Open Educational Resources: Teaching Postsecondary Math for Social Justice
Welcome! Have you ever wanted to bring issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) into your college or university math classes, but didn't know where to start? I hope you're in the right place.
I'm Dr. Kenan Ince, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Westminster College (SLC), and this is a landing page for the resources I've compiled, containing resources kindly shared by various folks to facilitate the teaching of math for social justice (TMSJ) at the college level.
2022 update: With my Westminster colleagues, I'm also working on an open-access, active learning workbook entitled Quantitative Reasoning for Social Justice which supports a full course in QR for SJ. The link below currently contains a "crash course" section for those getting started teaching math for social justice. Updates forthcoming!
Why teach math for social justice at the postsecondary level?
Culturally relevant teaching practices contribute to educational equity and social justice (McGee 2014)
Teaching math with a social justice frame increases student learning and achievement (Gutstein 2003; Moses & Cobb 2001; Winter 2007)
Math is already political. What assumptions do our algorithms and databases inherit (O'Neill 2016)? What do we think is "worthy" of mathematical inquiry? Math with applications to petroleum engineering or fracking (Hendrickson 2015)? Statistical analyses of police stops by race (Khadjavi 2013, Ince 2021)?
See this literature review (Ince 2015) for an investigation of what the research shows about teaching math for social justice.
How do I get started teaching math for social justice?
Above, you'll find a "getting started" talk I gave at the Talk Math with Your Friends virtual seminar series.
Below, I've included a document describing how to start exploring the Google Drive folder I maintain of open educational resources for teaching math for social justice, as well as an embedded version of the folder itself. Please reach out (kince at westminstercollege dot edu) if you have questions, are interested in collaborating, or anything else!
Best of luck, and solidarity!
What if I want materials for a full course in math for social justice?
Resources are beginning to be developed for full postsecondary courses, largely in quantitative reasoning, for social justice. A few of the exciting new resources are described in the table below; please fill out this form if you know of any postsecondary-level resources I’m missing!
Mathematics for Social Justice: Resources for the College Classroom —ed. Gizem Karaali and Lily Khadjavi (~$60)
Mathematics for Social Justice: Focusing on Quantitative Reasoning and Statistics —ed. Gizem Karaali and Lily Khadjavi (~$60)
[Work in progress] Quantitative Reasoning for Social Justice: An Active Learning Workbook —Kenan Ince, Sean Raleigh, and Bianca Thompson (free/open source)
[Work in progress] Math for the People —Mark Branson, Whitney George (free/open source)
Math in Society —David Lippman (free, not entirely SJ focused)
