The Uncomfortable Truth: Stereotypes and Bias in Mathematics Education

As I stand before you today, I am reminded of the uncomfortable reality that we have all internalized. We've all been infected with the idea that certain groups of people are inherently good at mathematics, while others are not. These stereotypes are like a nasty little virus, infecting us without our knowledge or consent, and perpetuating a system that is fundamentally unfair.

These stereotypes are particularly damaging because they affect different people in different ways. For example, the stereotype that Asians are better at math than white people has led to a binary myth that only certain groups can be successful in mathematics. This myth not only demoralizes individuals but also creates a low-empathy environment where students feel stupid when they get the wrong answer. This is particularly true for women and minorities, who already face numerous barriers in the education system.

Research has shown that these stereotypes are not just opinion, but have real-world consequences. For instance, a study on math exams found that boys outperform girls when their exams are graded by their teacher, while girls outperform boys when their exams are graded blindly. This differential impact is not limited to mathematics; it affects students of all levels and subjects.

Furthermore, biases in grading can also affect access to opportunities. A recent study published last year found that physics professors rated resumes with white male names higher than those with female or minority names, even when the content of the resumes was identical. This highlights the importance of recognizing and addressing bias in our educational system.

Mathematics education is not just about who is good at math; it's about creating a fair and inclusive environment where all students can succeed. The binary myth that only certain groups are capable of greatness is not only hurtful but also damaging to individuals who may not fit into these narrow categories. By recognizing the differential impact of stereotypes and bias, we can begin to dismantle these systems and create a more equitable education system for all.

One way to do this is by acknowledging that humans are not binary; they exist on a continuum. Mathematics ability is no different than any other skill or trait that requires practice and effort to develop. By accepting this reality, we can move away from stereotypes and towards a more nuanced understanding of math ability.

However, it's also essential to recognize the role that biases play in our educational system. Biases exist, not just in grading but in every aspect of education. For instance, when students are asked about stereotypes related to success in mathematics, women often respond first, while men may struggle to articulate their thoughts. This highlights the importance of creating a safe and inclusive environment where all voices can be heard.

Ultimately, it's time for us to stop talking and start walking. We need to join those who have been fighting against bias and stereotypes in education. It's not enough to simply acknowledge these issues; we must take concrete actions to address them. This means recognizing the burden of change on underrepresented groups, rather than placing it solely on their shoulders.

It's time for white men like me to step up and use our privilege to create positive change. We need to listen to and amplify the voices of those who have been marginalized and discriminated against. By doing so, we can work together to create a system that values diversity and inclusivity in mathematics education.

