By Cathery Yeh, posted April 24, 2017 —

Inspired by Anita Bright’s work (2016), my preservice teachers and I had been analyzing the “hidden messages” in K–grade 6 textbooks and were surprised by what we found. Let’s start with a series of problems that a preservice teacher identified in the textbook Math Expressions, which was being used in her fifth-grade fractions and decimals unit:

• Amie used 7/9 yard of ribbon in her dress. Jasmine used 5/6 yard of ribbon in her dress. Which girl used more ribbon? How much more did she use?
• In the last basketball game, Joel made 4 out of 7 free throws. Carlos made 5 out of 9 free throws. Which boy made the greater fraction of his free throws?
• Ms. Hernandez knitted a scarf for her grandson. The scarf is 5/6 yard long and 2/9 yard wide. What is the area of the scarf?

What do you notice? What is normalized and valued in these problems? We had the opportunity to review many more word problems in this textbook, and the examples above represent typical patterns in word problems we reviewed. Contexts related to looking pretty, being helpful, and being a homemaker were attached to problems with girls’ names; problems with boys’ names reinforced athleticism, competition, and masculinity. Any one of these scenarios are unproblematic of and by themselves, but when looking at patterns across several problems, we see a consistent message about gender normativity—the idea that there is only one way to be a boy and another, different way to be a girl.

In the rare instances when we found a gender-fluid problem (e.g., David’s dad baked a dozen cookies to share with him, his sister, and his mom), the problem continued to conflate gender with a heterosexual identity. As a class, we could not find problems involving nonnuclear families (e.g., two moms, a single dad) or gender nonconforming characters (e.g., John buying a doll at the store).

What happens when gender is seen and understood as fixed and dichotomous? A restrictive notion of gender has an adverse impact on all students. Gender socialization and stereotypes influence students’ impressions of what is acceptable, and they shape performance, STEM-based participation patterns, and violence (Barnett and Rivers 2005; Kosciw et al. 2014; Rands 2009).

The 2013 National School Climate Survey found that 90 percent of gender variant students were verbally harassed and more than half reported gender-based physical violence in the past year (Kosciw et al. 2014). Students who are perceived to be gender nonconforming are significantly more likely than their peers to be harassed and assaulted at school (Kosciw et al. 2014).

Genderism and heteronormativity are not the only hidden message in word problems. We have found that almost all word problems have hidden messages; issues of classism, racism, and consumerism are rampant. How many math problems can you identify in your school curriculum that perpetuate competition and individualism (e.g., “Which boy made the greater fraction of his free throws?”) versus collectivism and community (e.g., “What can we achieve working together?”)

Schools send powerful messages to our students about what is valued and whose knowledge and experiences are deemed important. These messages have such deep historical and cultural roots that we often don’t even notice them. But mathematics word problems could serve as a vehicle for students to analyze privilege and oppression, such as analyzing the gender pay gap or the differences in the rate of hate crimes and police brutality between transgender and cisgender populations.

I realize my observations are limited by my own worldviews as a cisgender female, a teacher, and a mother. My goal for writing is selfish in that I still have much to learn as an educator. I hope this series of posts encourages conversations about how we can collectively create mathematics learning spaces that are humanizing and welcoming for students learning disciplinary practices while we also embrace and leverage the diversity of children and families we serve. 

Your turn

What hidden messages are found in the mathematical word problems in your textbook? How have you reframed these problems to better reflect the diversity of the students and families we serve? We want to hear from you. Post your ideas in the comments below or share your thoughts on Twitter @TCM_at_NCTM using #TCMtalk.

Join us on May 8, 2017, when we discuss the third blog post in this series, teachers’ choices about number and language while implementing mathematical tasks.

References

Barnett, Rosalind, and Caryl Rivers. 2005. Same Difference: How Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children, and Our Jobs. New York: Basic Books.

Bright, Anita. 2016. “Education for Whom? Word Problems as Carriers of Cultural Values.” Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education 15 (1): 6–22. 

Esmonde, Indigo. 2011. “Snips and Snails and Puppy Dogs’ Tails: Genderism and Mathematics Education.” For the Learning of Mathematics 31, no. 2 (July): 27–31.

Kosciw, Joseph G., Emily A. Greytak, Neal A. Palmer, and Madelyn J. Boesen. 2014. “The 2013 National School Climate Survey: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth in Our Nation’s Schools.” Research report. New York: Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

Rands, Kathleen E. 2009. Considering Transgender People in Education: A Gender-Complex Approach. Journal of Teacher Education 60 (4): 419–31.

Cathery Yeh is an assistant professor in the College of Educational Studies at Chapman University. She is the lead author of the newly released NCTM book Reimagining the Mathematics Classroom: Creating and Sustaining Productive Learning Environments. Her work focuses on creating classroom spaces for generative learning, agency, community, and collective praxis.