouthwestElementary and gave the assignment of planning and implementing a set of lessons for a schoolmathematics/social studies day with the following requirements: integration of social studies intomathematics promoting critical perspectives, alignment with state curriculum standards, inclusionof strategies for ELs, inclusion of multiple grade levels, and student and family involvement. Thefollowing example illustrates the experiences of the teacher candidates and the professors in plan-ning, implementing and reflecting on their participation in a critical mathematics/social studiesday.

The teacher candidates proposed to have a team per grade level and brainstorm ideas ofchoosing different countries and creating three activities relating to each country. Although fivecountries were selected with three activities per country planned, in the following example weshare how an activity related to the country of Australia was implemented. A description of theexperience and strategies that were used to teach mathematics and social studies to all students,including ELs, are provided.

Critical Mathematics/Social Studies Day

The day arrived when the teacher candidates were to implement the critical mathematics/socialstudies day in the school. Many teacher candidates seemed nervous yet excited; they came pre-pared with their activities. Some had videos to show to students, others had various forms ofvisuals, and all of them had hands-on projects and manipulatives. Each activity was implementedin small groups (four to six students) lead by one student teacher.

One of the activities discussed herein originated with a third- through fifth-grade group thatchose Australia as the context for their critical mathematics/social studies activities. The activitycentered on the Great Barrier Reef. In this activity, the teacher candidates provided the studentswith information about the ecosystem and beauty of the coral reef. They were given a hand-out containing the percentages of hard coral loss between 1992 and 2003 and viewed a shortvideo, both in English, on the bleaching of the coral reef. The students were encouraged to inter-pret the data from the video and the handout by graphing the percentage of hard coral loss byyear. Students were challenged to determine the status of Great Barrier Reef by the year 2050 ifdeterioration continues at the same rate. Will it exist? How much might disappear?

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Teacher candidates and students discussed causes and effects of deterioration and actions thestudents could take to intervene. They talked about the importance of taking care of this naturalwonder even though the reef was located on a continent different than their own. Further personalconnections were made in this lesson by having the students think and write of other thingsaffected by their environment and environmental changes. Several students mentioned actionsthey could take such as turning off the lights and turning off the TV when not in use which wouldconserve energy. Another student mentioned the importance of recycling as a way of maintainingthe environment. Through this lesson the students felt empowered and were able see themselvesas agents of change.

Analysis. Mathematics holds within it the potential for social transformation due to thesocial analysis that students can perform with it (Gutstein & Peterson, 2013). At the end of thecritical mathematics/social studies day the teacher candidates reflected on the relationship ofmathematics and social studies as used by their students. They noted how the students began toview mathematics as interactive, engaging, and relevant to their lives versus the mindless repeatedalgorithms that O’Brien (1999) alluded to. It was evident by listening to the students’ comments,that by learning about Australia’s environmental conditions, they were able to empathize withthe Australian people. These lessons allowed the students’ lives to intersect with what they werelearning and studying. They were able to realize how global and ecological injustices and theirrepercussions affect the entire world, including their own. And in the same way they were able torecognize that they could make a difference, even if in small ways. The students gained agency inunderstanding the world, their place in the world, and their ability to change the world. By doingthese lessons, teacher candidates and the students were able to realize that they can teach andlearn mathematics in context: learning about Great Barrier Reef.

The described experiences reflect the way in which teacher candidates were able to plan,implement, and reflect on the critical mathematics/social studies day at an elementary school.From the examples provided, one can see some strategies that were used to support ELs. Some ofthese strategies included a comfortable and safe environment, working in small groups, encour-aging real communication through discussions instead of lecturing, working collaboratively, andscaffolding the lessons with demonstrations, illustrations, and real experiences (Haynes, 2010;Lessow-Hurley, 2013). They also had students working collaboratively in groups and involvedin meaningful discussions and hands on projects. Different resources were used such as videoand PowerPoint presentations that provided ELs with extra scaffolding. Based on research byLessow-Hurley (2013) these strategies support learning a new language. Learning through thesocial studies and the study of different countries and situations within the countries, context forthe learning of mathematics was provided. Although the teacher candidates created a secure andlow stress environment in which students felt safe to speak in the language they chose, there wereways in which ELs were being disenfranchised.

