Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction: A Course Series

  • Description
  • Files

Instructional materials and practices are reflective of the dominant culture and perspective unless this is actively interrogated and disrupted. As a result of this, many students in the United States, especially Black, Latinx, and multilingual learners, feel disconnected or excluded from the world of mathematics.

In this series of courses, participants will explore how they might dismantle racism in mathematics instruction and rebuild an equitable system using Stride 1 of the Pathways to Equitable Math Instruction Toolkit as a foundational resource and framework. Educators will reflect on their own biases, examine historical practices rooted in white supremacy, and identify ways they can transform their instruction in service of dismantling racism. 

COURSE SERIES DETAILS
The courses in this series can be taken separately as stand-alone learning opportunities.

Structure: Each course includes self-paced asynchronous learning and application activities.
Duration:  Each course is 6 hours, self-paced during the course window (see below for window dates).
Primary Audience:  K-12 Teachers (or those who support teachers) who engage in mathematics instruction
Certificate:  You will receive a certificate of professional learning time immediately after completing the learning within the courses. Please reach out to your school district to ensure they will accept these certificates. 

See the accordion below to review the course sequence, goals, and requirements. 

  • Course Series Dates and Registration

    The courses are self-paced and will be scheduled sequentially in their own dedicated windows. Each course will take about 6 hours of time to complete.

    Course 1: Designing a Culturally Sustaining Classroom Space

    Course 2: Making Rigor Accessible Through Strong and Thoughtful Scaffolding

    • Dates: TBD

    Course 3: Embracing and Encouraging Multiple and Varying Ways of Sharing, Showing, and Communicating Knowledge

    • Dates: TBD

    Registration for each course will be communicated through our subscriber emails and social  media. You can also check this page for updates.

  • Goals

    In this course series you will learn about and reflect on the ways in which individual identity and elements of white supremacy culture impact mathematics instruction. You will dive deeply into three sections of the Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction Toolkit by learning about specific characteristics of antiracist math educators. You will have the opportunity to unpack social identities and understand how they impact the learning and engagement with mathematics, analyze how white supremacy culture shows up as racism in mathematics, and learn about characteristics of antiracist mathematics classrooms and instruction.

    Course 1: Designing a Culturally Sustaining Classroom Space

    In this course, participants will learn to design a culturally sustaining space in the math classroom by delving into the deep and critical work of culturally relevant pedagogy and practice as well as culturally sustaining pedagogy and practice. You will:

    • Understand the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy and consider how culturally sustaining pedagogy is an evolution of culturally relevant pedagogy.
    • Examine instructional strategies that support culturally relevant pedagogy and those that support culturally sustaining pedagogy.
    • Develop a plan for taking steps towards designing a culturally sustaining space in your math classroom.

    There will be two optional synchronous learning opportunities during the course, including a discussion group meeting to talk about the learning with others in the course and a seminar meeting to learn from educators who previously took the course and to discuss actions as a result of the course.

    Course 2: Making Rigor Accessible Through Strong and Thoughtful Scaffolding

    In this course, participants will learn to make rigor accessible through thoughtful scaffolding by challenging limited notions of rigor such as rigor meaning difficulty.  You will:

    • Distinguish between learning tasks that are rigorous and those that are not.
    • Consider the importance of rigor and the dangers of not including rigor into the math classroom.
    • Learn about scaffolds that help to make rigor more accessible.

     There will be optional synchronous learning opportunities scheduled during the course to discuss and collaborate with other course participants. Details and dates will be sent to course participants once the course opens.

     Course 3: Embracing and Encouraging Multiple and Varying Ways of Sharing, Showing, and Communicating Knowledge

    In this course, participants will learn to embrace and encourage multiple and varying ways of sharing, showing, and communicating knowledge in the math classroom through a focus on engaging students in collectivism and community-based learning environments. You will:

    • Reflect on the white supremacy characteristic of individualism and how it shows up in math classrooms compared to collectivist classroom cultures that focus on relationships and cooperative learning.
    • Consider how to build a mathematical community that centers the knowledge students bring and positions students as the experts/mathematical do-ers/thinkers.
    • Learn about classroom structures that engage students in collective mathematics and support co-construction of knowledge.
    • Apply classroom structures to upcoming units or lessons.
  • Course Requirements and Credit

    While we encourage you to complete the entire course series, you may also choose to select and complete the learning and activities from individual courses within the series as stand alone learning experiences.

    To earn professional learning certificates within each course, for 6 hours of professional learning time per course, you must successfully complete the following: 

    • Review all course content, including videos and readings.
    • Complete all embedded interactive activities, including discussion boards.
    • Take the post-learning surveys within the courses.