Chapter 24: Social Justice and Mathematics: Rethinking the Nature and Purposes of School Mathematics

It is interesting to see how different subject area teachers view their role in the wider community. Nearly all teachers I have spoken with acknowledge that schools can and should play a part in helping our society work toward social justice. However, it has been my experience that when mathematics teachers are pressed on this point they often explain that, because of the nature of mathematics, there is not much that they can do in this regard. They explain that the content of their subject matter reduces their obligations when it comes to teaching for social justice, that is, it is out of their hands. Furthermore, I have spoken with social justice-oriented teacher educators who succeed in exciting most of their students about the enterprise of teaching for social justice yet struggle with how to help future mathematics teachers link their curricula and classroom practices to the movement toward a more just, equitable, and democratic society.