Teaching for Equality and Justice

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Recommended: Multiculturalism in schools

Contextual Information In this example, I am going to use Evans High School as an example, but this could be almost any school in the United States. Evans High School is 51% male and 49% female. The community is in a suburban setting and it is considered to be a school where it has a perception of being safe and a good school. Only about 6% of students did not meet expectations in mathematics for the graduation test and most of the students, 70%, exceeded the standards. The grade are that I will be focusing on will be 11th grade mathematics, Math III. The classroom is going to be approximately how it is in the school, so I am going to assume half male and half female. The student to teacher ratio is 18:1, so I will be using 18 students as the number in the class. I would be the only teacher in the classroom and I would be teaching based on the Common Core standards from the State of Georgia (USNews: Best Schools, 2011).

Statement of Problem In this example, I am making up a student as an example and I am filling the role as a math teacher in this classroom. Jamie Peterson in my Math III class has been facing a challenge. Jamie Peterson is a junior at Evans High School. The problem is she is feeling discouraged from focusing so hard on mathematics. She wants to go to a really good school and she want to become a mathematician when she grows up. She faces the problem is being a female that wants to be in the mathematics field. Even though most of the math teachers in the school are female, there is still a stereotype that mathematics are for boys. She is picked on for her love of studying mathematics, being called a nerd and told that she needs to do other things to be successful. The challenges of...

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...roblem. An example would be replacing John with Jose in the problem. This would be a small subtle move in incorporating culturally relevant teaching without the students even realizing it. I learned about the culture of power and how as a white American, I have some cultural power, though not as much as others because of my poor upbringing and my current status as a student at this point in time. I do know that being able to teach in a multicultural frame of mind is tough, especially with the demands of teachers increasing due to programs like common core, but I feel like I am better educated to tackle the teaching field and do so with a multicultural viewpoint. It is not going to be perfect and there will be mistakes made, but it has been interesting to learn about these different viewpoints, even if I disagree with some of the points that are being offered.

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