Equity and social justice for mathematics learning: perspectives of Early Childhood Education teachers

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the perspective of Equity and Social Justice that Early Childhood Education teachers have for children’s learning in Mathematics. This research has a mixed approach, and a questionnaire answered by 146 Early Childhood Education teachers, from the municipality of Itabuna, Bahia. The questionnaire considering the perspective of Equity and Social Justice, verifying the Willingness for culturally responsive pedagogy, contained nineteen questions on a six-point Likert scale, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. The definitions of Equity and Equality were confirmed by Discursive Textual Analysis, while the Likert questionnaire was used for descriptive analysis of the items. Qualitative analyses on Equity and Equality show that there is still a lack of understanding about Equity, as they are superficial and, in some cases, contradictory compared to those on Equality. Statistics applied to the Likert questions indicate a significant level of agreement for the Disposition of Praxis, for the Community, and for Social Justice. Disagreements were found in the greater provision for Social Justice, which requires exploring social, economic, and political issues in teacher training, as a way of providing an understanding of the inequalities and power relations present in schools and Early Childhood Education institutions, and how Mathematics can be taught to help develop children who are more critical and aware of their role in society, contributing to a fairer and less unequal world. Cronbach's Alpha is 0.83, which represents a high level of reliability.

Equity in mathematics; Social justice; Childhood education; Equitable pedagogical practice; Culturally responsive pedagogy