As a mathematics educator at the middle and middle school levels, I lived for the moments when students’ wrinkled eyebrows began to unfurl and smiles appeared.
Those “aha” moments were often accompanied by a cheerful “I get it!” I refer to those epiphanies, when the metaphorical lightbulb goes on over a student’s head, as “illuminations.”
Many of those enlightenments came about because the lessons my students participated in were designed to promote student inquiry and prioritize cultural relevance. Although some argue that mathematics is culturally independent, I can say from experience that the opposite is true. Culture embodies our deepest collective social norms and beliefs and provides the reference points for future learning. The brain makes sense of the world, and mathematics, through culture.
As a mathematics educator in residence at Just Equations, a nonprofit organization focused on the intersection of mathematics and equity, I research mathematics education and think a lot about my years in the classroom.
Brain science research is increasingly strengthening the idea that teaching mathematics based on solving culturally relevant problems helps students draw on their lived experiences and activates different areas of the brain, producing deep and lasting learning.
Create students connected to the community
My geometry students did this type of creative mathematical reasoning during a series of lessons that used geometric models to address food apartheid in Lawrence, Kansas.
In one of the lessonsThe students accessed the Department of Agriculture Food Access Research Atlas to locate food deserts in your city. The aim was to develop a site proposal for a healthy grocery store or alternative fresh and healthy food option. The location students identified had to be strategically located to achieve equitable access, taking into account the needs of community members most limited by transportation and low economic support.
During this lesson, students identified a bridge as a barrier in Lawrence that restricted convenient access to healthy, affordable foods. Working in small groups, they described both the physical structures and city policies that prevent the development of a grocery store in the area, thus sustaining the food desert.
Students constructed a triangle for the perimeter of the geographic space containing the food desert, then applied mathematical concepts to identify whether the centroid, circumcenter, incenter, or orthocenter of the triangle would provide the most equitable access to residents.
Lessons like these promote mathematical investigations within community-oriented contexts and require in-depth analysis. Students must think holistically about a real-world problem and use mathematical tools to arrive at a solution. This process aims to harness not only the brain science behind complex mathematical reasoning, but also students’ passion for creating change in the world on their own terms.
This lesson required spatial reasoning skills, which engage the parts of the brain most closely associated with mathematical thinking. A 2018 meta-analysis Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of children ages 14 and younger demonstrated that math performance in children arises from areas of the brain that are associated with number processing, such as parietal and frontal areas. The interesting thing is that the parietal lobe It also integrates sensory information, such as the body’s awareness of where it is in space, including in relation to itself, creating a spatial mental map to represent the world.
Sensory information is also important for how people develop an awareness of identity and their relationships with the environment around them and the sociocultural experiences within that environment. Therefore, mathematics based on sociocultural contexts helps students make sense of their world and establish connections with new content.
Illuminating pathways in the brain
The process the brain goes through during this type of mathematical thinking can be observed in real time. in a study Conducted at Carnegie Mellon University in 2016, researchers monitored the brain activity of study participants as they faced complex math problems that required creative mathematical reasoning.
that investigation identified four distinct stages of problem solving (coding, planning, solving, and responding) that involved various areas of the brain. It has been shown that this type of increase in brain activity lead to better performance and greater learning retention.
Just as engaging students in creative and constructive processes when learning mathematical reasoning has beneficial effects on learning and long-term memory, culturally responsive mathematics uses culture as a scaffold for deeper connections. develop students’ brain power and improve information processing skills.
Importantly, lessons like the one addressing food apartheid in Lawrence also make mathematics feel more relevant by connecting students to vital questions about systemic structural, racial, and economic barriers. They offer an invitation to consider how mathematics can be applied to promote civic engagement, advocacy, policy change, and greater access to resources.
Geneva Gay, professor of education at the University of Washington-Seattle, wrote that culturally responsive instruction allows teachers and students to develop “social awareness and criticism; cultural affirmation, competence, and exchange; community building and personal connections; self-esteem and individual abilities; and an ethic of care.” When we cultivate learning spaces designed to inspire and spark curiosity, students begin to forge their own mathematical identities. They come to see themselves as capable learners and doers of mathematics, and as essential members of the mathematics community.
This science suggests that all teachers can make use of these approaches. There is a wide range of resources available to help educators employ culturally responsive brainstorming, visual imagery, storytelling, and interactive pedagogy in their own classrooms. Teachers who do so will foster not only lasting academic success, but also independent, lifelong learning.
