Using Mathematics to Attain Critical Consciousness

For a student teacher, walking into the classroom—stepping onto someone else’s turf — can be intimidating. For a student teacher who is teaching for social justice, walking into that same classroom can be terrifying. Teaching for social justice is a difficult task. It is especially difficult when you know the discourse that will take place while addressing these issues may not always be “politically correct.” However, as Paulo Freire suggests, engaging in classroom discourse is when real transformation occurs.

On my first day of student teaching, I told my 12th-grade students that my goal was to open their eyes to the injustices of the world—using mathematics as our main tool. I anticipated that I, as the new teacher, could instill a passion for mathematics into these students from day one. I was quickly humbled. Trying to convince high school students that mathematics is relevant has been a huge challenge. Although there were times it felt as though my lessons were not getting through to them, I recently conducted a lesson on poverty which made me realize that my students were becoming more critically aware than I had thought.

Since 70% of the school population consisted of low-income minorities, I initially hoped that my students would embrace the integration of social justice into their math lessons. However, I had struggled with the issue of poverty in past lessons because the discourse quickly turned into a chain of stereotypical and self-deprecating racist “jokes.” I told my students that, although I did not want to censor their thoughts, I wanted them to understand that the comments they make, although considered “jokes,” continue to perpetuate social, economical, and cultural problems that are very real and oppressive. After that discussion, students seemed to realize that their “jokes” were, in reality, insensitive and offensive comments that can retard the progress we might make as a society.

I handed my students a table that displayed the Federal government’s poverty guidelines and also an alternative guideline—the Self-Sufficiency Standard put out by the Center for Women’s Welfare (http://www.selfsufficiencystandard.org/standard.html). The Self-Sufficiency Standard declares that different households have different needs, based on factors such as the number and age of children in the household, along with the cost of housing in the particular region. Students realized that the Federal government’s poverty guidelines are calculated using a single variable—the cost of food—while the Self-Sufficiency Standard is calculated using multiple variables. I then asked them to compare the two tables graphically, using a side-by-side bar graph. Enabling my students to visually see the difference between the two guidelines almost instantly stirred up their feelings.

All of the students agreed that the Self-Sufficiency Standard was far more accurate than the current government poverty guideline. Many students were outraged that the government refuses to factor the cost of living in different regions into their poverty guidelines. However, some students expressed their concern that changing the poverty guidelines to include multiple variables might result in tax increases. One of the students voiced outrage that America puts trillions of dollars into waging wars on terror, but cannot find the money to assist those in poverty. Another said that the rich get many tax breaks and that money should be put towards those who need assistance, not in a bank where the rich can sit on it and get richer. Throughout the entire student-centered discussion, my students used mathematics and raw data to defend their arguments. They began to answer questions with more questions and I, as the teacher, tried to give them more facts and information to continue the debate. Ultimately, many came together to agree on certain issues and were able to maintain a respectful discourse with those who did not.

This lesson suggests that math can be used as a resource to defend your rights, battle injustices, and fight for what you believe in. Students need guidance to become more aware of their world, question how and why injustices came to be, and come up with solutions to problems. They...