Marilyn Frankenstein

M.A., Mathematics, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (which at the time I attended was free for all NYC high school graduates)

Professor, Quantitative Reasoning

Office: W-3-154-20

Phone number: 617-287-7144

marilyn.frankenstein@umb.edu

 

 

 

This photo was taken at an anti-Gulf War demonstration in San Francisco in January 1991. Along with me, starting from the left, are three of my friends and colleagues in mathematics education: Professor Marcelo Borba, University of Rio Claro , Brasil; Professor Arthur B. Powell, Rutgers University , Newark , NJ and co-author with me of various books and articles; and, Professor Marty Hoffman, Queens College , City University of New York. We were in San Francisco that January to present a series of talks we had organized for the Mathematics Association Annual Meeting. Then, the United States started the Gulf War. Along with other mathematics educators in the Criticalmathematics Educators Group (founded by Arthur, myself and another colleague, Professor John Volmink, University of Durban , South Africa ), we organized a group of mathematicians from the conference to participate in this anti-war march. The signs we are holding read “Use Math against Poverty and Disease, Not for War.”

 

Using math for peace and justice is one of the central themes in the undergraduate courses in Quantitative Reasoning that I have been teaching at CPCS since 1978. I stress how reasoning quantitatively about public and community issues is connected to using math to work for justice and to work against injustice. More details, including specific examples from my curriculum are discussed in “Quantitative Reasoning in the CPCS Curriculum”.

 

To further develop this thread in mathematics education, I am involved professionally with an international community of mathematics educators who are developing the emerging fields of ethnomathematics. I have given seminars about my work in CPCS both nationally and internationally, including in Australia, Brasil, Canada, Denmark, EnglandMozambique, New Zealand, and South Africa.

 

At UMass, because of my interest in connecting education with peace and justice activities, I am a member of the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG). This academic year (2003-2003) we organized a meeting “Connecting the Dots” between globalization and the closing of access to public higher education. We will continue that theme in a workshop we will present at the Boston Social Forum, part of the World Social Forum movement, this July www.bostonsocialforum.org focusing on the struggle for free public higher education www.freehighered.org . That is why I included the fact that my college education was free—the reason I had access to higher education—in the brief description at the beginning of this biographical note.

 

Recent Publications:

In the field of ethnomathematics, along with Arthur B. Powell, I have co-edited Ethnomathematics: Challenging Eurocentrism in Mathematics Education (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997). In the field of criticalmathematics, I have written numerous articles, summarized in “Goals for a Criticalmathematical Literacy Curriculum” (Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development, edited by Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart, and Margo Okazawa-Rey, Washington, DC: Network of Educators on the Americas, 1998, pp.306-313). Currently Arthur B. Powell and I have recently completed an article on “Respecting Intellectual Diversity: An Ethnomathematical Perspective” and we are working on an ethnomathematics education book that will focus on classroom applications. Also, I am continuing to revise my criticalmathematics education textbook, Relearning Mathematics (London: Free Association Books, 1989).

Evaluates the following competencies:

•  Quantitative Reasoning

•  Understanding Arguments

•  Media Literacy

 

LINKS : Included in the text above.