The author conflates decolonialization with establishing racial equity, and then conflates racial equity in the mathematics classroom with teaching students that everyone, not just "dead white men," are able to do mathematics. She attributes the lack of diversity in mathematics to flawed teaching methods which perpetuate the false idea that success in math is due to talent rather than hard work. This, she says, teaches women and non-white people that math isn't for them.

This is certainly correct as far as it goes, but she doesn't go nearly far enough. The solution she offers, and remember that this is supposedly a way to decolonialize mathematics, is to somehow teach all students that math is for them also, that they're capable of learning math if they only study hard enough. Her conclusion is worth quoting at length:

"To transform mathematics teaching and learning in ways that empower students, universities need to give students the theoretical grounding they need to access the subject and support them to identify with it –- to want to learn it, to become the mathematicians of the future, to enjoy and critique mathematics and its applications."

And she may well be right that if math teachers could come to believe this and to teach as if it were true, which it is, then university mathematics might become much, much more diverse. But that's not decolonialization, which means the elimination of colonialism's effects, both cultural and social.

The very idea that everyone ought to learn mathematics, that anyone *needs* to learn mathematics, is an artifact of colonialism. Mathematics is interesting, fascinating, whatever, just like every other area of human knowledge, but it's treated very, very differently, as if it were essential to every human life. The reason it seems different, much more important than subjects universally understood to be electives, e.g. phenomenology or raku methods in ceramics, both of which are also taught in universities, is because colonial powers, among whom I include the contemporary U.S., require (a) techocrats to run their ongoing project of exploitation and (b) a lot of people who've failed to learn math and thereby have learned quite well that they don't have standing or knowledge to challenge the decrees of the technocrats.

Nobody thinks that everybody should learn to appreciate the subtle beauty of raku theory or the ins and outs of phenomenology, only that they should have the opportunity to do so if they want. The universal study of subjects like these isn't important to the colonial project. We can begin to decolonialize mathematics by teaching ourselves to see it as nothing more than a special interest, no more important from the point of view of the curriculum than any other obscure elective subject. Anyone who doesn't interrogate the assumption that everyone needs to, or ought to, or would be better off learning mathematics isn't talking about decolonializing anything, they're talking about accommodating students to the needs of colonialists.

#Math #Mathematics #Decolonial #Decolonization #MathematicsEducation

https://theconversation.com/yes-mathematics-can-be-decolonised-heres-how-to-begin-65963

Part 2 of our special issue of DEME journal: “Supporting Transitions Within, Across and Beyond Digital Experiences for the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics” is out.
7 more #OpenAccess articles at https://link.springer.com/journal/40751/volumes-and-issues/9-2
Intro at https://rdcu.be/c4Lqd #MathematicsEducation

I’m working on a new conic sections lesson. Is there a kind of flashlight that makes crisper shadows? #mathematics #mathematicseducation #lightingdesign

Good morning #econtoot Just kicked out the “Data science class to combat global heating” at Aalborg Univeristy. Inspiring to see so many young students interested in finding out the way mathematical sciences are used in climate change research. #datascience #mathematics #climateeconometrics #mathematicseducation

Was your imagination caught by the amazing recent #discovery of a monotile that tiled a plane aperiodically? The previously known minimal case of #aperiodic #tiling was discovered by Roger Penrose. It required two tiles, explained with flair here in Derek Muller’s #video #mathematics #mathematicseducation #puzzles https://youtu.be/48sCx-wBs34

The formal reasoning style associated with mathematics teaches ... that decontextualization and abstraction are the only valid routes to truth, that the only correct way to understand anything is by analyzing relationships between abstract concepts, because this is how mathematics is taught...

For instance, the meaning of the slogan “Black lives matter” relies on its place in a deep and broad historical context involving chattel slavery, police violence, capitalism, racism, prisons, and on and on and on. Part of the context is the understanding that society already acts as if white lives matter without anyone having to say it out loud. Lacking that context, or mapped to a different context, the phrase means something very different. And once decontextualized it becomes conceptually equivalent rather than intentionally and implicitly contrasted to statements like “all lives matter” or “white lives matter.” Even wildly skewed transformations like “blue lives matter” move from absurdity to debatability, which is a win for capital’s stability.

