Community Inquiry Project

I am doing my community inquiry project with Mark Perry and Jin Lee. Our topic question is:
Can social justice math be an effective teaching method in urban school districts?

Some of our subtopics include:
1. Using actual data or statistics, what can educators infer from sjm's implementation in the classroom?
2. Is sjm an effective form of teaching?
3. To gauge its effectiveness:
Does it raise student motivation and achievement?
What data illustrates/refutes this claim?
Which school districts employ sjm in the classroom?
4. Why do some districts choose not to employ sjm?
5. How do teachers feel toward using sjm in the classroom?
6. Can it help students deal with standardized testing?

Some of our qualitative date include interviews with professors and school teachers:
Eliza Leszczynski
Brian Miller
Rick Mcnamee (tentatively)

Teachers at Harvey Milk HS (East Village), New York City Algebra Project (Brooklyn), Acorn High School for Social Justice (Brooklyn), Bushwick School for Social Justice (Brooklyn)

Additionally, we will survey students through Brian Miller, Rick Mcnamee, Harvey Milk HS (tentatively), New York City Algebra Project.

QUESTIONS (for students):
1. What does the term "social justice math" mean to you?
2. Do you feel that math should incorporate social,political and economic issues into its instruction, such as with a social justice math curriculum? Why/why not?
3. Is it important for students to have an understanding of social, political and economic issues locally and around the world?
4. Should developing a "social consciousness" be an important part of your educational experiences?
4. Can math empower students to analyze and potentially change the world?
5. Do you think higher-level thinking about the larger mathematical ideas is important? Why/why not?
6. Could incorporating social justice math motivate more students to learn math?
7. Do you think math would be more engaging if it was "real world" rather than "theory"?
8. If you were given the opportunity, would you choose to participate in actual community problem-solving projects?

QUESTIONS (for teachers):
1. Do you currently use social justice math in your classes?
2. How would you summarize its basic purpose?
3. What do you feel are the positive outcomes of using sjm in a classroom?
4. What do you feel are the negative aspects to using sjm in a classroom?
5. Can you describe your personal experiences using sjm in the classroom?
6. Can you give examples of lessons you have brought to the classroom incorporating sjm?
7. Rate the following on a scale of 1 (least likely) to 5 (most likely):
- Sjm can help me differentiate the curriculum more easily.
- Sjm can help me create interdisciplinary and thematic units.
- Smj can help me learn about my students' families and their communities.
- Sjm can help me assess learning within a meaningful context.

Some of our qualitative research includes:

The real World as We Have Seen It: Latino/a Parents' Voices on Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice

a qualitative study of Latino/a parents who supported social justic math in their children's 7th grade classroom in the Chicago public schools

http://www.radicalmath/
a chart of possible topics for sjm classroom use; how to implement sjm into the
classroom; advantages and disadvantages to using sjm in the classroom

Integrating social justice with mathematics and science: an analysis of student
teacher lessons
Barbara Garii, Audrey C. Rule

a qualitative analysis of how student teachers incorporate social justice into math and science classes

Some of our quantitative data includes:

Infusing Mathematics with Culture: Teaching Technical Subjects for Social Justice
Dale Winter

a quantitative study that provides statistical data demonstrating that social and cultural learning can be infused into technical courses without negatively affecting content area learning