TODOS: Mathematics for ALL and the Benjamin Banneker Association—both NCTM Affiliates—support giving students opportunities to engage in rich and rigorous mathematics. However, teachers often have difficulty in finding examples of how to engage students who are typically underrepresented in mathematics classrooms in meaningful, rigorous mathematics. To help all students learn mathematics, teachers must first break down the barriers that prevent them from learning. Some students find the mathematics presented in the classroom uninteresting, irrelevant, or disconnected from their everyday lives. It is important for the context to be accessible and make sense to students. This means that the mathematics should draw on the cultural and social capital that diverse students bring to the classroom.
Opportunities for culturally relevant teaching can be found in almost any everyday experience. For example, in the current economic downturn, everyone is trying to stretch a dollar. It is important to understand the power that someone holds in choosing where to spend his or her money. The ability to “do the math” becomes empowerment as individuals make informed decisions about their lives. Teachers can pose everyday problems to help students mathematize their experiences. Mathematizing is the ability to identify the relationships and quantities that exist in specific contexts. When students work in everyday contexts on activities such as comparing the prices of consumer products to make better economic decisions, they discover that they can generate an abundance of mathematics and data to advocate for social justice.
