Posted by:
Nancy Terman
Posted on: May 21, 2001 at 6:45 PM
Message:
This was a very interesting aspect of the professional development in our LSC. A year prior to beginning our LSC, we had begun the Equity in Mathematics Education Leadership Institute (EMELI) which was also housed in our Center at UCSB. EMELI was a national project, funded by NSF, whose goal was to increase understanding among math educators of how racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of bias affect the teaching and learning of mathematics. Ruby and I were part of the EMELI leadership and worked with Julian Weissglass (EMELI Director and PI) to plan and conduct intensive equity workshops, Our work in EMELI informed our work in this LSC - from the beginning we were explicit about equity being an important part of the LSC. Some examples of what we used in the professional development we conducted were:
o making cultural connects to the mathematics we did explicit;
o use specific structures (dyads, Personal Experience Panels) that allowed teachers to examine their own experiences related to bias and how this affected them as a learner and now as a teacher;
o readings and discussions that raised particular issues (e.g. Delpit about power in the classroom, Kohl about the reluctant learner; excerpts of writings from second language learners about their experiences the impact on their cultural identity, etc.);
o examination of data regarding the mathematics achievement of different ethnic groups of students in the district and math and science enrollment data (by gender and ethnicity) of students in the high school this district feeds into. We had a range of responses from teachers: from "its about time that we talked about this" to " it isnt a problem in our district we all treat everyone the same." We were successful in getting conversations going among teachers, administrators, and parents but felt we would have still liked to have done more.
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