White privilege bolstered by teaching math, university professor says
A 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.
Rochelle 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 .”
“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 .
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She also says that addressing equity in mathematics education will come when teachers can understand and negotiate the politics outside the classroom.
“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.
Further, she says mathematics operates with unearned privilege in society, “just like whiteness.”
Gutierrez did not respond to an email from Fox News Tuesday seeking comment.
University 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.
“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.
He 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.”
In 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?”
“As researchers, are we more deserving of large grants because we focus on mathematics education and not social studies or English?”
Gutierrez says evaluations of math skills can perpetuate discrimination against minorities, especially if they do worse than their white counterparts, Campus Reform reported.
“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.
According 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.”
Her 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.
The 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.
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She also says that addressing equity in mathematics education will come when teachers can understand and negotiate the politics outside the classroom.
“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.
Further, she says mathematics operates with unearned privilege in society, “just like whiteness.”
Gutierrez did not respond to an email from Fox News Tuesday seeking comment.
University 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.
“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.
He 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.”
In 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?”
“As researchers, are we more deserving of large grants because we focus on mathematics education and not social studies or English?”
Gutierrez says evaluations of math skills can perpetuate discrimination against minorities, especially if they do worse than their white counterparts, Campus Reform reported.
“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.
According 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.”
Her 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.
The 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.
More....
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Seriously, so now we won't be able to teach our children basic math? Who will balance their check books, or teach them how fractions work so that they can function in the real world. Where does it all end?
It is, also, sexist. Was my worst subject! The boys were always better!
This is one nutjob and I am sure that most people who teach math, would think she is nuts. Most of the people I know who teach higher level math, don't even think of things in the social implication realm.
My BF's sister is a high school math teacher and she runs across this political BS all the time. It's honestly breaking good teachers.
There is always one nut can that can't be cracked. You found yours... nothing to see here.. move along.
Prove that. I want stats.
I don't think that's at all an honest critique of this professor. Instead of just going by this article try researching her work before jumping to conclusions. Overall her work actually challenges the deficit views of Latin and Black Students and encourages more initiative ways of teaching math to minorities to teachers
Like I said research her WORK and not something that is said in an article when she was making an analogy and then taken out of context in that same report she also said that
She also said knowledge is relational and must be treated as such, also saying things cannot be known objectively they must be known subjectively.
She never said math is racist but that the perspective that math is the be all end all of acknowledging intelligence can lead to discrimination especially when regarding the Black and Latin students. Ultimately she made that point in order to help teachers be more effective in teaching
Willy,
I was a science 4th, 5th grade teacher and a science teacher for over 20 years in a tough NYC school. The only time I have ever seen laguage be a problem, was during a short period when "Cloze tests" were used for English, and the discrimination would not have been about "whiteness" but socio-economic and localized. There was 1 segment that was about "yachting". And kids who came from poor white neighborhoods or those who lived upstate wouldn't know how to deal with that segment either. The teachers filed a formal complaint with NYS Dept of Ed, and we got that part removed from the test grade.
Being a woman who not STEM teacher, my students never had a hard time understanding Greek or Latin words. In fact, if you want to make that argument, then only Greeks and Italians would understand the words that we use in our english language.. yet everyone in the hood sadly knew what homicide meant. That is latin, too.
.....wow, seems like her words are not the only ones tettering on the end of bigotry and racism
SMH........and that's what you got from this?! Like I said research her ENTIRE report and find out what she said instead of just going by a few sentences of an entire piece
How about her complete historiography ....
Seems to me, she might have some racial bias in her research...
OMG!
Will the crackpottery never cease?
"who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as white" I thought it was unanimous that Asians were seen as the Math Wizzes. I can't get this block quote to work right.
I don't know about Math, but in a probably related field (Computer-engineers) a disproportionate percent of people in the field are Asians-- particularly Chinese-Americans and India-Americans (India).
So I'm sure some race-obsessed people would argue that it must be some genetically determined ability-- that these 2 groups are somehow "racially superior".
However there's no doubt in my mind that that's not the case-- rather, it is due to cultural values, not genetics. (I referring to immigrants and children of immigrants from these 2 coutriers).
How can somebody call themselves a "professor" or an "educator" and then make such a stupid claim?
There are many people in this country who assume that "educators" are more intelligent than other people. Having had much contact with people in that field, I can assure you that is definitely not the case!
From what I'm seeing coming from these so called professors / educators it doesn't hold anything promising for our future.
What would we do if FarzNooz and similar rightwing sewage pumps didn't spend every minute of the day trawling the internet some obscure source for ridiculous clickbait like this so right-wingers would always have something pointless to gripe about?
University 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.
Of course this probably says more about the nature peer-reviewed publications than it does about Guiterrez . . .
I would agree and also add her to the equation.
WOW all these people that stand for science?
She specifically mentions Pi.
Pi is a physical scientific geometric rule expressed as a mathematical ratio. The measurement of the circumference of a circle will always be 3.1415927~...... times the diameter......
Doesn't matter what brain power, skin whiteness, economic/sociological background, historical foundation, or which ethnicity first extrapolated and expressed this physical fact.
IT IS A PHYSICALLY DEMONSTRATED, MATHEMATICAL FACT!
This lady is loony tunes as is anyone who defends this tripe....
Well, here she is, and her complete historiography ....
Seems to me, she might have a racial bias in her research...