As I conclude this talk, I want to leave you with one final thought: math is not a myth that needs to die; it's a skill that needs to be learned by all. It's time for us to stop perpetuating stereotypes and biases, and instead focus on creating an inclusive environment where everyone can succeed.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrecently I was on an airplane and I'm chatting with the person next to me she asked me what I do for a living so I say I'm a mathematician she visibly recoiled I'm not a math person and the thing is this happens to me all the time right far too many people have had really bad experiences with mathematics and they feel it for the rest of their lives but as a math professor I kind of liked math and teaching it and here are there they are here's a few of the students from my calculus classes in recent years but these are not average students every one of these students is gifted entering University with a full-ride academic scholarship and even some of these students don't think they're math people which is very puzzling because their academic records clearly suggest otherwise so I began to investigate this math person puzzle why is it that so many people have really negative emotional reactions to mathematics and why is it that even some really gifted people are not immune to these things I found three major components the first one is the binary myth the idea that humans come in two types you're either a math person or you're not one or the other but is that right like are we born in categories is that how it works for other things like height and weight well this is the distribution of height of thirty year old women fifteen percent or five foot four fourteen percent our five foot five and so on women don't come in two types they're not short or tall there's a bell curve that describes the distribution but height is not a cognitive measure so maybe math ability is different this is the distribution of scores on the math portion of the SAT not sure about you but I don't see any evidence for two and yet it's widely believed that the graph for math people looks like this I gotta say I'm like embarrassed most of my life I actually believed in this and it is embarrassing right but you know in our society math people are also considered smart people and so I felt really special like I felt when my teachers family and friends they put Humanity in two categories and I was in the smart one right like that felt really good but what's horrible is that a few really gifted students apparently got a different message so let's be crystal clear math is a skill it's not a trait right and just like with other skills whether it's reading exercise or whatever practice and persistence are the keys to proficiency small incremental improvements accumulate over time okay but it can be hard to persist right it can be hard to spend years making small incremental improvements in an uncomfortable environment and the second thing that we have to talk about is the fact that a lot of math classes are cold low empathy environments now this is partly the binary nature of math problems right you either get the correct answer you don't it's black or white it's right or wrong and when math is a proxy for smart it's very easy to feel dumb when you get the wrong answer and in case students don't already feel it far too many are told they're dumb by a teasing classmate or even worse an adult when they get the wrong answer another very averse of fact is the way math is used by other disciplines at the university level calculus is notorious for high failure rates and sometimes other disciplines engineering pre-medicine they might use those high failure rates as a way to sort of weed out there majors and make no mistake among students in a calculus class it's absolutely common knowledge that they are the weeds finally I have to acknowledge my own contribution to low empathy math environments for most of my career I thought teaching was just a presentation of facts I thought a good math lecture was one where you had carefully chosen examples where you did accurate calculations articulate explanations it was all about the math it was never about people but recently a colleague pointed out to me that my job is not to teach math it's to teach people and how those people feel about math and themselves and me and how I'm interacting with them has a huge impact on whether or not my lecture makes any sense I really wish I had understood this thirty years ago and kind of apologized to my students from a long time ago sorry anyway the third thing that we have to talk about is pretty uncomfortable it's sexist racist stereotypes about who is supposed to be good at mathematics so let's acknowledge the elephants in the room we've all internalized the ideas that Asians are better at math than white people that white people are better at math than black and brown people and that men are better at math than women these stereotypes are like a nasty little virus they infect you when you're young without your knowledge or your consent but just because we're all infected doesn't mean that we're equally impacted I really I want I'm gonna I'm gonna get through this I once asked my calculus class what are the stereotypes about you when it comes to success in mathematics the men didn't really understand the question but the women did an african-american woman raised her hand and she said people don't think black girls are smart enough to be good at math she was 18 years old and she carried that weight to class every single day with grit and grace which brings me to a heartbreaking conclusion when you take the binary myth and a low empathy environment and you filter those things through deeply-held stereotypes and bias what you get is differential impact so what I mean by this is that the binary myth is demoralizing for anybody but it impacts black women more than white men being in a low empathy environment feeling stupid when you get the wrong answer that's not fun for anyone but it impacts women more than men and this is not just an opinion there's tons of research that demonstrates differential impacts for instance there was a recent study on how math exams are great at the middle school level when students exams are graded by their teacher boys outperform girls when their exams are graded blindly girls outperform boys why well probably because their teachers are giving boys a little more benefit of the doubt maybe more partial credit for ambiguous work a sort of implicit bias reinforcing an ugly stereotype about who is supposed to be good at math even amongst my really talented students differential impacts are a real thing and they can be a big deal there was a stunning study published just last year where physics professors were asked to assess candidates for a junior faculty position now these candidates were for a faculty position in physics they all had PhDs in physics extremely good at math what the professor's didn't know is that actually all the resumes were identical the only thing that was different was the name at the top some had white male names some had Hispanic female names and so on well when the evaluations came in the resumes that had male names at the top were