Victims of American mathematics education may be powerfully tempted to refute such nonsense on its own terms, i.e. abstractly rather than by screaming out the concrete truth that’s obvious to anyone who shares the context.

#Capitalism #Anarchism #Mathematics #MathEducation #MathematicsEducation #PoliceViolence #ACAB #PoliceAbolition #Abolition #BLM #BlackLivesMatter

https://chez-risk.in/2023/04/05/why-are-children-forced-to-study-mathematics-at-gunpoint

In the United States children are required to study mathematics for most of the time they’re required to attend school and yet essentially everyone hates it. Not just students, but parents and teachers as well. Very few remember any of it once they’re done with school, which strongly suggests that all those years of mandatory mathematics education aren’t serving the students themselves. If they were it wouldn’t be necessary to criminalize nonattendance, to force children into schools to learn mathematics at the point of a policeman’s gun.

#Capitalism #Anarchism #Mathematics #MathEducation #MathematicsEducation #PoliceViolence #ACAB #PoliceAbolition #Abolition

https://chez-risk.in/2023/04/05/why-are-children-forced-to-study-mathematics-at-gunpoint/

I wrote a thing on mandatory mathematics education and its value to capitalism.

#Capitalism #Anarchism #Mathematics #MathEducation #MathematicsEducation #PoliceViolence #ACAB #PoliceAbolition #Abolition

https://chez-risk.in/2023/04/05/why-are-children-forced-to-study-mathematics-at-gunpoint/

"My goal is to make sure that #research in the didactics of mathematics is actually applied in mathematical teaching. Thus, #mathematicseducation research can impact the way mathematics is taught." - Fulya Kula

➡️ https://hermathsstory.eu/fulya-kula/

#hermathsstory

Hey all!
New to this platform, so here's a bit of an #introduction
I'm currently teaching middle school mathematics, with a focus on nurturing thinking classrooms.
I have had the opportunity to make a living in a variety of fields, including environmental education, electrical engineering, ecological design, baking sourdough bread, fermenting foods, aquaponics, and maker education. I am passionate about the practical application of theory and principles.
#mathematicseducation
#edutooters

Co-edited a 2-part special issue of DEME journal: “Supporting Transitions Within, Across and Beyond Digital Experiences for the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics” - the intro is now up here https://rdcu.be/c4Lqd and many of the articles are currently #OpenAccess with more to follow. #MathematicsEducation

Something missed in the #chatgpt is the discussion on what it is and thus how it works.
Chatgpt is a language model trained to compute the word with the highest probability of following given the information previously provided. It is not a search engine, a là #google, nor a mathematical computation engine, a là Mathematica.
Its release highlights the importance of #learning what the #datascience #machinelearning #algorithms solve on top of learning what buttons to press.
#mathematicseducation

RT @monsoon0
You can draw algebraic #surfaces by using “Surfer”, freely available from https://www.imaginary.org/program/surfer #mathematicalmodeling
#mathematics
#mathematicseducation

Join a fun community of math-lovers this summer! BEAM is hiring Counselors/TAs and Faculty to help us build a community of learners where students with high potential are centered as doers of math.
Roles available in LA/SoCal and NYC/Hudson Valley.

Our students are highly engaged in the immersive academic experience BEAM provides. .

Learn more about both roles on our website: beammath.org/jobs

#hiring #mathematics #stemeducation #mathteacher #matheducation #mathematicseducation #camp

Coffee and complex analysis in the morning. What more can one want 😍 thank you 3blue1brown #MathsGeeks #maths #mathematicseducation

https://youtu.be/sD0NjbwqlYw

I could never see the point of trigonometry when I was a kid. If they'd taken us outside and got us to measure the height of trees, I'd've seen the point of it.

🌴🌲🌳🎄

#trees #mathematics #MathematicsEducation #education #trigonometry

It's fun when academic research takes serious looks at kinda silly subjects, like this recent paper about mathematical memes on the internet.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10649-022-10173-1

#mathematics #mathed #research #memes #mathematicseducation #iteachmath