I agree completely with Paul. As soon as I saw your article, I tried to find some sort of original to read. Couldn't find anything in a brief search, so I'll have to keep looking.
I'm well aware there are stupid comments being made, and these may count, but if we're cherry-picking them out of real works that might potentially have some valid points as well, it's at least half our own faults for engaging in the drama without looking deeper. It should go without saying that this goes for both sides.
View original post Professor Rochelle Gutierrez says the ability to solve algebra and geometry perpetuates white privilege.
View original postProfessor Rochelle Gutierrez says the ability to solve algebra and geometry perpetuates white privilege. (University of Illinois)
View original postA math education professor at the University of Illinois says the ability to solve geometry and algebra problems and teaching such subjects perpetuates so-called white privilege.
View original postRochelle Gutierrez laid out her views on the subject in an article for a newly published anthology for math educators titled, “Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods.”
View original post“School mathematics curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean Theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans," she says, according to Campus Reform.
View original postShe also says that addressing equity in mathematics education will come when teachers can understand and negotiate the politics outside the classroom.
View original post“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as white,” she writes.
View original postFurther, she says mathematics operates with unearned privilege in society, “just like whiteness.”
View original postGutierrez did not respond to an email from Fox News Tuesday seeking comment.
View original postUniversity of Illinois interim Provost John Wilkin told Fox News that Gutierrez is an established and admired scholar who has been published in many peer-reviewed publications.
View original post“As with all of our faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Prof. Gutierrez has the rights of academic freedom necessary to pursue scholarship and research on important subjects and to reach conclusions even if some might disagree with those conclusions,” he said.
View original postHe added, “The issues around equity and access in education are real – with significant implications to our entire educational system. Exploring challenging pedagogical questions is exactly what faculty in a world-class college of education should be doing.”
View original postIn the book Gutierrez points out that mathematics operates as a proxy for intelligence, but asks, “are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?”
View original post“As researchers, are we more deserving of large grants because we focus on mathematics education and not social studies or English?”
View original postGutierrez says evaluations of math skills can perpetuate discrimination against minorities, especially if they do worse than their white counterparts, Campus Reform reported.
View original post“If one is not viewed as mathematical, there will always be a sense of inferiority that can be summoned” because the average person won't necessarily question the role of mathematics in society, she writes.
View original postAccording to the website, Gutierrez adds that there are so many people who “have experienced microaggressions from participating in math classrooms… [where people are] judged by whether they can reason abstractly.”
View original postHer solution is a call for teachers to develop political "conocimeinto," or knowledge, to better prepare them in deciding on what learning opportunities work best for their students.
View original postThe book, published by Information Age Publishing, is a collaborative effort among more than 40 educators who teach mathematics methods courses for prospective pre-K‐12 teachers.