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Global Gender & Women’s Studies in Math
May 9, 2024
by Torre Roenne, Adjunct Associate Professor, Math
My project for this FLC involved bringing globalization and gender studies into math class. This proved to have its own unique challenges, not least of which is how to incorporate concepts of globalization and gender studies into the material in a way that didn’t feel forced or contrived and did not add to the students’ already considerable workload. I found some studies that already explored this topic as it pertained to math, applied what I learned to the courses I co-taught last semester as well as this one, and found the experience to be enlightening.
One way in which I applied what I learned from the studies was to write a questionnaire for students to complete anonymously that asked questions about their opinions on the existence of gender bias in math that might come from their peers or the instruction. Another way was to tabulate instances of masculine, feminine, and neutral names, and pronouns along with the professional context attached to them in the word problems throughout my course materials. The purpose of this is to assess how balanced the material is and to correct any imbalances detected. Students spend a tremendous amount of time with textbooks and other class material during their education and imbalances in representation can have deep and lasting negative effects on their self-esteem and self-assertiveness. Thirdly, I gave my students a prompt that asked them to recount a time they didn’t understand something in math, how it affected them, and what words of advice and/or encouragement they would give to themselves if they could go back. The purpose of this was to offer students the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences and how they may or may not have overcome them, as well as to identify areas in my instruction that may be insensitive to stereotypes about a student’s abilities and their perceptions thereof.
I encourage other instructors to consider this and similar ideas for their own classrooms, especially those who, like me prior to this experience, might assume that the nature of math allows few if any, opportunities for gender bias and globalization to occur.