Teaching Social Justice Through

MathematicsPresented by the Equity Committee

February 6, 2010

Math has the power to help us understand and potentially change the world. Eric (Rico) Gutstein

and Bob Peterson

Think – What is my definition of Social Justice?

Pair – Share your definition with your elbow partner.

Share – At your table determine a common definition.

What is Social Justice?

Students can learn to understand the power of math in debates about the future of our world.

Bob Peterson, Rethinking Mathematics, 2006

Record social justice activities that you have seen in each of:♦your community♦your school♦your classroom

Where can we find Social Justice?

Mathematics comes alive when students participate in activities that illustrate how mathematical decisions arose from the basic needs of societies.

Claudia Zaslavsky

For each math strand, identify how you might incorporate social justice issues into your lesson(s) – be as specific as you can

P/J and J/I Grafitti Activity: How can we include social justice when we are teaching math?

The opportunity to investigate real issues pushed students to construct and apply important mathematical concepts.

Erin E. Turner Beatriz T. Font Strawhun

Sean Penn – Human Rescue Plan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnwxvDnjyDc&feature=PlayList&p=F4A710252D8F89CD&index=8

What connections can you make between math and social justice based on this clip?

Here is an example….

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/web_resource/index.shtml

http://www.radicalmath.org/main.php?id=SocialJusticeMath

http://www.rprogress.org/education/lesson_plans.htm

http://www.kidsfootprint.org/lessonplans.htm

http://www.sacsc.ca/Elementary_Unit_and_Lesson_Plans.htm#K

www.oswego.edu/~prusso1/430_530_SciMathTchgSJ.doc

http://library.queensu.ca/webedu/howtofind/stats.pdf

http://www.freethechildren.com/index.php

Resources

Thank you for your input.

The Equity Committee will be collating your ideas to be shared at a later date.