Chapter 9: Preparing Mathematics Teachers for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students: What’s Language Got to Do With Social Justice?

Mathematics is sometimes referred to as a “gatekeeping” subject, because of the role it plays in students’ furthering their education and entering a more highly technical workforce with strong mathematical demands (de Freitas, 2008).Thus, mathematics teachers can act as the “gatekeeper,” either allowing them to enter a world in which opportunities are afforded by mathematics, or locking them out. This puts mathematics teachers in a unique position of power of which they may be unaware (de Freitas, 2008). So why are some students allowed passage through the gate while others are left to remain outside? Why is it that White, middle-class, English speaking students enter at a higher rate than their culturally and linguistically diverse counterparts, as evidenced in such things as mathematics achievement tests and students entering fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)?