When One Lacks Will, They Denounce . . .

Robert M. Capraro; Jonas Chang

doi:10.21423/jume-v13i1Ba407

Authors

Robert M. Capraro Texas A&M University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8868-4432
Jonas Chang Texas A&M University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5511-9223

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21423/jume-v13i1Ba407

Keywords:

Racism, Privilege, Call to action, Black Lives Matter, Equity

Abstract

Robert M. Capraro, the editor-in-cheif of the Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, and Jonas Chang, copyeditor for JUME, introduce this special issue of the journal. Through discussion of the events that prompted the Black Lives Matter protests of Summer 2020 and the responses of several national organizations and corporations, they argues that the journal and its members must do more than simply denounce systemic racism and violence; math educators must additionally use their privelage and influence to support the message of the protests and consider in what ways they can more effectively support the mathematics achievement, considered a powerful equalizer of society, of Black and Brown children.

Author Biography

Robert M. Capraro, Texas A&M University

Robert M. Capraro, is Co-Director of Aggie STEM and Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Teaching Learning and Culture at Texas A&M University. Dr. Capraro's expertise is applied research in school settings, program evaluation, the teacher as change agent for STEM school improvement, and STEM student achievement. Recently the team received the best paper award from the International Conference on Engineering Education where he and two colleagues presented their work related to the Aggie STEM project. He is currently involved in research in eight school districts with more than 350,000 students and 180 teachers. His editorial work includes Associate Editor of the American Educational Research Journal, School Science and Mathematics, and Middle Grades Research Journal and the Research Advisory Committee for the Association of Middle Level Education, editorial board for the Journal for Research Mathematics Education. He is the current editor of Journal of Urban Mathematics Education. He is the author or co-author of five books, several book chapters and more than 130 research articles. Along with 5 colleagues he was recently awarded a 12-million-dollar grant from Institute of Education Sciences bringing his total external funding to ~30 million. He has extensively worked and been funded to investigate pre-college readiness, high school STEM success, and college mathematics readiness and been external evaluator on ~14 million dollars dealing with teacher readiness to teach mathematics, college readiness of language minority students, and community college student STEM success. He have been a member of AERA for 21 years including three years as a doctoral student and held several leadership positions in that time including graduate student representative.

Professor, Mathematics Education

References

American College of Cardiology. (2020, June 1). ABC, ACC and AHA denounce racism and vio-lence plaguing communities. https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2020/06/01/09/25/abc-acc-and-aha-denounce-racism-and-violence-plaguing-communities

Bjorke, C. (2020, June 1). Portland businesses and leaders add to calls denouncing racism and violence. Portland Business Journal. https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2020/06/01/social-roundup.html

McCombs, B. (2020, June 1). Mormon president denounces racism, escalating violence. Standard-Examiner. https://www.standard.net/news/state/mormon-president-denounces-racism-escalating-violence/article_e1822c30-38e8-5c21-a1c8-186d95795503.html

Walter, M. (2020, June 1). In wake of George Floyd’s death, cardiovascular groups denounce ‘incidents of racism and violence.’ CardiovascularBusiness. https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/healthcare-economics/george-floyd-cardiovascular-denounce-racism-violence