Is Math the Most Unbiased Subject of them all?
School is a place with many feelings, experiences for many individuals. The classroom and school environment means many different things to people. Some individuals experience school with many glowingly positive experiences. Whereas other students see it as a scary and anxious place. Many experience school with a variety of emotions which change depending on the feelings they experience during different subject areas. In other words, subject areas can have a great impact on a student’s likeness or dislike of the school and classroom environment.
A question that I have come across this week is were there aspects of it that were oppressive and or discriminating for you or other students? Well the easy answer is absolutely! Although the context to the answer of ‘absolutely’ is I have always been a strong student. I have been the type of person who works hard in all subject areas. I even tried my best on the subjects I struggled with the most. For example in subject areas like English I thrived, but when it came to math no matter what or how hard I tried. I was never able to fully succeed in math assignments, tests or worksheets. I could never ‘completely meet the expectations of math as a whole.’ Not from lack of trying, but from lack of understanding math in the way I expected too. My math test scores were always low, no matter how much time, extra help, support and effort I put into my studies.
After this week’s content it has been easy to come to the conclusion no matter how much effort some put into the subject of math, their math grade may not be successful. As according to the rubrics those who struggle with math are either not paying attention, don’t care or completely understand. Whereas in most cases those struggling with math are unable to completely understand math in the ‘proper’ ways.
The ‘proper’ ways of understanding math: are seen as using terminology, equations and questions. All in all the proper ways to understand math are getting the right answers all of the time. As teachers we need to que into the idea that math can not be understood in a wrong way, rather only in different ways. Ways that require us to question, or use our native language to solve questions, or use native numerical systems.
Teachers are changemakers; we need to let all our students use their native language to solve math questions in their native languages. A specific example of this would be in Inuit communities students from the grades one to three are able to complete math tests and assignments in their native tongue, because the numerical systems are different than the english language. In other words, as teachers it is a desperate need to have students learn in their native language because it creates a clarity in understanding and comprehension. Teachers need to take the time to question and criticize our teaching methods in math, because it is critically important to note that math is and always will be a biased subject.