PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Inquiry as an access point to equity in the classroom
Page: 1098
Although many policy documents include equity as part of mathematics education standards and principles, researchers continue to explore means by which equity might be supported. Teaching practices that include active learning have been proposed to address this issue (e.g., CBMS, 2016; NCTM, 2014). In this paper, we theoretically explore the ways in which active learning teaching practices that focus on teaching for inquiry (e.g., Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) or Inquiry-Oriented Learning (IOL)) support equity in the classroom. Specifically, we claim that some characteristics of inquiry (Student Ownership, Knowledge Building, Peer-Involvement, Doing Mathematics, Student-Instructor Relationship, and Student Success) put forth by Cook, Murphy, and Fukawa-Connelly (2016) may align with the Four Dimensions of Equity (Access, Achievement, Identity, and Power) proposed by Gutiérrez (2009). Therefore, inquiry teaching may be a first step for a focus on equity without compromising the excellence (Gutiérrez, 2002) or material that is often prescribed in undergraduate mathematics courses.