A Framework for Understanding Whiteness in Mathematics Education

Authors

  • Dan Battey Rutgers University
  • Luis A. Leyva Rutgers University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21423/jume-v9i2a294

Keywords:

mathematics education, race, racism, whiteness, White supremacy

Abstract

In this article, the authors provide a framework for understanding whiteness in mathematics education. While whiteness is receiving more attention in the broader education literature, only a handful of scholars address whiteness in mathematics education in any form. This lack of attention to whiteness leaves it invisible and neutral in documenting mathematics as a racialized space. Naming White institutional spaces, as well as the mechanisms that oppress students, can provide those who work in the field of mathematics education with specific ideas about combatting these racist structures. The framework developed and presented here illustrates three dimensions of White institutional space--institutional, labor, and identity--that are intended to support mathematics educators in two ways: (a) systematically documenting how whiteness subjugates historically marginalized students of color and their agency in resisting this oppression, and (b) making visible the ways in which whiteness impacts White students to reproduce racial privilege.

Author Biographies

Dan Battey, Rutgers University

Associate Professor, Mathematics Education Department of Learning & Teaching Graduate School of Education

Luis A. Leyva, Rutgers University

Doctoral Candidate, Graduate School of Education

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Published

2016-12-29

Issue

Section

RESEARCH ARTICLES