| Title: |
Democracy and Algebra: It Takes a (Democratic) Village! |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
Madison Knowe; Kelly Aldridge Boyd; Lekeisha Harding; Alex Cásarez; Barbara Stengel |
| Source: |
Schools: Studies in Education. 2025 22(1):17-38. |
| Availability: |
University of Chicago Press. Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005, Chicago, IL 60637. Tel: 877-705-1878; Tel: 773-753-3347; Fax: 877-705-1879; Fax: 773-753-0811; e-mail: subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu; Web site: http://www.press.uchicago.edu |
| Peer Reviewed: |
Y |
| Page Count: |
22 |
| Publication Date: |
2025 |
| Document Type: |
Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive |
| Education Level: |
Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education; Elementary Education; Grade 8 |
| Descriptors: |
Middle School Students; Grade 8; Middle School Teachers; Mathematics Education; Mathematics Instruction; Algebra; Mathematics Achievement; Mathematics Tests; Scores; Standardized Tests; Democracy; Equal Education; Mathematics Teachers |
| Geographic Terms: |
Tennessee (Nashville) |
| DOI: |
10.1086/734970 |
| ISSN: |
1550-1175; 2153-0327 |
| Abstract: |
In 2014, a team of educators and all of the eighth-grade students at a "failing school" in Nashville, Tennessee, took up the challenge of teaching and learning Algebra 1. This was in the context of a constrained standardized-test-driven public school environment in which less than 20 percent of these students had achieved proficiency in seventh-grade math. Here, we tell the story of that year through the lens of literature that inspired and helps explain this work: Robert Moses's Algebra Project, Walter Feinberg's conceptualization of democratic mathematics education, and practice-based research about collaborative, equitable mathematics teaching. We foreground ideas about equitable math education alongside pedagogical decisions, interactions, and outcomes to characterize this not-so-simple decision as both democratic and potentially revolutionary because it was integrated with democratic structures and habits already established in the school. We conclude with a focus on what those who aspire to teach (mathematics) democratically might learn from this case. |
| Abstractor: |
As Provided |
| Entry Date: |
2025 |
| Accession Number: |
EJ1475626 |
| Database: |
ERIC |