Reading And Writing The World With Mathematics

Mathematics education in the United States can reproduce social inequalities whether schools use either "basic-skills" curricula to prepare mainly low-income students of color for low-skilled service jobs or "standards-based" curricula to ready students for knowledge-intensive positions. Nor is working for fundamental social change rectifying injustice in the curriculum. Reading and Writing the World with Mathematicsargues that mathematics education should prepare students to investigate and critique injustice, and to challenge, in words and actions, oppressive structures and acts. Based on teacher-research, the book provides a theoretical framework and practical examples for how mathematics educators can connect schooling to a larger sociopolitical context and concretely teach mathematics for social justice.

Eric Gutstein is Associate Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Illinois, Chicago