The California Math Project at Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly Pomona is committed to serving the community by promoting excellence in science and math teaching at all levels. One way the College of Science is doing that is through the California Mathematics Project at Cal Poly Pomona. The program offers free workshops to develop and enhance K-12 teachers’ math knowledge and teaching strategies.
CMP is a statewide grant-funded program with 19 regional sites. Cristina Runnalls is the principal investigator (PI) and director of the program at the CPP site.
“We’re striving to develop teacher/leaders in school districts, and build a learning community,” Runnalls said. As the person who organizes the eight workshops per year, and the week-long summer institute, Runnalls shared that virtual events have allowed her to bring in a broader range of guest speakers. She’s able to host experts from around the country. Their speaker for April, 2021 is Julia Aguirre (UW Tacoma).
Aguirre will be presenting Math Strong in the Age of COVID. Aguirre writes, “The interactive session will discuss mathematics learning and teaching through the lenses of empathy, resilience and justice. COVID has only amplified already existing injustices in our mathematics education system. We cannot return to normal because normal was not working for many children, especially children from communities of color and communities impacted by poverty. We must return to better. This talk will offer several ways you can take action inside and outside the classroom to broaden access and advancement in mathematics for k-12 children.”
Workshops are grouped around themes such as rehumanizing math, rediscovering joy in mathematics, and forging digital connections. In addition to the workshops, the week-long session during the summer allows for expanding the content and presenting it in different ways. In 2020 attendees participated in interactive sessions, asynchronous reading and learning, and online discussions.
Attendees include teachers from districts as far away as Palm Springs. Ioana Robles is a Teacher on Special Assignment for a program called Math Support for Mission Graduate at Palm Springs Unified School District.
Robles said, “Our district is all about supporting teachers in professional development.” She attended all eight workshops in 2020 and said the most memorable were, An Introduction to Rehumanizing Mathematics and Seeing You in Me and Me in You.
Robles said she learned that, “Students struggle with math because they don’t see the connections between the topics and their real-life experiences and because they believe that they either have the math “gene” or they don’t. This thinking may lead them to believe that they can’t do math.”
“Equity, diversity and inclusion are intertwined with the material presented at the workshops,” Runnalls said. “The spring 2020 workshops series were specifically on rehumanizing mathematics. This is an important distinction we make in the work, which begins with acknowledging that mathematics has historically and societally become a dehumanizing experience for many students. Rehumanizing mathematics begins from this premise and strives towards making mathematics authentic, culturally relevant, and a place where students are active agents in their own learning.”
The lack of access to meaningful mathematics education is a barrier to higher education and upward mobility.
“We’ve had workshops around social justice. It motivates students to know that statistics can be used to measure what’s going on in society, and therefore it can be a tool for change,” Runnalls said.
