Why I Won't Teach Mathematics for Social Justice (Even though I Want to)

Abstract

This paper reports on a research study in which seven New York City high school mathematics teachers participated in a professional development opportunity around the teaching of mathematics for social justice. The teachers saw value in teaching math for social justice and were philosophically aligned with the pedagogy. Despite this and despite recognizing various benefits of its use, they all indicated that going forward they would implement the pedagogy infrequently if at all. This paper explores the reasons the teachers gave for why they would not implement the pedagogy fully as it explores barriers to teacher implementation of teaching mathematics for social justice.