This blog post is an adaptation of a presentation I gave at AMATYC 2022, in Toronto, Ontario. Title of the presentation is “Equitable and Inclusive Teaching Practices”
The presentation is split into two parts. Part 1 is an outline of 4 lenses we can use to think about our teaching and more generally society. The second part is about teaching scenarios using the four lenses and our experiences.
First some caveats. There are more than four lenses. The four I chose are just viewpoints I chose that I find helpful in a workshop-like session. There are many other things to consider, which are beyond the scope of the presentation.
Lens 1: Math’s teeming shore
The first lens to use is about something I call the Math’s teeming shore.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
In Emma Lazarus’ sonnet is the idea of all the people who were left out, gathered on the teeming shore yearning for a better life. In one subset of America, the ideal is to bring these people in and welcome them. In a similar way, so many people in Math have been left out. How many times have you heard, “I am not a math person” or “I am not good at math”?
Math education has left many on the outside, and this is a major problem for our society, because this damages our ability to be a more equitable and informed society. This brings us to the second lens...
Lens 2: math literacy as a civil right, implicit biases
From the seminal work of Bob Moses and the Algebra Project (https://algebra.org/wp/), we have the idea that math literacy is a critical literacy. In fact, math literacy is a civil right. Without an ability to think and evaluate some issues quantitatively and scientifically a person cannot fully exercise their rights and be a full citizen or have equal opportunities in society.
There is a fundamental paradox in education. Teaching people to think and problem solve is a good thing in my opinion, but not everyone would agree. If we teach people to think, then they start to question the system they live in. If we teach people to think, they start to become qualified for jobs they are not intended to have. In short that is why there exists Math’s teeming shore.
A brutal example from the past is The Native American Boarding Schools (https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/articles/us-residential-schools). These schools designed to “assimilate” indigenous people via their children. Assimilate of course is a euphemism for genocide, and in 2021 the first of several discoveries of hundreds of remains of children at these schools were reported (Content Warning).
When people opine of the dearth of Indigenous people in STEM, one false myth some people use about this is that Indigenous youth are not interested in STEM, or that it’s falsely not part of their culture. Crucially what is left out as a possible explanation is our actual history. That in itself is an indictment. Further when people talk about culture, they are actually not talking about culture. They are really talking about power. One group had the power and the other didn’t, and that is how we got here.
The problem isn’t the Indigenous students or the black students or the women or whatever group you want to focus on. The problem is our history and our collective ignorance of it.
How do these things relate to teaching? History lives with us in ways we may not be aware of. For example, false assumptions can affect our daily work. If a student requests an extension for an assignment or doesn’t turn something in, then certain assumptions can be triggered depending on a student’s identity. A source of implicit bias goes down deep to underlying assumptions, norms, and conditioning that have formed us. Implicit biases are rooted in our history, and that impacts how we solve (or don’t solve) our problems with math literacy.
Lens 3: the shokunin or artisan spirit
I’d like to think that there’s a way out. What I’ve latched onto is starting at the core of what teaching is. A Shokunin is an artisan with great skill who also works for the benefit of their community. This idea applies to teaching. One way to deal with our equity and inclusion issues is to adopt a Shokunin spirit or artisan spirit when we teach.
When I started my career, I didn’t have a diversity statement in my syllabus. I didn’t intentionally think about equity in the classroom. I did not use IBL with an equity lens. These are things I have learned over time from people who have made the case that we need to do more.
This is one way our profession has moved forward. Some people have done the work to improve their courses and come together to form coalitions to courageously make the case to others for equity and inclusion in Math. From there new policies were adopted and more resources and attention are being directed to make progress.
Have we done enough? No, obviously. We have a lot more work to do. But the point still stands that if we think of our teaching practices like an artisan, we can continually improve our craft for the good of society. By teaching practices, I don’t just mean what we do in the classroom, but more broadly the system surrounding it. If enough of us do this work at different layers of the system, we can potentially make systemic change.
Lens 4: IBL methods
IBL can help with equity and inclusion, but only if the instructor focuses on these things. IBL methods are a pathway, not a panacea.
The artisan spirit should be connected to tools and practices that work. There is a body of scientific work that establishes IBL methods as effective in learning and leveling the playing field. Here’s a link to work by Laursen at al. I won't go into details of what IBL is or what the literature says, since these are well worn paths that have been talked about elsewhere.
Part 2: Scenarios
With these lenses in hand, we looked at a few scenarios at the session, and discussed what we could do. The second was a little more than half the session in terms of time, and participants offered good ideas for how we could move forward with their teaching. We discussed the ideas at our tables and then shared with the whole group, which was about 50 people.
Scenario 1: The same 3 or 4 students raise their hands first when it’s time for student volunteers. What can you do to make sharing more equitable?
Scenario 2: What are the positives and some pitfalls of randomly assigning groups of 3 or 4 students to work on a problem?
Scenario 3: In this scenario, put on your “implicit bias” lens. How can implicit biases and social frames amplify the comments left on student work? Compare the following two responses.
“Good start to a solution. I noticed that you didn’t use the definition of… Consider using the definition…”
“It’s obvious you didn’t do the reading or put in a good effort…”
Task 4: In the spirit of being like an artisan/shokunin with your teaching, consider how to improve/update…
Syllabus statement, pronouns, resources for marginalized groups
Course content
Deadlines (hard vs. flexible)
Assessment
Small groups, pairs
Students with disabilities/accessibility
Department/college level
Outro
Even for large classes, like the ones I teach at the University of Toronto, we do something significant with respect to equity and inclusion. I coordinate a course with 1500 students, split into 8 lecture sections, and 35 tutorials/recitations. We have 8 instructors, 24 TAs working together to provide an equitable and inclusive class. Large class sizes are not an obstacle for equitable and inclusive teaching, see the list below where most of the items are orthogonal to class size.
What are we doing?
Diversity statement in the syllabus, and visible inclusion in class, in Canvas announcements.
TA training on equity at the start of the term.
Teaching using IBL with a focus on equity.
Online option with recordings for students with disabilities.
Grading for growth to the extent possible, with group reports with resubmissions without penalty.
Offer online office hours.
Collect weekly feedback to adapt to students’ needs and to uncover issues that we can address early in the term.
Eliminating biased problems and images from previous iterations of the course.
Those are some of the things we have implemented, and these are just the start. We need to improve each of these items and create norms and a department culture where students feel they truly belong.
Each of us has some power as instructors. To the extent we have power, we should use it to do good in our classrooms and at our institutions. We should be the hope we want to see in the world.
