The California Dept. of Education says the purpose of a curriculum framework (​​https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/cf/) is to “...provide guidance to educators, parents, and publishers, to support implementing California content standards.”

Yet the Second Field Review ( SFR) draft California Math Framework’s (CMF) guidance seems to be more intent on incorporating socio-political issues into the math curriculum than on implementing the math content standards.

With less than 40% of California students proficient in math (https://caaspp-elpac.cde.ca.gov/caaspp/), implementing and mastering the math content standards seems an urgent matter.

However, the SFR draft framework advocates not organizing around the California math content standards:

“This framework reflects a revised approach, advocating that publishers and teachers avoid organizing around the detailed content standards, and instead organize around the most important mathematical ideas—"big ideas”. (Ch. 1, Line 440)

Rather, the SFR draft framework seems to prefer organizing around socio-political issues, incorporating them into the math curriculum, rather than focusing on the neutral discipline of math. Some examples:

SOCIAL JUSTICE / POLITICAL ACTIVISM
Advocating incorporating ‘social justice’ into math curriculum and teaching, beginning in Preschool:

• “Teachers can take a justice-oriented perspective at any grade level, K–12…” (Ch. 2 Line 930-932).

• “Therefore, we situate social justice mathematics at the prekindergarten level as developing powerful mathematical identities, developing critical mathematics agency, honoring and connecting to children’s family and cultural histories, and centered around play.” (17). As one example of such an opportunity to explore mathematical ideas at the prekindergarten level in a social justice context, Chao and Jones (2016) describe students counting and comparing in order to express unfairness in a skit about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. (Ch. 2 Line 940-947)

• “Esmonde and Caswell (2010) give an example of a fifth-grade project in which mathematics (including data science) helps students explore questions of justice: Focused on access to water as a human right, the project integrates topics of volume, capacity, operations, and proportional reasoning to explore their families’ usage of water and access to water in developing countries.” (Ch. 2 Line 973-977)

• This vignette comes from research based in a California high school committed to social justice and a mathematics classroom designed to foster positive mathematics identities (Gargroetzi, 2020). (Ch. 2 Line 1028-1031)

Advocating not only that ‘social justice’ issues be included in the math curriculum, but that student political activism be part of the curriculum and teaching as well :

The 8th grade vignette “What’s a Fair Living Wage”:

• “The following lesson focuses on how understanding of mathematics informs understanding of the world, including social justice issues (Berry et al., 2020). The lesson “What’s a Fair Living Wage?” by Francis Harper is included in the text and is adapted here. Designed to span 90 minutes, it begins with students discussing what they know about living wages and minimum wages.” (Ch. 7 Line 701, 735-739)

• “The “What’s a Fair Living Wage” lesson concludes with students discussing action that can be taken to increase minimum wage, if they find that wages are not fair for their community. (Ch. 7, Lines 824-825) Taking action: The particular action will depend on what conclusions students make regarding whether or not the wages in their local community, city, or state are fair and livable.

• Some possible action steps include the following:

• Invite community educational partners to talk to students about potentially ongoing efforts to increase wages in the community, city, or state.

• For example, if there are local organizations, such as unions, who advocate for workers, students might reach out to them about ongoing labor justice efforts. Teachers can invite these educational partners to speak to the class, and students might elect to join ongoing efforts. (Ch. 7 Line 826-835)

• Have students write their own letters to city, state, or federal representatives, sharing what they learned from this task.” (Ch. 7 Line 846-847)
  
  
  

RACIAL JUSTICE / INEQUITIES / POLITICAL ACTIVISM
Suggesting that math teaching should promote racial justice and political activism:

• “This framework also offers ideas for teaching in ways that promote racial justice and create space for students with a wide range of social identities to feel a sense of belonging as they are to the mathematics community.” (Ch. 2 Line 80-82)

• “With carefully chosen projects students can learn to address the inequities they experience, learning mathematical tools that allow them to highlight inequities and plan new ways forward...” (Ch. 2 Line 512-514)

• “Mathematics educators committed to social justice also work to both raise awareness of the ways textbook examples may exclude and stereotype certain students (Bright, 2016; Yeh and Otise, 2019) and to provide curricular examples that equip students with a tool kit and mindset to combat inequities with mathematics (Gutstein, 2006; Gutstein). The tasks have been developed to help students read and write the world with mathematics. First learning to use mathematics to highlight inequities—reading the world with mathematics—and then learning to change the world with mathematics—writing the world with mathematics (Gutstein, 2003; 2006).” (Ch. 2 Line 1124-1132)

• “Use discourse to elicit students’ ideas and strategies and create space for students to interact with peers to value multiple contributions and diminish hierarchical status among students (i.e., perceptions of differences in smartness and ability to participate).” (Ch. 2 Line 1324)
  
  
  

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE / EXPLICIT FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTS

Advocating that teachers incorporate ‘environmental justice’ issues into the math curriculum:

• “Explicit Focus on Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs). While the Drivers of Investigations and Content Connections are fundamental to the design and implementation of this framework and the standards, teachers must be mindful of other considerations that are a high priority for California’s education system including the Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs), which allow students to examine issues of environmental and social justice.” (Ch. 1, Lines 836-840)

