A Seattle Public Schools ethnic studies committee is working on an educational framework that aims to teach students to understand and identify the ways math is connected to racial oppression, according to the Daily Caller.
A rough draft of the K-12 Math Ethnic Studies Framework, created by the Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee, details four themes curriculum can focus on: Origins, Identity, and Agency; Power and Oppression; History of Resistance and Liberation; and Reflection and Action.
The first theme, Origins, Identity, and Agency, focuses on the historical beginnings of mathematical knowledge and the cultures, particularly those of color, that contributed to the development of mathematics study.
The Power and Oppression theme is the one that most aggressively frames mathematics as a tool of racial oppression. Here’s the definition of that theme:
Power and oppression, as defined by ethnic studies, are the ways in which individuals and groups define mathematical knowledge so as to see “Western” mathematics as the only legitimate expression of mathematical identity and intelligence. This definition of legitimacy is then used to disenfranchise people and communities of color. This erases the historical contributions of people and communities of color. – READ MORE