Mathematics Learning and Diverse Students

 

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lessons that draw on community-based gardening knowledge or knowledge about the subway 

system. 

 

The second way of connecting with students’ worlds that the research literature has 

identified is to take social justice approaches to mathematics teaching (Brantlinger, 2007; 

Gutstein, 2003). Social justice approaches use factual, rather than fictional, problems and data 

and encourage students to use mathematics to reflect on social issues that are relevant to them 

and to their communities (e.g., differences in interest rates for home loans in poor versus wealthy 

neighborhoods). These approaches view critical perspectives on power and inequality in society 

as important aspects of mathematical literacy (Gutstien, 2003; 2005). Researchers have found 

that social justice approaches to mathematics can be engaging for students, particularly students 

from historically marginalized communities (Gutstien, 2005). However, scholars caution that 

teachers should be mindful of the challenges inherent in creating lessons and activities that are 

mathematically rich and that address important social issues (Brantlinger, 2007). While these 

projects serve largely as “existence proofs,” that culturally congruent and social justice 

approaches can illuminate new directions in mathematics instruction for students from 

historically marginalized groups, there has yet to be systematic research published on the 

learning outcomes afforded by these approaches. 

 

Researchers have also argued for the importance of students’ developing disciplinary 

identities (or disciplinary dispositions) that support their mathematics learning (Boaler & 

Greeno, 2000; Nasir, 2002). Researchers define mathematical identity as the ways in which 

students feel that they belong in the math classroom community and can be competent learners 

of mathematics. Thus, the development of students’ mathematics identities may be strengthened 

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by classroom practices that both foster successful learning (Nasir, 2002) and build a sense of 

community among the students.  

While Railside teachers did not use explicitly social justice or culturally congruent 

approaches, they did actively work to build close-knit classroom communities and to create a 

positive classroom culture of support and encouragement. They also found ways to support 

students in developing identities of competence, assigning competence as a regular part of 

classroom practice and supporting students in coming to think of themselves as mathematics 

learners.  

 

Organizing for Equity 

Studies of schools and districts that serve students from historically marginalized groups 

consistently point to the importance of organizing for equity at the institutional level. Features of 

this organization include a shared mission, mission-aligned curriculum and instruction, and 

attention to cultivating and maintaining supportive, professional communities. 

 

Shared mission. An explicit commitment to improving learning outcomes for students of 

color specifically characterizes many of the schools (Morris, 2004; Valenzuela, 1999; Walker, 

1996) and mathematics departments (Boaler, 2008; Gutiérrez, 1999, 2000) that succeed with 

these students. While such a commitment does not guarantee more equitable outcomes per se 

(Horn, 2007), it is important to counter the prevalent and often defeatist conceptions of these 

students as deprived or somehow deficient. Teachers at Railside developed a shared mission that 

was built upon working to teach complex mathematics to students from marginalized groups, 

thus providing these students with the academic, social, and personal resources necessary for 

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them to continue on to college. At Railside, this shared mission was made explicit and reiterated 

as teachers worked together daily (Little & Horn, 2007). 

 

Curriculum and instruction. In previous sections, we have discussed the negative 

consequences of tracking, which disproportionately fall on students from historically 

marginalized groups. Research has repeatedly shown the benefits of schools with less course 

differentiation (i.e., schools that are de-tracked), in terms of student achievement on standardized 

tests, enrollment in advanced mathematics courses, and their development of positive 

mathematical identities (Boaler, 2002b; Burris, Heubert, & Levin, 2006; Lee, Croninger, & 

Smith, 1997). At Railside, all 9

th

 grade mathematics classes were de-tracked, with all 9

th

 graders 

taking Algebra. Additionally, mathematics was taught in 90-minute “condensed block” periods 

with most full courses being taught in a single semester. This system allowed teachers time to 

take on long and challenging group problems with students and also allowed students to retake 

math classes if they failed, while still being able to continue on to higher mathematics before 

graduation. 

 

Professional community. Research suggests that investment in sustained professional 

development and teacher-led collaboration is a necessary component of efforts to improve 

learning outcomes for students from historically marginalized groups; when this investment has 

been lacking, which it all too often is, curricular and other reforms have not been effective 

(Cohen, 1990; Spillane, 1999; Tyack & Cuban, 1995). In contrast, schools and districts that 

support ongoing professional learning produce and sustain equitable learning environments and 

outcomes for students (Balfanz & Byrnes, 2006; Darling-Hammond, 2010; McLaughlin & 

Talbert, 2006). The mathematics department at Railside exemplifies this point. Over a twenty-

year period beginning in the mid-1990s, the department’s rotating leadership consistently 

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