rated higher than the resumes with female names at the top across the board when you took race into consideration those with white names and Asian names were rated higher than those with Hispanic and african-american names and when both race and gender were taken into consideration african-american women and Hispanics were rated least hireable now let this sink in University Professors looked at identical resumes and rated them differently based on the race and gender of the name at the top for some of my students very talented who've already went through elementary school middle school high school swimming upstream while white men like me just have to swim this sexist racist future awaits so what are we gonna do well one thing we can all do is accept the overwhelming scientific evidence in fact learning about this evidence had a huge role in my own evolution over the years for instance humans are not binary humans always fall on a continuum and math ability is no different what we believe in say about math and who's good at it it matters a lot and it impacts kids so check yourself and be vigilant stereotypes exist bias is real and women particularly women of color pay a heavy price these things are facts and we must accept them if you only take away one thing from this talk I hope it's this math people is a myth that needs to die math is a skill to be learned not a trait that you're born with or without so please be very careful what you say particularly around children they don't need to be infected with any more nasty little viruses I want to close with a special mess to people like me to white men it's time for us to stop talking and start walking the walk sexism is not a woman problem it's a man problem racism is not a problem with the marginalized it's a problem with those in power and it's time for us to get off the bench into the game and join those who have been fighting the good fight for a very long time because whether we're in the context of mathematics are much more broadly it's absolutely outrageous to put the burden of change on the very people who are underrepresented marginalized and discriminated against that is on us the ones who have enjoyed the benefits of a patriarchal social structure forever so please accept the very uncomfortable fact that our resumes probably would have been rated lower if the name at the top had been in Hispanic woman's and do something to ensure that everybody has the same opportunities that we had thank you yourecently I was on an airplane and I'm chatting with the person next to me she asked me what I do for a living so I say I'm a mathematician she visibly recoiled I'm not a math person and the thing is this happens to me all the time right far too many people have had really bad experiences with mathematics and they feel it for the rest of their lives but as a math professor I kind of liked math and teaching it and here are there they are here's a few of the students from my calculus classes in recent years but these are not average students every one of these students is gifted entering University with a full-ride academic scholarship and even some of these students don't think they're math people which is very puzzling because their academic records clearly suggest otherwise so I began to investigate this math person puzzle why is it that so many people have really negative emotional reactions to mathematics and why is it that even some really gifted people are not immune to these things I found three major components the first one is the binary myth the idea that humans come in two types you're either a math person or you're not one or the other but is that right like are we born in categories is that how it works for other things like height and weight well this is the distribution of height of thirty year old women fifteen percent or five foot four fourteen percent our five foot five and so on women don't come in two types they're not short or tall there's a bell curve that describes the distribution but height is not a cognitive measure so maybe math ability is different this is the distribution of scores on the math portion of the SAT not sure about you but I don't see any evidence for two and yet it's widely believed that the graph for math people looks like this I gotta say I'm like embarrassed most of my life I actually believed in this and it is embarrassing right but you know in our society math people are also considered smart people and so I felt really special like I felt when my teachers family and friends they put Humanity in two categories and I was in the smart one right like that felt really good but what's horrible is that a few really gifted students apparently got a different message so let's be crystal clear math is a skill it's not a trait right and just like with other skills whether it's reading exercise or whatever practice and persistence are the keys to proficiency small incremental improvements accumulate over time okay but it can be hard to persist right it can be hard to spend years making small incremental improvements in an uncomfortable environment and the second thing that we have to talk about is the fact that a lot of math classes are cold low empathy environments now this is partly the binary nature of math problems right you either get the correct answer you don't it's black or white it's right or wrong and when math is a proxy for smart it's very easy to feel dumb when you get the wrong answer and in case students don't already feel it far too many are told they're dumb by a teasing classmate or even worse an adult when they get the wrong answer another very averse of fact is the way math is used by other disciplines at the university level calculus is notorious for high failure rates and sometimes other disciplines engineering pre-medicine they might use those high failure rates as a way to sort of weed out there majors and make no mistake among students in a calculus class it's absolutely common knowledge that they are the weeds finally I have to acknowledge my own contribution to low empathy math environments for most of my career I thought teaching was just a presentation of facts I thought a good math lecture was one where you had carefully chosen examples where you did accurate calculations articulate explanations it was all about the math it was never about people but recently a colleague pointed out to me that my job is not to teach math it's to teach people and how those people feel about math and themselves and me and how I'm interacting with them has a huge impact on whether or not my lecture makes any sense I really wish I had understood this thirty years ago and kind of apologized to my students from a long time ago sorry anyway the third thing that we have to talk about is pretty uncomfortable it's sexist racist stereotypes about who is supposed to be good at mathematics so let's acknowledge the elephants in the room we've all internalized the ideas that Asians are better at math than white people that white people are better at math than black and brown people and that men are better at math than women these stereotypes are like a nasty little virus they infect you when you're young without your knowledge or your consent but just because we're all infected