• “It also advocates that all teachers have the opportunity to use the environment as a relevant and engaging context to “provide learning experiences that are culturally relevant” for teaching their core subjects of math….” ( Ch. 1 Line 850-854)

• “The teacher explained that differential environmental health impacts on communities with varied socio-economic conditions is a major health topic identified as “environmental justice…” (Ch. 5 Line 1575-1577)

• “The environmental justice movement has grown to focus on a more equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. Since many of the students expressed a strong interest in this topic, they requested a guest speaker from a community-based health organization to provide additional information and answer students’ questions about environmental justice.” (Ch. 5 Line 1584-1588)
  
  

SOCIOPOLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS / GENDER IDEOLOGY

Suggesting that math teachers use ‘Intentional Word Problems’ designed to develop students’ “sociopolitical consciousness”, and hold "sensitive discussions of gender" with 5th graders (see _Yeh, C., & Otis, B. M. (2019). “Mathematics for Whom…):

Vignette in the SFR draft framework (Ch. 2 Line 1179):

“Ms. Ross teaches fifth grade at the Jackie Robinson Academy. She has been focusing on developing her students’ sociopolitical consciousness through language arts and wants to bring mathematics into their thinking (SMP.1, 2). To begin the process, the class is led in an analysis of word problems from their fifth-grade mathematics textbook (NF.1, 2, 4, 5, 6). Ms. Ross selects three word problems to connect with the class’s current read-aloud of George, a novel by Alex Gino that shares the story of a 10-year-old transgender fourth grader and her struggles with acceptance among friends and family. In doing so, the teacher is reflecting the recommendations of California’s Health Framework, which suggests that sensitive discussions of gender are important for students (https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/he/cf/). Ms. Ross reads the questions aloud to the class….” (Ch.2, Lines 1180 - 1217)

The rest of the Ms. Ross vignette is not included in the SFR draft framework, though much more of it was included in the CMF first field review (FFR). The complete vignette is adapted from the citation reference in the CMF SFR’s Appendix B for Chapter 2: “Yeh, C., & Otis, B. M. (2019). Mathematics for Whom: 1217 Reframing and Humanizing Mathematics. Occasional Paper Series, 2019 (41),” (https://educate.bankstreet.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1276&context=occasional-paper-series) . Presumably the complete Ms. Ross vignette from this reference would be used in math class.

More excerpts from the Ms. Ross vignette that were included in the CMF first field review (FFR) are shown here below:

• “This time, she is asking students perspectives and points of view in the text, and encouraging them to look for “silences” in texts. Students are able to take what they noticed and named – in this case how gender played out in the problem — and consider its implications, enabling critical thinking. In doing so, Ms. Ross’ question asks students to grapple with: What prior knowledge and experiences aside from mathematics is needed? Whose lived experiences are not included?

• “During classroom discussion, several questions and concerns arise as a result from their conversations:

• What constitutes boys’ things and girls’ things?

• Problems with girls’ names provide context related to looking pretty, being helpful, and being a homemaker.

• Problems with boys’ names focus on sports and competition.

• Playing sports is seen as a boy’s thing while playing house is a girl’s thing.

• Are certain things––toys, games, activities, etc.––the sole and primary preserve of either girls or boys?

• Are there word proble_ms about ribbons, cooking, or knitting that use a boy’s name?_”
  (Ch. 2, Lines 921-930 CMF FFR)​​

• “When examining the entire textbook, the students noted that there were a few instances of gender-fluid problems (e.g., David’s dad baked a dozen cookies to share with him, his sister, and his mom); however, the problem continued to conflate gender with a heterosexual identity.” (Ch. 2 Lines 939-942 CMF FFR)
  
  

GENDER IDEOLOGY

Inserting gender ideology into the math curriculum, via the use of the non-binary ‘singular’ pronouns ‘they’ and ‘their’, etc., used for a non-binary person, in math tasks and vignettes:

• “Note to reader: The use of the non-binary, singular pronouns they, them, their, theirs, themself, and themselves in this framework is intentional.” (Ch. 5 Line 37-38; Ch. 6 Line 50-51)

• Vignette 3: Logan from Kindergarten through Grade Five (Ch. 5 Line 757)

• “A small sampling of Logan’s data science experiences in kindergarten through grade five is described below. This is not intended to capture all of their data science experience, only to indicate a development towards powerful uses of data to understand their world.” (Ch. 5 Line 758-761)

• “By fifth grade, Logan and their classmates had constructed many line plots, and thus often wondered about quantities that vary on repeated measurement:” (Ch. 5 Line 819-820)

• Vignette 6: (Ch. 5 Line 1158)

• “Leonora knew that the data science standards in sixth grade would give Quincey an opportunity to use real data to understand that they could question the data and make connections between mathematics and life.” (Ch. 5 Line 1164-1167)

• Player A selects two of the face-up cards, calculates the product and explains the strategy they used. Player B confirms or challenges the product—they may ask for further explanation of the strategy—and if the product is correct, Player A claims those two cards. Player B turns over two cards from the stack to replace those taken by Player A, and then takes their own turn. (Ch. 6 Line 1979-1983)

