Teaching Mathematics for Spatial Justice: An Investigation of the Lottery

ABSTRACT

This article explores integrating place-based education with critical mathematics toward teaching mathematics for spatial justice. Local Lotto, a curricular module with associated digital tools, was designed to investigate the lottery as a critical spatial phenomenon and piloted in urban high schools. This article describes findings from the second iteration in a remedial class in a low-income neighborhood. The research questions consider how the spatial focus supported the learning of mathematics and provided opportunities for students to think critically about the lottery using that mathematics. Findings include student interest in and engagement with the theme of the lottery familiar from outside of school with associated social justice implications. Students used mathematics and spatial evidence, at various levels of spatial scale, to support arguments about the lottery with greater success at narrower levels of scale. Suggestions about further innovations to scaffold place in a “critical pedagogy of place” in mathematics are provided.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the significant contributions of MIT's Civic Data Design Lab under the leadership of Sarah Williams, The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), and Lauren Shookhoff of the New York City Department of Education in the design of the curriculum, GIS maps, and mapping tools described in this article. This research would not have been possible without the generosity of time and spirit of the school students. We acknowledge the helpful and rigorous feedback provided by reviewers of a previous version of this article.

Funding

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-1222430. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes

1. Other class sections had 20, 23, and 29 students on their rosters. The teacher speculates that one section was larger than the others because of scheduling issues pertaining to students’ last chances to fulfill graduation requirements in other subjects.

2. The teacher contributed and confirmed interpretations and analysis of the lesson vignettes and is the fourth co-author of the article.

3. The students’ analysis of this image prompted the design team to notice scaling challenges related to the proportional symbol mapping technique.