Recognizing Whiteness in Social Justice Mathematics Instruction

Mathematical spaces have been shown to reinforce and perpetuate whiteness. Despite efforts to decenter whiteness in secondary and post-secondary classrooms, equity-oriented strategies can still perpetuate whiteness. In this action research, I turned the lens of whiteness upon my own instructional practices and curriculum. Using an analytic framework for whiteness in mathematics education with three dimensions (i.e., institutional, labor, identity), I explored how my design and delivery of a social justice mathematics course, Social Justice Mathematics Course (ABC), perpetuated whiteness. I identified prominent themes related to how I maintained white supremacy culture, specifically in relation to the institutional and labor dimensions by maintaining power and authority in the course. In addition to recognizing areas in which I upheld whiteness, I also outlined my ongoing efforts to decenter whiteness in ABC through engaging students in ethnomathematics investigations, co-constructing curricular resources, and re-positioning ABC stakeholders. This action research study informs ongoing efforts to reimagine mathematics and mathematics education, as white institutional spaces, through a critical interrogation of my own practices in mathematics classrooms and serves, not as an example for others to replicate, but motivation for mathematics teacher educators to further reflect on and challenge their own pedagogical practices to decenter whiteness.