Introduction
Dear Early Mathematics Education Community:
For too long, we–especially those who are white and occupy positions of power–have not joined forces to denounce the pervasive and devastating effects of white supremacy and anti-Blackness on the learning and lives of the students in our charge. We write to share a Call to Action for the field, and to ask you to join us in our efforts.
Early childhood educators, including early mathematics educators, have only scratched the surface in acknowledging and disrupting the ways that racial oppression, in general, and the centering of whiteness, in particular, have infiltrated our beliefs, practices, research, and policies.
Too often, deficit-oriented theories and perspectives grounded in white supremacy are enacted in curricula, instruction, assessment, and classroom and school structures. These enactments subject many Black, Latinx, Pan-Asian, and Indigenous children to adultification, criminalization, surveillance, educational neglect, and other forms of dehumanization and violence. As a result, children and their families must frequently navigate negative messages about their identities--as learners, doers of mathematics, and members of racialized groups.
For centuries, Eurocentric and white-centered perspectives of childhood and development have reserved the innocence of early childhood for middle- and upper-class white children. We need to challenge perspectives that view the white child as the universal child, and white children's mathematical development as the norm for all children. Viewed through these perspectives, many Black, Latinx, Pan-Asian, and Indigenous children are positioned as deviant, disruptive, dangerous, submissive, or invisible, and have been robbed of their right to learn and flourish in early mathematics. Recognizing that there is no universal child of color, and that these groups have been racialized in different ways, we must also take great care to respect and uplift the differences within and among these groups.
In response to the aforementioned concerns, a small and diverse group of parents, researchers, and teachers met in fall 2020 to study issues of racial oppression, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness in early mathematics education. The Racial Justice in Early Mathematics (RJEM) Working Group spent six months learning together and produced the Call to Action below.
RJEM envisions the Call to Action as a beginning response to the issues we raise here. We hope to create a movement among early math and early childhood education stakeholders, providing a hub for information, ideas, resources, and activities all designed to root out racial oppression in early education, and help us work together to imagine and create a world where every child feels valued and able to thrive. We seek others to join RJEM as members and share our commitment to eliminating these complex problems. Specifically, RJEM will:
- publish the Call to Action and list of signatory members as a standing statement of intention;
- provide all members periodic updates, including resources and articles on member efforts; and
- convene a conference on racial justice in early math through Erikson Institute’s Promising Math series in the spring of 2022*.
Please join us to be a published signatory on the Call to Action and receive information and updates about RJEM member activities.
Sincerely,
The RJEM Working Group (2021)
*Since the publication of the RJEM Call to Action, we have hosted two national conferences: the 2022 Promising Math Conference: Racial Justice in Early Mathematics and the First National Meeting of Racial Justice in Early Mathematics (2024). Learn more about these events here.
CALL TO ACTION
We call on the field of early mathematics education to name and dismantle white supremacy and anti-Blackness in all of their manifestations. Together we must:
- show unequivocally that early childhood environments are not immune to racial oppression, but are subject to white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and other forms of racial oppression;
- explicate the ways in which white supremacy and anti-Blackness are present and operate in the institutions, policies, practices, and belief systems that support early childhood education in particular;
- demonstrate how white supremacy and anti-Blackness can thwart children’s development, impede educational justice, and threaten the possibility of young children flourishing mathematically;
- examine our personal and collective involvement in these systems and structures and take action to disrupt the white supremacist status quo, transforming educational experiences and becoming anti-racist actors and advocates;
- listen to, elevate, and value the expertise and wisdom of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Pan-Asian families, community members, and children; and
- imagine and develop systems and practices of early mathematics education that honor the humanity of Black, Latinx, Pan-Asian, and Indigenous children and protect their right to thrive.
By signing below, we pledge to seek out, participate in, and create opportunities to answer this Call. We embrace anti-racism, committing ourselves to ongoing critical self-examination and bold actions that oppose white supremacy, anti-Blackness and other forms of racial oppression.