Design mathematics learning environments that build on students' home language, communities, and lived experiences¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Drawing on the counterstories, the authors recommend mathematics learning arrangements that explicitly utilize students' home language, communities, and knowledge as learning resources. The after-schools did this by letting 'adults often spoke in Spanish and tasks were written in two languages' and by grounding investigations in students' interests and community concerns, which students contrasted favorably with their regular classrooms.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Educators must move beyond content and pedagogy toward understanding student histories, listening to students' stories, and building on students' unique knowledge such as home language

Constraints¶

• The recommendation arises from after-school counter spaces with volunteered participants, not from regular classroom implementations

Target Learners¶

• Urban Latina/o students, particularly those marginalized by English-only or assimilationist language ideologies

Target Learning Goals¶

• Developing mathematical understanding, positive mathematical identities, and agency to participate in social change

Affordances¶

• Counterstorytelling Crt Mathematics Education

Claims¶

• Students used two languages flexibly for different mathematical sub-tasks but lacked academic Spanish vocabulary [+W]
• Community-based mathematical investigations gave students confidence to use mathematics for social change [+W]
• Students resisted external definitions of mathematical success and asserted agency in defining their own strategies [+W]
• Students felt short-changed by classrooms over-emphasizing basic operations and withholding advanced mathematics [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Maura Varley Gutiérrez, Craig Willey, & Lena L. Khisty. (2011). (In)equitable Schooling and Mathematics of Marginalized Students: Through the Voices of Urban Latinas/os. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 4(2), 26–43. http://education.gsu.edu/JUME