MST professors continually work on new, innovative research. Our faculty’s work spans everything from testing, tinkering, and games to racial and gender equity in mathematics education, and their book publications reflect the wide range of research interests within the department. Two faculty members’ books about their work were published last month. Professor Detra Price-Dennis, CMLTD Program, and Professor Alexander Karp, Mathematics Education Program, both published books in May 2021, focused on racial literacy and Eastern European mathematics, respectively. Below, you can learn about these exciting new projects:
Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces
MST Professor Detra Price-Dennis and Arts & Humanities Professor Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz have collaborated to write Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces. This brilliant book focuses on how we can better prepare educators to respond to inequities, both within our education system and as they prepare their students for the outside world. Offering not only conceptual frameworks and definitions of racial literacy, in addition to practical steps and pedagogical practices for cultivating literacy in the classroom, this book supports teachers in developing “their own racial literacies and those of their preservice and classroom teachers to support student digital activism” (TC Press book description).
This book is essential reading for teachers in any setting who seek to provide a more liberatory setting for learning in their classrooms. “For teachers who develop racial literacy, a natural progression is (re)examination of what and how they are teaching, and a deliberate development of culturally responsive educational approaches in their classroom” (Price-Dennis & Sealey-Ruiz, 2021, p. 22). It’s appropriate for educators and academics who are just starting to do the work of becoming more racially literate, as well as for those who want to advance their work. It outlines how racial literacy can take shape within teacher education in the digital age, how we can institutionalize racial literacy, and how we can critically curate multimodal resources for racial literacy education. This book can be ordered via the TC Press — it’s more than worth reading!
Eastern European Mathematics Education in the Decades of Change (International Studies in the History of Mathematics and its Teaching)
Professor Alexander Karp’s new book, Eastern European Mathematics Education in the Decades of Change (International Studies in the History of Mathematics and its Teaching), is an in-depth look at how mathematics education has shifted in Eastern Europe, as explained through cultural, historical, and political analysis. “This contributed volume is devoted to the recent history and evolution of mathematics education in Eastern Europe, exploring how it was influenced by social and political changes in this part of the world” (Amazon book description). It seeks to fill a gap in the field’s scholarly literature by looking at how teaching and learning mathematics has changed in post-socialist countries. As Professor Karp’s research focuses on gifted education, problem solving, and the history of mathematics education, this book marries his research interests in a new and interesting way. “The book will be of interest to both researchers in mathematics education and practitioners-teachers, as well as a broader audience of historians and educators exploring the political aspects of education” (Amazon book description). Eastern European Mathematics Education in the Decades of Change is an extremely valuable resource for math education professors, practitioners, historians, and math researchers, available on Amazon.