QuantCrit: Thinking critically about quantification methods for teaching and social research

Symposium at SIAM Conference on Applied Mathematics Education (ED22).

QuantCrit is a relatively new field, rooted in the traditions of critical inquiry and designed to carefully think through the consequences of the way that data and models are constructed which require the quantification and aggregation of human data. This process of “bucketing and quantification” is typical for the work of applied mathematics. However, as applied mathematicians use their skills in education research or provide classroom examples which involve social dimensions, we need to develop frameworks and tools for understanding how to have conversations about the human dimensions of mathematics. For example – Do we set up our research questions in ways that allow us to examine intersectional issues in the classroom? How do we ask students for demographic information in ways that are validating? Do our models or classroom examples assume gender binary? How might our quantitative methods obscure inequities in student outcomes? Do we interpret observed inequities as gaps or as educational debts? Without these difficult conversations, students could feel their experiences have been erased in the classroom and education research might not elucidate the full picture.

Speakers:

Jayson Nissen – Questioning dogma – How p-values can hide inequities
Ben Van Dusen –  How statistical model development can obscure inequities in STEM student outcomes
Mollee Shultz – A QuantCrit investigation of society’s educational debts in STEM
Carrie Diaz Eaton – Sharing resources and facilitating community conversations about QuantCrit