Forum Oświatowe (Dec 2013)

Critical Action Research with Urban Youth: Studying Social Reality Through Mathematics

  • Eric Gutstein

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 3(50)
pp. 117 – 126

Abstract

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This paper describes a long-term action research project (over 15 years) on critical mathematics—a study of urban, public school students (ages 11 to 19) in the U.S. who used and learned mathematics to simultaneously learn about their social reality. Two major questions were: How does one teach critical mathematics? and What do students learn? The theoretical framework builds on Paulo Freire’s concepts, epistemology, and theory of political change. The settings were two schools in low-in- come, working class Latino and African American communities. Students were active co-research participants and contributed to every aspect of the project.

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