This book focuses on the theory and practices of a highly successful mathematics teacher of African American children in a high-poverty school. The discussions in the book center on the ideals of culturally responsive teaching (CRT), and seek to build understanding of this concept in the context of mathematics.

At a time of rapid demographic change and amidst the many educational challenges facing the US, this critical new collection presents mathematics education from a culturally responsive perspective. It tackles the most crucial issues of teaching mathematics to an ethnically diverse school population, including the political dimension of mathematics education within the context of governmental efforts to improve achievement in school mathematics. Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education moves beyond a point of view that is internal to mathematics education as a discipline, and instead offers a broad perspective of mathematics as a significant, liberating intellectual force in our society. The editors of this volume bring together contributions from many of the leading teachers, teacher educators, researchers, scholars, and activists who have been working to reorient mathematics education in ways that reflect mathematics education as accomplished, first and foremost, through human interactions.

Help students see their whole selves in the math they′re learning with culturally responsive teaching. Cultivating Mathematical Hearts: Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching in Elementary Classrooms, aims to re-center mathematics as a humanizing endeavor because putting children and their humanity at the heart of mathematics education can result in more engaged, meaningful, and joyful learning. This book introduces a model and a tool for Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching, constructed to create a safe, inclusive space where all learners can come together in their own educational journey and develop a love for math that centers their experiences and comes from the heart. Implementing the Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching Tool (CRMT2) will help you cultivate and sustain meaningful, rich, and rigorous mathematical learning spaces for all your students-experiences that foster mathematical curiosity and joy. The book walks you through each aspect of the framework and tool, guiding you to consider how your classroom structures, lessons, tasks, and assessments: Honor the existing cultural strengths, experiences, and lived realities of all your students Elicit diverse mathematical thinking and ideas Support equitable access to rigorous mathematical learning and discourse for all students Invite a sense of agency in each student's learning experience Promote high engagement and excitement while learning mathematics Nurture an understanding that mathematics is a powerful tool for making sense of the world By weaving these strategies into classroom lessons, teachers can humanize mathematics instruction to successfully build a love for math while providing equitable learning opportunities that empower student voice and promote success in mathematics.

Results show that the work of culturally responsive mathematics teaching is complex and fluid, effecting student perceptions and supporting racial identity development among African American students. Specifically, there are four main, interconnected cornerstones of culturally responsive mathematics teaching that frame the everyday cycle of pedagogy and discipline and experiences of the student: communication, knowledge, trust, and constant reflection and revision. These cornerstones can be used to guide pre- and in-service teachers who are working to become more culturally responsive, teacher educators who are working with pre-service mathematics teachers, and administrators and policy-makers who seek to promote equity in mathematics classrooms.

"This was part of a reflection from a graduate student in one of our mathematics education courses. The students were all teachers, asked to complete an assignment incorporating culturally relevant teaching into a lesson plan. The concern expressed in the reflection was about potential pushback associated with delivering such a lesson - not from students, but from administrators and possibly parents"--

Empower your students as they reimagine the world around them through mathematics Culturally relevant mathematics teaching engages and empowers students, helping them learn and understand math more deeply and make connections to themselves, their communities, and the world around them. The mathematics task provides opportunities for a direct pathway to this goal; however, how can you find, adapt, and implement math tasks that build powerful learners? Engaging in Culturally Relevant Math Tasks helps teachers to design and refine inspiring mathematics learning experiences driven by the kind of high-quality and culturally relevant mathematics tasks that connect students to their world. With the goal of inspiring all students to see themselves as doers of mathematics, this book provides intensive, in-the-moment guidance and practical classroom tools that empower educators to shape culturally relevant experiences while systematically building tasks that are standards-based. It includes A pathway for moving through the process of asking, imagining, planning, creating, and improving culturally relevant math tasks. Tools and strategies for designing culturally relevant math tasks that preservice, novice, and veteran teachers can use to grow their practice day by day. Research-based teaching practices seen through the lens of culturally relevant instruction that help students develop deep conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, fluency, and application in all K-5 mathematical content. Examples, milestones, opportunities for reflection, and discussion questions guide educators to strengthen their classroom practices, and to reimagine math instruction in response. This book is for any educator who wants to teach mathematics in a more authentic, inclusive, and meaningful way, and it is especially beneficial for teachers whose students are culturally different from them.

