Closer to Fair: Social Justice in Mathematics Mathematics for Social Justice Dr. David T. Kung

1. Closer to Fair: Social Justice in Mathematics Mathematics for Social Justice Dr. David T. Kung St. Mary's College of Maryland (’00 Gold Dot)

2. Two Acts Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics How can we make our classrooms / institutions / profession more just? Act 2 – Mathematics of Social Justice How can we teach students to fight for social justice now and in the future?

3. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Imagine this is a math class on your campus. The professor is teaching Calculus. The mostly whitestudents sit quietly listening/texting/sleeping. A student walks in late. Where does the student sit?

4. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Where does the student sit if… … the student is: • President of the Math Club? • an African-American male who never talks to the other students? • a 50 year old, Hispanic woman, returning to college to be a high school teacher? • a first-generation woman, who wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a math major?

5. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Equal treatment of students ≠ Equal Experience for students “Dave doesn’t treat his students equally, he treats them fairly.” - anonymous student Equal vs. Fair

6. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Q: How are we doing keeping students in STEM? Source: NSF Bachelor's degrees awarded, by field, citizenship, and race/ethnicity of recipients: 1995–2004 www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf07308/content.cfm?pub_id=3633&id=2

7. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Q: How are we doing with women in STEM?

8. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Q: How are we doing with minorities in STEM?

9. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Q: How are we doing with minorities in math? 13.4% 14.8%

10. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Why do minority students fail in Calculus? (Uri Treisman, UC-Berkeley, 1970’s) Common guesses: • Poor preparation • Lack of motivation • Lack of family support • Socio-economic forces Data: These guesses are all wrong.

11. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Stereotype Threat (Steele & Aronson) Q: What affects underrepresented students’ performance? A: The thought that they are underrepresented.

12. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics What do the data say? We lose women and minorities in math and the science at every step of the pipeline from middle school through professorships, even when controlling for: • preparation • Motivation The problem isn’t them, it’s us.

13. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics What can we do in college math departments? • Take responsibility for how students experience your classroom • Be aware of gender/race issues • Emerging Scholars Programs • Women in math programs (Carleton, Nebraska, Georgetown) • Get your students to support each other • Be a mentor

14. Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics Lessons of Emerging Scholars Programs • Students rise to meet academic challenges • Social interactions impact academic performance

15. Intermission

16. Two Acts Act 1 – Social Justice in Mathematics How can we make our classrooms / institutions / profession more just? Act 2 – Mathematics of Social Justice How can we teach students to fight for social justice now and in the future?

17. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice Sample Activity: Annual Hospital Report Administrator: 90% of patients who spend the night check out within a week. Nurses: 80% of the patients in the hospital right now have been here over a year! Can they both be right?

18. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice Both can be right! • Similar statistics hold for people: • welfare • unemployed • without health insurance • Your agenda determines the statistics you use!

19. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice What our students need: Global Temps and CO2 emissions positively correlated (corr. coeff. = 0.86) What does this mean? (www.skepticalscience.com)

20. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice What we give them:

21. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice What our students need: McCain: "Sen. Obama's secret that you don't know is that his tax increases will increase taxes on 50 percent of small business revenue.“ Obama: "Only a few percent of small businesses make more than $250,000 a year. So the vast majority of small businesses would get a tax cut under my plan." "98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000"  Can you reconcile these statements or is one of them lying?

22. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice What we give them: • Precalculus (toward what end?) • Consumer Math (student = consumer) • Watered-down hard math (4th dim., infinity)

23. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice Another way: Mathematics for Social Justice (math to improve the world)

24. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice Math for Social Justice Models: • Writing-intensive First Year Seminar (Lisa Marano) • Service Learning (Rob Root) • Survey of Math Course w/ Projects (me) • Statistics (Lily Khadjavi) • Incorporating SJ issues into existing classes (climate change calculus – Tom Pfaff)

25. Act 2 – Mathematics for Social Justice

26. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Overview of Math for Social Justice (MFSJ) • Other implementations • SMCM Sample Activities • Correlation (fast food and obesity) • Lorenz Curve / Gini Coefficient (wealth distribution) Brainstorming activities • Add social justice issues to your class • Issues – find the math • Math content – connect it to issues

27. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Math 131 - Survey of Mathematics: Mathematics for Social Justice (TR, 2pm, Kung) In this section of Survey we will use mathematics to better understand justice, fairness, and equality.  Then we will use that new knowledge to improve the world.  

28. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Math for Social Justice goals: • Develop the ability to question numbers • Develop the inclination to question numbers • Knowledgably participate in our democracy • Be an effective activist • Positive last math course

29. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Math for Social Justice course topics: • Quantitative literacy • Large Numbers • Percentages • Statistics • Distributions (wealth, health care spending, etc.) • Surveys • Voting • Financial mathematics

30. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice What the Numbers Say, Niederman & Boyum 10 Habits of Highly Effective Quantitative Thinkers 1. Only Trust Numbers 2. Never Trust Numbers 3. Play Jeopardy (what question does the # answer?) 4. Pareto’s Law …

31. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Reading the News Idea: practice questioning numbers (inclination) Early in Semester: • A’s: post article, highlight numbers • B’s: post questions about the numbers End of the Semester: • A’s: post article, questions • B’s: use outside resources to answer those questions

32. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Semester Projects: Use Math to Improve the World Proposal: each student proposes a project, pitches it to the class Voting: students rank top 10 Groups of 2-4 carry out project, write paper, present work.

33. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Semester Projects: Ideal: use math to improve the world Examples: • solar water heating on dorms • free trade products in coffee shop • campus composting program • fair funding of public schools • video game about credit cards

34. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Questions on Math for Social Justice Classes? (at SMCM or elsewhere) Coming soon… • Sample activities • Brainstorming your own activities

35. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Sample Activities: • Fast Food and Obesity • Lorenz Curves and GiniCoefficents

36. Lorenz Curve for SMCM Salaries Gini Coefficient: 0.2479

37. Gini Coefficients Across the World Source: Wikipedia

38. Gini Coefficients Around the World

39. National Center for Policy Analysis http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st261?pg=7

40. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Brainstorm your own activities: • How could you add social justice content into your current classes? • What social justice issues are important to your students? What mathematics could you leverage with those issues? • Take a particular mathematical topic. Find a social justice angle that addresses this topic.

41. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Resources: • Tom Pfaff’s Sustainability Page (faculty.ithaca.edu/tpfaff/) • Creating Balance Conference (Oct. 2010) (creatingbalanceconference.org/) • Gapminder (www.gapminder.org/)

42. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice • Gapminder (www.gapminder.org/)

43. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Rich topics: • Climate change • Oil production / peak oil • Incarceration rates • Wealth distribution • Finance (credit cards) • Environmental racism • Renewable energy / payback times • Local issues

44. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Brainstorm your own activities: • How could you add social justice content into your current classes? • What social justice issues are important to your students? What mathematics could you leverage with those issues? • Take a particular mathematical topic. Find a social justice angle that addresses this topic.

45. Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice Thanks! Questions? Comments? [Email: dtkung@smcm.edu]