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The Problem with Story Problems
A teacher educator critiques the biases of story problems in math textbooks. Teachers around the country offer creative alternatives.
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As a Teacher and a Daughter: The Impact of Islamophobia
A Canadian teacher discusses the impact of Islamophobia on students, especially those who are Muslim and/or from the Middle East.
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The Politics of the Paragraph
The tale of a high school English teacher’s journey into—and out of—formulaic writing programs as her school struggles with high-stakes exams.
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“Kill the Indian, Kill the Deaf”
Teaching about the residential schools
Parallels in the oppressive history of residential schools for Native American and Deaf children help Deaf students better understand their history and culture.
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A Teacher’s Letter to His Future Baby
A teacher writes about his hopes for the person his child will become—and some of the dangers along the way.
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Rethinking Identity: Afro-Mexican History
Latina/o students explore the impact of African roots on Mexican culture and history.
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Classrooms of Hope and Critique
In the introduction to our book Rethinking Our Classrooms, we quote the late, great Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who urged teachers to “live part of their dreams within their educational […]
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Letters to the Editor 30.4
Personal Cost of War I just finished my second reading of Chris Hawking’s, “Cracking the Box: The Personal Cost of War”(winter 2015-16). Both times his story literally brought tears to my […]
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Schools, Land, and Peace in Colombia
Medellín, Colombia—I knew from the invitation that this would not be a normal school visit. My wife, Barbara, and I were to travel into the Andes Mountains to visit an […]
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Escuelas, tierra y paz en Colombia
Por la invitación sabía que ésta no sería una visita normal a una escuela. Mi esposa Bárbara y yo viajaríamos por las montañas de los Andes para visitar una escuela […]
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Short Stuff 30.4
FBI Tells Schools to Spy on Students A new initiative of the FBI’s Combating Violent Extremism (CVE) program urges high schools to report students who criticize government policies as potential […]
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Our picks for books and other resources for social justice teaching 30.4
Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.
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Freedom Summer in Greenwood
In Revolution, 12-year-old Sunny Fairchild is dealing with troubling family issues—an absent mother, a new, pregnant stepmother, a stepbrother and stepsister. And then Northern “invaders” show up to register Black […]
Volume 30, No.4
Summer 2016
Articles in this summer issue are glimpses into the classrooms of educators who are teaching for social justice, defying the notion that schooling should be reduced to test preparation and the training of “successful” workers.
Our cover article, “The Problem with Story Problems,” is from teacher educator Anita Bright, who uncovers troubling biases embedded in story problems in math textbooks—from elementary through high school levels. Bright shows how seemingly neutral math problems are anything but. Instead, they often reinforce racial and gender stereotypes, encourage students to imagine themselves as bosses, reduce workers to sources of profit, and promote consumerism and the acquisition of “stuff.” But Bright also describes how teachers are helping their students think critically about these word problems and repurpose them with more humane and ecological values. Math teachers, she writes, can “create a classroom climate where challenging the status quo is accepted, normal, and encouraged.”
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