MAA Mathfest JEDI - Where does JEDI show up in your Work and Takeaways by Aris Winger

Groupwork

2024-08-09 00:34:29 UTC

A black woman in your class has come to office hours and said she doesn't feel comfortable working with her assigned group during class. What do you do?

Teaching Evaluation

2024-08-09 00:48:57 UTC

A senior colleague in your department has observed a more junior, teaching-track colleague as a part of a departmental review process and has expressed opposition to his contract renewal on the basis of the observation. You suspect that unconscious racial bias might have played a roll in the senior colleague's perception of the junior colleague's teaching. What do you do?

Hiring Committee

2024-08-09 01:32:03 UTC

You are on a hiring committee that is trying to make a final decision about which candidate to make an offer to. One candidate received especially positive feedback both from the committee and from the students and faculty who observed her research talk and teaching demonstration. The committee chair speaks positively about this candidate's experience but makes several comments like "she wouldn't accept our offer anyway" and "I don't know how committed she would be".

The reasons the chair gives for this are (1) the popular candidate is "overqualified" for your program and (2) other candidates who grew up nearby are more likely to stay long-term. This candidate is not the only woman remaining, but she is the only one who asked you about parental leave policies. You don't know if she discussed anything similar with the chair, but wonder if that's a factor.

What do you do?

Group assignments/in-class groupwork

2024-08-09 01:59:57 UTC

Some neurodivergent students have a harder time connecting with new groups

2024-08-09 02:01:39 UTC

You are helping a senior member of your department organize a guest speaker series.

She wants to invite a researcher of color from another institution to talk to your students about their experiences as part of an underrepresented group in math.

All of the other speakers in this series have been white and were invited to give talks about their research in math. How do you respond?

Teaching Mentor

2024-08-09 02:41:49 UTC

You are assigned to mentor and advise a first-year teacher. They teach a pre-calculus class that is composed mainly of freshmen, and students come into the class from a variety of backgrounds. When you ask them about how their class is going, they express their frustration. They state frustration that the school is test-optional (not requiring SAT scores) noting the poorer quality of students that results from "lowering standards." They communicate that some students will never be able to pass and certainly are not suited to be engineering majors. They express concern about helping the students who "really belong" in the class, saying that the questions from the students who do not belong are driving the "best students" away and worsening class attendance. How do you respond?

2024-08-09 02:45:40 UTC

A student sexually harasses another student. The victim reports him to the administrators, and the administrators tell both the harasser and the victim to avoid each other.

Faculty Advisor

2024-08-09 02:57:32 UTC

You serve as the faculty advisor for your department's chapter of the AWM. You work at a PWI institution, and for the past few years, your executive board and all attendees at events/meetings have been exclusively cis-white women. What should you do?

2024-08-09 02:58:22 UTC

A student confides in you that they are queer, and their fear that if they come out, their advisor will treat them a lot worse.

Pedagogy

2024-08-09 03:23:16 UTC

You implement a new structure to your algebra class. Most of the students are thriving and engaging with the material. However, the few Black students in the class are not engaged with you, their classmates, or the material. What do you do?

Search Committee

2024-08-09 03:28:06 UTC

You are serving on a search committee for a new academic dean. After the preliminary screening of materials, one of the finalists is a former faculty member of the institution who happens to be a member of a minority group. When discussing the finalists, a committee member speaks out strongly against the candidate making statements that you interpret as racist. What do you do?

Grad school

2024-08-09 10:29:14 UTC

A former student who is a woman of color has just started grad school. Within a month of starting her grad program she is told she doesn’t belong there/should leave the program by her analysis instructor. Your former student is devastated as they really wanted to do her dissertation work in analysis.

Microaggression

2024-08-09 10:31:58 UTC

There is clearly a different in the class structure: Tenure track Vs Instructional faculty at my school. Sometimes Tenure Track people talk down to/ won't acknowledge instructional folks. It feels like a trivial instance if someone does not respond to your greeting. How do you deal with such (and other instances of) microagression when even mentioning the instance seems like you are making a big issue out of nothing.

Mid-semester

2024-08-09 10:38:43 UTC

It’s the middle of the semester and you notice that your Black students are not performing as well on assessments as the rest of the class. You thought you had made a syllabus/course structure that would reach all students but clearly something isn’t working.

Diversity in Student Prep

2024-08-09 10:49:11 UTC

Your Calculus 3 class has freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors with varying levels of math readiness and math phobia. How do you engage all the students in this class?

Grading culture

2024-08-09 12:00:19 UTC

Use of fixed grading curves and the attitude that the students with low grades are what give the high grades their value.

Equality >> Equity

2024-08-09 12:08:12 UTC

People who push back on equity efforts by arguing that the differentiated support or focus on a particular subgroup is unfair due to being unequal.

Not possible or not my problem

2024-08-09 12:09:11 UTC

People feel that the existence of differences in outcomes across demographic or economic strata is not something that we are responsible for or capable of addressing.

DEI work in the department

2024-08-09 12:23:45 UTC

When attempting to motivate a senior faculty member to participate in the DEI book club in which a portion of the department is engaged, he retorts that he grew up poor. He also retorts that he was advanced mathematically in school, but there were no resources in his schools to further his love of mathematics.

Placement

ljefferso — 2024-08-09 12:38:58 UTC

Our university uses a proctored placement assessment program to administer a (fairly rigorous) test to incoming freshmen in order to place them in their initial math course. We recently analyzed data that showed that 70% of students do not take the assessment and end up placed in a developmental-level math course by default. We suspect that the majority of these students are those who come from less-privileged backgrounds and may not have access to the resources needed to complete the assessment. We are working to find a more accessible and equitable way to place our incoming students in credit-bearing courses.

cwilkesii — 2024-08-09 14:11:16 UTC

I am interested in potentially doing REU research at my institution. I do not have an advanced degree in mathematics. My goal is to increase diversity and inclusion on campus and in the mathematical sciences. I am unsure that the departments are safe spaces for BIPOC students. My goal is to study the experiences of the REUs for BIPOC learners. Any suggestions on what I should do?

cwilkesii — 2024-08-09 14:12:02 UTC

Historically in the State University system there has not been a great relationship between schools of education and mathematics departments. My goal is to bridge the gap between the school of education and mathematics. I know there are people in the department that does not value mathematics education. How should one go about bridging the gap between the departments?

cwilkesii — 2024-08-09 14:14:53 UTC

Although I am new to the university, I am interested in working with the mathematics department. This includes being able to potentially teach courses, research mathematicians practices, and possibly think about redesigning courses and/or connecting courses to the school of education. Any suggestions on how to approach this endeavor?