“When Are We Going to Use Math to Actually Make Change?”

A Social Justice Routine for the Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

This article describes the development and implementation of a social justice warm-up routine for the mathematics classroom. In this routine, students are presented with data and are then asked to answer a question that begins with: “Is it fair that …?” I discuss how I used this routine with my 5^th and 6^th grade students to explore questions of income inequality, labor rights, racial justice, and environmental justice. I reflect on ways I observed students’ critical consciousness develop over time by engaging with this routine. I end by illustrating how students used this routine to analyze the connection between tap water contamination and poverty, and how they took action by writing letters to government officials about their findings.