Engaging in Culturally Relevant Math Tasks : Fostering Hope in the Elementary Classroom

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.

Dr. Lou Edward Mathews is a global mathematics creative and founder of InspireMath committed to building inspiring, sustainable mathematics platforms and culturally relevant education experiences in communities around the world. As Director of Mathematics and Science at Urban Teachers, a national teacher residency program with Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Lou supports the recruitment, coaching and deployment of culturally competent mathematics teachers in Baltimore, Washington DC and Dallas.

In response to the global crisis of racial injustice and COVID19 pandemic, Dr. Lou created Pi Before Dinner, a virtual space and media channel for amplifying and illuminating the voices and images of Black children, families and community in mathematics. The podcast is in its second season on Facebook Live and Youtube and has spawned a website media page and online network of educators and allies.

Dr. Lou has served the mathematics community as a leading equity and racial justice advocate, speaker and scholar. As a mathematics scholar, he has authored studies, book chapters, blogs and videos on culturally relevant mathematics teaching in mathematics. Dr. Matthews led the creation of the Journal of Urban Mathematics Education in 2008. The journal was established to increase the presence and voice of scholars in urban mathematics.

Born in Bermuda, Dr. Lou is currently based in the DC area and has been actively involved in national and international initiatives in the United States, Caribbean, and Africa for the past two decades. He has recently established the Inspire Math Foundation and is a past president of the Benjamin Banneker Association and former acting Commission of Education of Bermuda Public Schools

Dr. Lou is an avid mountain biker and committed to various community and social issues such as ADHD, anti-racism, gentrification and affordable housing.

Dr. Shelly M. Jones is a Professor of Mathematics Education at Central Connecticut State University. She teaches undergraduate mathematics content and methods courses for pre-service teachers as well as graduate level mathematics content, curriculum and STEM courses for in-service teachers. Before joining the CCSU faculty, Dr. Jones was a middle school Mathematics Teacher and a K-12 Mathematics Administrator.  She provides mathematics professional development nationally and internationally.  She has been an educator for 30 years. 

Dr. Jones serves her community by working with various professional and community organizations. You can see her CCSU TEDx talk on YouTube where she talks about culturally relevant mathematics. She is a contributing author for the book entitled, The Brilliance of Black Children in Mathematics: Beyond the Numbers and Toward a New Discourse and the author of Women Who Count: Honoring African American Women Mathematicians.

Dr. Yolanda A. Parker has been an educator for over 25 years and has been full-time faculty at Tarrant County College-South Campus for over 10 years in the Mathematics Department where she primarily teaches Statistics and Math for Teachers courses. She has a B.S. in Applied Math from Texas A&M University in College Station, TX; M.A. in Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH; and Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Illinois State University in Normal, IL.

She was honored as one of the 2017 “Hidden Figures of Dallas: Top Women of Color in S.T.E.M.” by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Dallas/Fort Worth Professionals chapter and has been featured in Women Who Count: Honoring African American Women Mathematicians. She was also recognized as the campus recipient of the 2017 Tarrant County College “Chancellor’s Award for Exemplary Teaching”, the highest award a TCC faculty can receive. Her research interests include the effectiveness of mathematics manipulatives with adult learners, algebra teacher self-efficacy and culturally relevant cognitively demanding mathematics tasks.