Special Events Seminar

Note: The seminar will also be broadcast in 4096 East Hall from 5:15 - 6:30pm for those who would like an "in-person" viewing option.

Mathematics educators have been talking about "equity" and "justice" for decades, yet our field continues to reproduce hierarchies. These hierarchies position some students as "gifted" or "advanced" and others as "low," "struggling," or "remedial," with clear and persistent correlations to race, gender, class, and other socially constructed hierarchies. How and why does this happen - and what can it look like for us to deliberately and consistently disrupt ability hierarchies in our field? In this talk, Dr. Nicole Louie will take up these questions. Drawing on her work with teachers in San Francisco and Chicago, she will describe some of the ways that mathematics educators commonly find themselves drawn in by the gravitational pull that hierarchical ways of thinking exert. She will also discuss ways of resisting this pull, not only in mathematics classrooms but also in professional communities in which mathematics educators work together to pull toward justice.

Attendance requires pre-registration (which can be done up to the moment it starts). The link for that is here: https://umich.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfumuqTosGNU7_taHJx_rVtBIJpOrE2Oa

Brought to you by: UM Department of Mathematics, the Learning Community for Inclusive Teaching in Mathematics (LCIT), and the Teaching Mathematics Seminar. Speaker(s): Nicole Louie (University of Wisconsin)