During the academic year, the Program in Mathematics Education sponsors a Mathematics Education Colloquium Series. This series consists of talks about research in mathematics education by both faculty members from MSU and scholars from other institutions in the United States and abroad. 

The first speaker will be Dr. Ricardo Martinez from Penn State University, on October 11, 2023, in Room 252 Erickson Hall, from 3:30 - 5:00 pm. There will also be a Zoom option. Please go to https://prime.natsci.msu.edu/community/math-ed-colloquium.aspx where you find the Zoom login information on the flyer about Dr. Martinez's talk. 

The Praxis of Ethnic Studies Mathematics as Ontological Playgrounds of Youth Liberation

Abstract: This talk will situate critical youth studies in mathematics education to unpack the ethos of Ethnic Studies Mathematics in relation to theory, research, and practice. The five ethos; 1. Identities, Narrative, and Agency; 2. Power & Oppression; 3. Community and Solidarity; 4. Resistance and Liberation; and 5. Intersectionality and Multiplicity, are part of an ecological model that embraces the tensions between math and collective-self. Critical Youth Studies which challenges traditional views of youth development, agency, and being, will be connected to ethnic studies mathematics through youth participatory action research. The talk presented will focus on a mathematical youth participatory action research (YPAR) EntreMundos program for high school-aged youth to give examples of the ethos of ethnic studies mathematics in motion. The destination is a radical space of mathematical learning, a process, where young people can liberate themselves, their teachers, and mathematics education.

Bio: Ricardo Martinez is currently an Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University whose work is situated in Critical Youth Mathematics Education Studies. Before his current role, he was a high school Mathematics teacher in California and Iowa for a total of six years, he then earned his Doctorate at Iowa State University. His lifework seeks to create ontological playgrounds of mathematical youth liberation – these are spaces where youth can liberate themselves, their community, and mathematics itself. His current research agenda focuses on the use of mathematics and poetry as a means to center historically silenced voices in the teaching and learning of mathematics.