Disenfranchising ELs

To assist ELs in developing language adequately through content area instruction, planning mustinclude content objectives and language objectives. ELs require direct instruction of vocabularyused in the content being taught. Although we encouraged the teacher candidates to have contentstandards included in their lessons, we failed to require or even emphasize language objectives.

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Teacher candidates were not required to reflect on what kind of language development couldhave been incorporated into each lesson in order to support ELs in becoming familiar with wordsimportant to make content comprehensible (Lessow-Hurley, 2013). In the case of this particularexample on Australia, words such as reef, coral, ecosystem, bleaching, and catastrophe all mighthave been some of the important vocabulary to be learned for ELs to better understand the content.Teacher candidates did not modify vocabulary for ELs in the classroom, so an opportunity lost tofurther facilitate language development.

Language practices in Spanish were also excluded and only a small part of ELs’ bilingualrepertoire was validated. This in turn created a hierarchy in which English was dominant overSpanish (García, 2014). By having all instruction conducted in English only, the students werenot provided the opportunity to fully engage in their home language practices, and the messagegiven was that English is a more valuable language. Although the students were able to speak inboth languages during oral communication, the written text and other resources such as videosand the PowerPoint presentation were solely in the dominant language. Instead of encouragingbilingualism, this practice leads to monolingualism or what García (2014) terms as the convergentmonoliterate approach. When teaching for true bilingualism and to fully support ELs, studentsshould have been encouraged to read, write, watch movies and videos, and use all resources inboth languages. In this experience, all resources besides oral communication were in English withnot even translations in Spanish available.

CONCLUSION

How do we create mathematics learning experiences that empower ELs? From our three livedexperiences, we can see how easy it is for teachers to feel that they are supporting all studentswithout noticing that the experiences they might be providing are not addressing ELs’ needs.For example even though Joseph was supporting both languages in other content areas, he wasfailing to do so in mathematics class and, as a result, was disempowering the ELs. Similarly,Mr. Franzak is now aware of how keeping high expectations for ELs without providing themappropriate support in classroom structure and assessment modification can be more damagingthan it is helpful. As teacher educators, Dr. Uribe-Flórez and Dr. Araujo were perpetuating theidea of English as a dominant and superior language by asking teacher candidates to implementteaching strategies and the use of tools to support ELs but not requiring them to be aware of thelanguage needs of the students. Just asking teacher candidates to include strategies for ELs intheir lessons does not mean supporting ELs in their empowerment.

We as educators failed in providing ELs with the experiences that value, respect, and supporttheir heritage language. In all three experiences, we note that focusing on the mathematics contentprevented the consideration of heritage language as a significant part of support for ELs’ emo-tional and cognitive needs. Careful consideration should be taken so that classroom environmentsand teaching methods value and support all languages, with the lived experience of ELs drivingteachers’ decisions.

Although typical mathematics education practices serve to filter students based upon fluencyin academic English and perceived capability, the potential for promoting students’ agency is alsoevident. By interrogating the aspects of mathematics education in which students are stripped ofresources in language, context, and meaning, we explore the damaging potential for students to

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learn that mathematics is not their business (Skovsmose, 1998). Each of the lived experienceswe shared show the possibility of disempowering students through unconscious actions, as wellas the opportunity to empower students through a deliberative effort to incorporate social justiceas a platform for educational practice to situate mathematics education within students’ worlds,influenced by their own needs and decisions. We hope that our reflections and experiences willencourage others to think critically about how they are supporting and working with ELs toprovide opportunities for them to succeed in and outside of school.

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Lida J. Uribe-Flórez is an assistant professor at New Mexico State University. Her research inter-ests include mathematics education and teacher education. She has taught mathematics methodscourses for elementary and secondary teacher-preparation programs.

Blanca Araujo is an assistant professor at New Mexico State University. Her research includessocial studies and teacher education. Her work includes areas of migrant studies, and family-community advocacy in the Borderlands.

Mark Franzak is a doctoral candidate at New Mexico State University and a high school math-ematics teacher in southern New Mexico. His research interests are in social justice and equitythrough mathematics education.

Jeanette Haynes Writer is department head of Curriculum & Instruction at New Mexico StateUniversity. Her research is in tribal critical race theory, critical multicultural teacher education,social justice education, and Indigenous education.

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