Abstract
Many responses to issues of diversity in mathematics classrooms result from a discourse of classroom diversity as a difficulty, something at best as to be reduced, at worst, as a problem to be ‘managed’ in some way. Such discourses of reducing or managing diversity arise, in part, through talk about diversity being framed around the causes of the ‘problem’ of diversity being ‘located’ primarily within the individual learner. Such a position on diversity rarely, however, questions assumptions about the mathematics curriculum. The curriculum is taken as a given, it is the learners or the teachers who have to find ways to accommodate to that given. This chapter explores how current views of the curriculum, particularly within policy initiatives, may actually be reinforcing the framing of diversity as a difficult. It goes on to present alternative ways of thinking about curriculum, ways that embrace diversity so that it can support inclusiveness in mathematics classrooms and improve learning for all.
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Askew, M. (2015). Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in Mathematics Classrooms: From Individual Problems to Collective Possibility. In: Bishop, A., Tan, H., Barkatsas, T. (eds) Diversity in Mathematics Education. Mathematics Education Library. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05978-5_8
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