Chapter 11: Using Mathematics to Investigate Social and Political Issues: The Case of “Illegal Immigration”

I taught two mathematics courses for prospective K–8 teachers in the mathematics department at The University of Arizona. The prospective teachers in my courses were primarily sophomores and juniors who had not yet started the education program. My courses focused on two major themes, which were summarized in the syllabus (see Figure 11.1).

For this case I focus on the second theme of the course, the social and political dimensions of mathematics. I integrated this theme into the course using a variety of methods: I had the prospective teachers respond to readings that deal with the intersection between mathematics education and a broad range of issues such as culture (Zaslavsky, 2001), race (Tate, 1994), gender (Harris, 1997), and social justice (Frankenstein, 1998; Gutstein & Peterson, 2005); I incorporated lessons that involved political topics, such as income inequality or standardized test scores (see Felton, 2012; Felton, Simic-Muller, & Menéndez, 2012); and I had the prospective teachers complete projects in which they chose a sociopolitical issue to explore mathematically, which is the focus of this case.