In her latest collaborative project, Cathery Yeh, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Attallah College of Educational Studies’ Teacher Education program, has joined efforts with mathematics education colleagues in institutions across the United States. Dr. Yeh and her co-editors Dr. Tonya Bartell, Michigan State University; Dr. Mathew Felton-Koestler, Ohio University; and Dr. Robert Berry III, University of Virginia, are contributing to a series of books on mathematics lessons that will explore and respond to social injustice for teachers and education leaders.

The forthcoming publication is intended to help teachers find a broader set of mathematical activities to incorporate social justice goals. The book will focus on upper-elementary 3rd through 5th grades, with two companion books for pre-K through 2nd grade and 6th through 8th grade. The three-part book series is currently under contract with Corwin Publishing, with potential for joint publication with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

For their book, Dr. Yeh and her co-editors are seeking original mathematics activities, lessons, or units that have a focus on issues of social justice and/or teaching mathematics for empowerment and liberation.

Book Topic and Submissions

The mathematics books in this social justice series will be geared toward a broad audience, including pre-service and in-service school teachers, teacher educators, administrators, parents and caregivers, and other stakeholders. Thus, the editors are asking that all submissions be written as if to another teacher.

Submissions should have a mathematical goal aligned with an Essential Mathematics Concept, as outlined in NCTM’s earlier book Catalyzing Change in Early Childhood and Elementary Mathematics by Cathery Yeh, D. Huinker, A.M. Marshall, and N. Rigelman. The Essential Concepts focus on children as doers, knowers, and sense-makers of mathematics.

Dr. Yeh and her co-editors anticipate accepting approximately 25 different lessons that span 3rd through 5th grade curriculum. The final publication aims to provide at least three lessons per upper elementary content domain:

  • Whole Number Concepts and Operations,
  • Fraction Concepts and Operations,
  • Algebraic Concepts and Reasoning,
  • Data Concepts and Statistical Thinking, and
  • Geometric Measurement and Reasoning.

Lessons should connect to Teaching Tolerance’s Social Justice Standards (3rd–5th Grade Level Outcomes and Scenarios), which are a set of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes divided into four domains — identity, diversity, justice, and action — to support educators to engage a range of anti-bias, multicultural, and social justice issues (see this online guide for sample social justice topics).

Submission Guidelines and Deadlines

The deadline for final lesson submissions is October 1, 2020.

The editors will send tentative acceptance letters to selected contributors around October 15, 2020. From October through December, lesson plans will be tested, and feedback will be offered. Lessons may be modified or rejected based on feedback of field testers.

As a benefit for an accepted submission, each lesson author will receive three Corwin books and authorship credit for each published lesson plan. After acceptance, contributors will be asked to sign a contributor agreement with Corwin Publishing.

For more information on the lesson submission process and for an online submission template, visit the full online Call for Participation.