From two math coaches who really know how Have you ever wished there were a single resource to help you tackle your most persistent teaching issues once and for all? To engage students in more meaningful ways? To provide the tools you need to increase students’ understanding of key mathematical concepts? All at the same time! Math coaches Thomasenia Lott Adams and Joanne LaFramenta have just written it. With the help of this book, you’ll be armed with the know-how to employ strategies to achieve the CCSS, especially the Mathematical Practices make purposeful teaching decisions facilitate differentiated instruction teach and learn with manipulatives use technology appropriately

"Culturally Specific Pedagogy in the Mathematic Classroom offers a wide variety of conceptual and curricular resources for teachers interested in teaching mathematics in a way that challenges stratification based upon race, class, gender and other forms of oppression that students face in todays world. With the publication of this book, all teachers will have available to them instructional strategies in mathematics for meeting the academic needs of culturally diverse students. They will have an explanation of the linkage between culture and students mathematical cognition and problem solving. The ease in which Leonard brings the reader along, and the caring way she tells a story about making mathematics a fun and social justice experience makes for an exciting learning opportunity for all students and teachers." Carl A. Grant, University Wisconsin-Madison, United States, From the Foreword "Mathematics educators are in a period of deep concern about our ability to educate all students in mathematics. Most students of color do not have the opportunities to fully learn mathematics. Nothing more important can be done for these students and their teachers than to publish this book addressing the miseducation of these students and offering a way to change what we are doing." Carol E. Malloy, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, United States This compelling text advocates the use of culturally specific pedagogy to enhance the mathematics instruction of diverse students. It accomplishes this by making clear the link between research and practice and offering lesson templates that teachers can use with ethnically and culturally diverse students and with females. Specifically, the text draws on sociocultural theory and research on culture and mathematics cognition to focus on three goals: using qualitative research to extend the literature on culturally based education to African American and Latina/o c

"This book is designed as a primary resource for educators engaging in mathematics task adoption, design, planning, and implementation in ways that have potential to engage, inspire, and empower K-5 children. The goal is to offer a practical and inspirational approach to culturally-relevant mathematics instruction in the form of intensive, in-the-moment guidance and practical classroom tools to meet teachers where they are and help grow their practice day by day. This book focuses on research-based and learner-centered teaching practices to help students develop deep conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge and fluency, and application in all mathematical content in grades K-5"--

Schools are, to a large degree, failing to teach mathematics to large numbers of culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse (CLSD) students. Two factors that support this assertion are the low achievement and high dropout rates of many CLSD students. Latino students, in particular, score among the lowest of all student groups and have the highest dropout rates. Research indicates that culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a promising approach to improving achievement. CRT teaches to and through the rich cultural heritage that CLSD students bring to the classroom. There have been very few studies of CRT with Latino students who are typically viewed as being at educational risk. The purpose of this study is to describe how successful upper elementary teachers teach mathematics to Latino students with and without disabilities. The research questions guiding this inquiry were: (1) What are the features of math instruction utilized by successful elementary math teachers of Latino/a students typically viewed as being at educational risk? (2) How are these features responsive to students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds and personal life experiences? (3) How do their instructional practices with Latino/a students correspond with the theoretical principles of culturally responsive teaching? This study employed a multiple case study design (Stake, 1995) with the mathematics classroom making up the bounded system. Five teachers and their students served as embedded units of analysis who were instrumental in understanding culturally responsive teaching. Data were collected through observation, guided semi-structured interviews and field notes about participating teachers instruction. Data analysis consisted of constant comparison and by noting patterns and themes, arriving at comparisons and contrasts, and determining conceptual explanations for the data. Results revealed that teachers used a wide variety of teaching methods including reviewing previously learned concepts, making instruction relevant, making instruction comprehensible, and teaching through music, rhymes, movement, and visuals. Findings revealed that there was very little evidence that teachers overtly planned activities that directly addressed culture. Implications for future research and teacher preparation programs are discussed.