In this essay, we contextualize a call for strengthening equity and social justice research in mathematics education by inserting the mathematics education enterprise into two world events of 2020: the global COVID-19 pandemic and the global resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. We do so to underscore how white colonialism is forever present everywhere in structures and institutions around the globe, including those of the mathematics education enterprise. We briefly describe the logics of white supremacy and settler colonialism and then combined them into a compounding scheme of colonizing white supremacist logics. Next, we feature recent USA-based mathematics education research to illustrate some different possibilities when equity and social justice research is indeed strengthened through critical interrogations of white supremacy and settler colonialism. We conclude the essay with a justification for getting in good trouble, necessary trouble.
The Topic Study Group 33 at ICME-13 (TSG33) provided a venue for discussion by researchers and practitioners from different countries who are passionate about issues of equity and are working in their particular settings toward achieving the goal of mathematics for all. Certainly variations exist among countries in the terms used (e.g. equity, diversity, inclusivity, social justice) and the targeted groups (e.g. based on race, indigeneity, socioeconomic background, physical and cognitive disabilities). Our understanding of the complexity of issues related to opportunity to learn, participation in, and achievement in, mathematics have also changed as new theoretical models have informed our collective work.The aims of TSG33 sessions included, but were not limited to the following:• Problematise the equity agenda itself, as increasing and sometimes competing demands for social justice from different groups require attention; • Examine new theoretical frameworks that help us understand and study equity;• Consider the prevalence of (in)equity around the world; • Analyse intervention programs around the world with an eye to identifying characteristics of successful interventions that may transfer to different cultural settings; and, • Query equity in participation in mathematics education research and international dialogue, with a focus on who is excluded from participation.
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