• Classroom Narrative:

• Santikone’s third-grade class is building understanding of the operations of multiplication and division and concepts of perimeter and area. (Ch. 6 Line 2825-2826)

• Santikone and their instructional aide listen as the teacher, Ms. B., describes what the class will be doing. (Ch. 6 Line 2838-2839)

• The aide nudges Santikone to record their thinking and rehearse their contribution to the upcoming discussion. (Ch. 6 Line 2849-2850)
  
  

TRAUMA INFORMED PEDAGOGY / POLITICAL ACTIVISM

“When grappling with the data, students can pose questions about issues that matter to them, drawing upon content from relevant issues like cyber bullying, neighborhood resources, sports and recreation, or water quality, among endless others. Data related to these and other issues can draw from not only a range of mathematical ideas and curiosities from students, but from a range of feelings about relevant, complex issues. This focus on complex feelings aligns with trauma-informed pedagogy, which highlights the importance of allowing students to identify and express their feelings as part of mathematics sense-making, and to allow students to address what they learn about their world by suggesting recommendations and taking action (Kokka, 2019).” (Ch. 2 Line 680-688)

EQUITY / EQUITABLE OUTCOMES

Suggesting that the SFR math curriculum framework should be centered on ‘equity’, and equitable outcomes, rather than centered on math education and individual student mastery of math content:

• “To raise the profile of the imperative for TK–12 mathematics instruction to foster more equitable outcomes in mathematics and science, the framework offers Chapter 2: Teaching for Equity and Engagement…” (Ch. 1 Line 779-781)

• “Instruction and equity together create instructional designs that can bring about equitable outcomes.” (Ch. 1 Line 787-788)

• “The state-level commitment to equity extends throughout the framework, and every chapter highlights considerations and approaches designed to help mathematics educators create and maintain equitable opportunities for all.” (Ch. 1 Line 788-791)

Suggesting that ‘Equity commentators’ help evaluate the content of mathematics lessons - to make sure that the notion of ‘equity’ is infused into both the mathematics lesson and teaching practice:

• “An outside expert in mathematics content was invited to provide feedback on the mathematics content of the lesson, serving as the mathematics commentator. The ELD (English Language Development) specialist served in the role of equity commentator. (Ch. 10 Line 676-678)

• “The mathematics and equity commentators shared their observations of the lesson and provided suggestions for next steps.” (Ch. 10 Line 685-686)
  
  

CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY / POLITICAL ACTIVISM

Seeking to influence students’ moral development, and to have students develop a critical consciousness through which they will challenge the status quo of the current social order via incorporating Culturally Relevant Pedagogy into the curriculum:

Seeking to Influence students’ moral development:

• Figure 7.13: Three Components of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

1. Student Learning: The students’ intellectual growth and moral development, but also their ability to problem-solve and reason. (Ch. 7 Line 688-690)
   
   

Seeking to have students develop a critical consciousness:

• According to Ch. 14, the glossary of the SFR, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy rests on three criteria, or components: (a) students must experience academic success, (b) students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence, and (c) students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order (Ladson-Billings, 1995b). (Ch. 14 Line 105-109)

• Tasks that help students develop critical consciousness are those that give students the opportunity to understand, critique and solve the problems that result in societal inequalities (Ladson-Billings, 1995). (Ch. 7 Line 685-687)

According to the California Dept. of Education, which has a page on its website devoted to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, all three components (of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy), which includes students developing a critical consciousness, need to be utilized. https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ee/culturalrelevantpedagogy.asp

According to Wikipedia - Critical Consciousness is defined as:

Critical consciousness, conscientization, or conscientização in Portuguese, is a popular education and social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational theorist Paulo Freire, grounded in post-Marxist critical theory.

Paulo Freire contributed a philosophy of education which blended classical approaches stemming from Plato and modern Marxist, post-Marxist, and anti-colonialist thinkers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire

Paulo Freire defines critical consciousness as the ability to intervene in reality in order to change it. Freire's notion of critical consciousness is, in part, a type of political consciousness.

Critical consciousness - Wikipedia

In one final instructive example of the primacy of socio-political issues over math and the implementation of math content standards, Chapter 8 of the SFR draft framework devotes 144 lines of text to a vignette on climate change (Ch. 8 Lines 542-686), about 19 more lines of text than the SFR draft framework devotes to discussing the entire course of ”Algebra II” (Appendix A, Line 250-375). To even find a discussion about Algebra, one has to go to an appendix (Appendix A) in the SFR draft framework, as Algebra does not merit a chapter of its own in California’s SFR draft math curriculum framework.

Though California students’ math proficiency is below 40% https://caaspp-elpac.cde.ca.gov/caaspp/Default), the SFR draft Math Framework pays much heed to incorporating socio-political issues into the math curriculum; while paying less heed to the implementation and mastery of the math content standards. However, helping students master the math content standards is clearly what’s needed, not to mention the purpose of a math curriculum framework.