Contexts and Participation for Culturally Relevant Mathematics

Pedagogy

Haiwen ChuGraduate Center City University of New York

Laurie H. RubelBrooklyn College City University of New York

AERA Research in Mathematics Education SIGApril 10, 2011

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 0742614 and 0119732. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations

expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Research Questions

How do teachers use real-world contexts to enact culturally relevant mathematics

pedagogy?

What classrooms practices for student participation facilitate student mathematical understanding when

working with real-world contexts?

Literature Review

• Culturally Relevant Mathematics Pedagogy (Rubel, 2010; Chu & Rubel, 2010; Gutstein, et al., 1997; Ladson-Billings, 1995)

• Real-World Contexts and School Mathematics (Dominguez, 2010; Lave, 1988; Jackson, et al. 2011)

• Social and Cultural Supports for Learning Mathematics (Chapman, 2006; Civil, 2002; Boaler, 1993)

Centering the Teaching of Mathematics on Urban Youth

Two-year partnership with two NYC high schools• Professional Development (Rubel, in press)

– Consecutive Weeklong Summer Institutes– Regular School-Based Teacher Meetings– Workshops Engaging with Students and Teachers

• Research (Rubel & Chu, 2010)– Classroom Observations– Discourse Analysis of Meetings– Participant Group Reflections and Interviews

Data Sources

Participants: 6 teachers over 1.75 years

16 Observations Per Teacher– Detailed Narrative Descriptions of Lessons– Ratings of Instructional Environment– Coding of Task Cognitive Demand– Descriptions of Use of Real-World Context

Analysis and Coding

SOURCE

Teacher

Student

Text

ROLE MODELS

Given

Developed

ELABORATION

Central

Incidental

Initial

Analysis and Coding

Local

Personal

Local

Personal

Local

Personal

Physical Experiences

Whole-Group Discussion

Writing

Small-Group Work

RELEVANCE PARTICIPATION

Results

• Frequencies of Codes

• Instances of Elaboration

• Participation Structures that Support Student Understanding of Contexts

Multiple ELABORATION: “Middles”

What does it mean for something to be in the “middle”? Like: middle child, middle of the week, middle of the road, middle of nowhere...”

“normal”The teacher points out that a student twirling a protractor is doing so around two “middle” holes

Another student then shares about how he, as the middle child, is closer to his older brother and his younger brother, but how his older and younger brothers aren't as close to each other.

Many students in the class are disagreeing loudly about whether the middle is Wednesday and Thursday, and counting days starting Monday or Sunday.

ELABORATION: Physically Modeling a Line

A coordinate plane is set up in the classroom with the axes taped off in blue tape on the grid formed by floor tiles.

The teacher makes reference to the school being at the origin and differentstudents standing at different points relative to the school.

Students form a line, and another student is asked to walk from one studentto another, not being allowed to “jump buildings”.

Students make jokes about a local health center andtaking taxis to get from point to point.

ELABORATION: Connecting discussion of art images to mathematical procedures

Topic: Area of compound figures

UNELABORATED: “College Costs on the Rise”

Students were given college costs in 2002-3 for colleges across the 50 states.

They were told to find the means by state of in-state total costs

Students then put states into given “measurement classes”.

UNELABORATED: Text-Sourced Problems

Limitations of Topics

• Textbooks as Source and Unelaborated Contexts

• Mathematics Topics– Quadratics– Statistics– Logic

Approaches to Engaging Students’ Lived Experiences

• Creating openings

• Drawing connections

• Sharing experiences

Discussion

• What forms of knowledge enable teachers to connect students with contexts?

• What are different forms of elaboration?

• What collaborative structures best support teachers’ collective development?