Springer Equity in Discourse for Mathematics Education: Theories, Practices, and Policies: 55 (Mathematics Education Library, 55)

About the Author Beth Herbel-Eisenmann serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, the Board of Directors for the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), and the International Advisory Board of Mathematics Education and Society conference. In 2010, she was selected for the Early Career Award for the AMTE. <BR> <BR> Jeffrey Choppin won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 1995 and has served as Chair of the editorial panel for the Mathematics Teacher journal. <BR><BR> David Wagner currently serves on the board of directors of For the Learning of Mathematics and as a member of the Nonkilling Science and Technology Research Committee. He has served on the steering committee for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, North American Chapter. <BR><BR> In June 2010, when he retired, David Pimm was made professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, Canada and was editor of For the Learning of Mathematics for six years. Product Description This book explores the connection between the ways people speak in mathematics classrooms and their opportunities to learn mathematics. The words spoken, heard, written and read in mathematics classrooms shape students’ sense of what mathematics is and of what people can do with mathematics. The authors employ multiple perspectives to consider the means for transformative action with respect to increasing opportunities for traditionally marginalized students to form mathematical identities that resonate with their cultural, social, linguistic, and political beings. From the Back Cover Discourse practices warrant the attention of mathematics educators because discourse is the primary medium of education. Evidence about one’s hopes or expectations can be found in discourse practice whether the goal is performance in mathematical procedures, creativity in problem solving, or a classroom environment that uses the diversity of voices as a resource. Language, through implicit and explicit action, is the medium of mathematical development and the medium through which equity and inequities are structured and sustained. Given this inherent connection between discourse and equity, this book focuses on: a) the ways in which the social, mathematical, cultural, and political aspects of classroom interactions impact students’ opportunities to participate in the kinds of discourse practices that provide access to resources; and b) the perceptions and practices of educators, particularly the extent to which they view diversity as a resource and to which they are aware of structural inequities.