Webinar Series
What is Our Role as Math and Science Teachers in the Pursuit of Social Justice
Date+Time
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The MƒA Equity Webinars Series invites nationally recognized educators to share ideas that support equity within STEM. Following an interactive presentation by the speaker, Master Teachers have the opportunity to discuss how these ideas might be applied in their own school environments in small groups. Teachers from MƒA, other Master Teacher programs, and people interested in learning more about MƒA are invited to attend.
Social justice (Gutstein, 2006), abolitionist (Bullock & Meiners, 2019; Love, 2019), and antiracist (TODOS, 2020) teaching are current buzzwords amongst educators and the general public. What do these concepts mean for mathematics and science teachers? I will discuss what mathematics and science teachers can do to work toward social justice, including healing-informed social justice pedagogy (Kokka, 2019) and STEM teacher activism (Kokka, 2018). I will draw on my experiences as a teacher activist at Vanguard High School (2001-2011) and my research on Social Justice Mathematics to discuss how these concepts can be operationalized in mathematics and science classrooms.
Dr. Kari Kokka (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Pittsburgh where she studies Social Justice Mathematics and STEM teacher activism. She was a mathematics teacher-organizer and mathematics coach at Vanguard High School in New York City (2001-2011) and a mathematics teacher at Berkeley High School (1999-2000). She is co-founder of the Creating Balance in an Unjust World Conference on STEAMM Education and Social Justice, and she was a Math for America Master Teacher (2006-2011). She earned her Ed.D. at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2017), principal certification with the New York City Leadership Academy (2011), and M.A. (Education 2001) and B.S. (Mechanical Engineering 1999) at Stanford University. She can be reached at www.karikokka.com.