Commentary 1: Acknowledging Personal Perspectives to Build Mathematical Understandings: A Commentary on Bieda’s Case

This case elicits thoughts of issues beyond “White privilege.” I want to acknowledge that educating teachers who are predominantly White (and non-Hispanic) for educating non-White students is a challenge, especially when exploring serious social issues. As a guest commentator, I first give my background so the reader gets an understanding of my positionality as a Hispanic female whose family roots are of a mixture of Mexican and Spanish-European cultures. As a child, I learned from listening to adult family conversations about the high status given to my father’s side of the family, whose ancestry is from Spain, and my mother’s Mexican ancestry being addressed as lower. I recall heated discussions among aunts and uncles from both sides of the family that caused grief. Growing up in a small community in a border city, interaction between families occurred regularly through social events.