MATH LITERACY AS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZING TOOL: Narratives of an “Extraordinary Citizen”
Book Chapter
Mirón, L, Wynne, J, Lovett, M. (2022). MATH LITERACY AS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZING TOOL: Narratives of an “Extraordinary Citizen”
. 127-145. 10.4324/9781003228868-8
Mirón, L, Wynne, J, Lovett, M. (2022). MATH LITERACY AS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZING TOOL: Narratives of an “Extraordinary Citizen”
. 127-145. 10.4324/9781003228868-8
This chapter shifts from the narratives of “ordinary citizens” to the work and life of an “extraordinary citizen, ” civil rights icon, Bob Moses. Two partners of Dr. Moses at Florida International University narrate how the Algebra Project consumed their role model's professional and personal life for over 50 years. For most of those five decades, their team in the College of Education worked collaboratively with the Miami public schools. The Algebra Project sought—often with significant success for racial minorities—to lift student achievement in Math for students at the 25th percentile nationally. Bob Moses took the functional teaching of algebra in individual public high schools to a broader purpose—securing quality education as a civil/constitutional right. Prior to passing away in 2021, he harked on using the image of a “caste” education system—evolving from “sharecropper” education, at times angering his constituency. Proficiency in math literacy, then and now, is inseparable from its value as a community organizing tool. The chapter concludes with speculation on how Bob Moses viewed not only what it means for federal and state governments to provide a “quality education” to the deeper meaning of citizenship in our civil society.
