Testimonios of fugitivity from secondary mathematics teachers

This dissertation research explores secondary mathematics teachers’ perspectives who identify as justice-oriented teachers, working toward implementing their justice-oriented goals beyond the demands of the teaching profession. The dissertation documents how teachers hold themselves accountable to discourses of justice rooted in equity, social change, liberation, and rehumanizing practices. It also documents how teachers engage in justice-oriented practices beyond the institutional discourses of justice-oriented teaching practices. These representations may include redefining school mathematics, delegating authority inside and outside the classroom, and supporting students as agents of change in society. This study seeks to document the stories of justice-oriented teachers who teach predominately Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) and learn more about how they hold themselves accountable to higher and more sophisticated goals than traditional demands of teaching. This qualitative study adopted story genre and narrative methods, guided by a decolonial education research approach, to explore secondary mathematics teachers’ stories about their experiences in mathematics and justice projects. Data for the dissertation were collected through three 90-minute semi-structured interviews with high school mathematics teachers who teach in schools in different areas and contexts in California. Other data included supplemental documents to provide context to teachers’ stories. Findings are presented in the form of two chapters that document fugitive testimonios, where mathematics teachers shared their experiences navigating their learning and teaching while engaging in fugitive practices as they shared how they engaged in communion with a collective experience marked by marginalization, oppression, or resistance. Chapters 5 and 6 present Remedios’ and Carlota’s testimonios and the stories they share that describe their experiences with justice and look at moments in their trajectory where they engaged with fugitivity and demonstrated their allegiance and accountability, and where they took risks given their positionalities. Chapter 7 presents a discussion of the research questions, where I present the thematic representations of how my participants engage in justice. I also introduce the Situational Fugitive Pedagogies framework to examine and recognize the liminal space of those who decide to engage in the Undercommons of justice-oriented mathematics teaching. By liminal, I am referring to the ways in which teachers recognize the entanglement and the entrapment of attempting to exist within a system while trying to create opportunities for liberation for themselves and others. Ultimately, the dissertation shows how teachers engage in fugitivity as they challenge systems of oppression and develop political stances for everyday teaching decisions. The dissertation has three implications; (1) it adds to the documentation of how secondary mathematics teachers engage in justice beyond curriculum changes and engage in creative insubordination and work toward creating humanizing and liberating experiences for students; (2) The teachers’ testimonios provide an opportunity to see from their perspective how they navigate the liminal space of upholding structural representations of justice and the refusal of those representations. Finally, (3) the dissertation SFP framework provides a lens of how teachers’ engaging in actions of fugitivity is cyclical and how teachers uphold their allegiance and accountability to their students and community.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Vargas, Gabriela Elizabeth

Contributors dc:contributor

• González Rivera, Gloriana
• Kwon, Soo Ah
• Pak, Yoon
• Rana, Junaid

• Justice Oriented Teaching
• Fugitivity
• Secondary Mathematics
• Testimonios

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Gabriela Vargas

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120543

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120543