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

A Social Justice Routine for the Math Classroom

Abstract

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