solving world problems

equity & social justice in mathematics education

solving world problems is a pun on the way that word problems in math often have little to do with the real world. This site provides resources and information for math teachers, teacher educators, parents, and students to problematize what matters in mathematics education. 

This page is created & maintained by Frances K. Harper, PhD.

Major Projects
Parents Leadings Racial Justice in Math
Computational thinking + Belonging in STEM
All Research Projects
Selected Publications by Topic or Project

CRRAFT Partnership

Partnership as professional learning: Early childhood educators leading culturally responsive computing in prekindergarten

An unplugged remix of culturally responsive computing for early childhood education

“Any other thoughts?”: Establishing third space in a family-school-university STEM partnership to center voices of parents and teachers

Embracing culturally relevant robotics in the preschool classroom: Leveraging familiar contexts for new learning

Centering teacher and parent voice to realize culturally relevant teaching of computational thinking in early childhood

Social Justice Math

Backlash as whiteness in mathematics education reform: Cautionary tales from history and a call to action for the current movement

Geometry, groceries, and gardens: Learning mathematics and social justice through a nested, equity-direct instructional model

Gatekeeping in mathematics for social and racial justice: A conversation among colleagues

Whiteness as a stumbling block in learning to teach mathematics for social justice

A qualitative metasynthesis of teaching mathematics for social justice in action: Pitfalls and promises of practice

Collaborative Math

Learning to collaborate while learning mathematics

Learning to pose collaborative mathematics problems with secondary prospective teachers

Collaboration and critical mathematical inquiry: Negotiating mathematics engagement, identity, and agency

All Publications