doesn't mean that we're equally impacted I really I want I'm gonna I'm gonna get through this I once asked my calculus class what are the stereotypes about you when it comes to success in mathematics the men didn't really understand the question but the women did an african-american woman raised her hand and she said people don't think black girls are smart enough to be good at math she was 18 years old and she carried that weight to class every single day with grit and grace which brings me to a heartbreaking conclusion when you take the binary myth and a low empathy environment and you filter those things through deeply-held stereotypes and bias what you get is differential impact so what I mean by this is that the binary myth is demoralizing for anybody but it impacts black women more than white men being in a low empathy environment feeling stupid when you get the wrong answer that's not fun for anyone but it impacts women more than men and this is not just an opinion there's tons of research that demonstrates differential impacts for instance there was a recent study on how math exams are great at the middle school level when students exams are graded by their teacher boys outperform girls when their exams are graded blindly girls outperform boys why well probably because their teachers are giving boys a little more benefit of the doubt maybe more partial credit for ambiguous work a sort of implicit bias reinforcing an ugly stereotype about who is supposed to be good at math even amongst my really talented students differential impacts are a real thing and they can be a big deal there was a stunning study published just last year where physics professors were asked to assess candidates for a junior faculty position now these candidates were for a faculty position in physics they all had PhDs in physics extremely good at math what the professor's didn't know is that actually all the resumes were identical the only thing that was different was the name at the top some had white male names some had Hispanic female names and so on well when the evaluations came in the resumes that had male names at the top were rated higher than the resumes with female names at the top across the board when you took race into consideration those with white names and Asian names were rated higher than those with Hispanic and african-american names and when both race and gender were taken into consideration african-american women and Hispanics were rated least hireable now let this sink in University Professors looked at identical resumes and rated them differently based on the race and gender of the name at the top for some of my students very talented who've already went through elementary school middle school high school swimming upstream while white men like me just have to swim this sexist racist future awaits so what are we gonna do well one thing we can all do is accept the overwhelming scientific evidence in fact learning about this evidence had a huge role in my own evolution over the years for instance humans are not binary humans always fall on a continuum and math ability is no different what we believe in say about math and who's good at it it matters a lot and it impacts kids so check yourself and be vigilant stereotypes exist bias is real and women particularly women of color pay a heavy price these things are facts and we must accept them if you only take away one thing from this talk I hope it's this math people is a myth that needs to die math is a skill to be learned not a trait that you're born with or without so please be very careful what you say particularly around children they don't need to be infected with any more nasty little viruses I want to close with a special mess to people like me to white men it's time for us to stop talking and start walking the walk sexism is not a woman problem it's a man problem racism is not a problem with the marginalized it's a problem with those in power and it's time for us to get off the bench into the game and join those who have been fighting the good fight for a very long time because whether we're in the context of mathematics are much more broadly it's absolutely outrageous to put the burden of change on the very people who are underrepresented marginalized and discriminated against that is on us the ones who have enjoyed the benefits of a patriarchal social structure forever so please accept the very uncomfortable fact that our resumes probably would have been rated lower if the name at the top had been in Hispanic woman's and do something to ensure that everybody has the same opportunities that we had thank you yourecently I was on an airplane and I'm chatting with the person next to me she asked me what I do for a living so I say I'm a mathematician she visibly recoiled I'm not a math person and the thing is this happens to me all the time right far too many people have had really bad experiences with mathematics and they feel it for the rest of their lives but as a math professor I kind of liked math and teaching it and here are there they are here's a few of the students from my calculus classes in recent years but these are not average students every one of these students is gifted entering University with a full-ride academic scholarship and even some of these students don't think they're math people which is very puzzling because their academic records clearly suggest otherwise so I began to investigate this math person puzzle why is it that so many people have really negative emotional reactions to mathematics and why is it that even some really gifted people are not immune to these things I found three major components the first one is the binary myth the idea that humans come in two types you're either a math person or you're not one or the other but is that right like are we born in categories is that how it works for other things like height and weight well this is the distribution of height of thirty year old women fifteen percent or five foot four fourteen percent our five foot five and so on women don't come in two types they're not short or tall there's a bell curve that describes the distribution but height is not a cognitive measure so maybe math ability is different this is the distribution of scores on the math portion of the SAT not sure about you but I don't see any evidence for two and yet it's widely believed that the graph for math people looks like this I gotta say I'm like embarrassed most of my life I actually believed in this and it is embarrassing right but you know in our society math people are also considered smart people and so I felt really special like I felt when my teachers family and friends they put Humanity in two categories and I was in the smart one right like that felt really good but what's horrible is that a few really gifted students apparently got a different message so let's be crystal clear math is a skill it's not a trait right and just like with other skills whether it's reading exercise or whatever practice and persistence are the keys to proficiency small incremental improvements accumulate over time okay but it can be hard to persist right it can be hard to spend years making small incremental improvements in an uncomfortable environment and the second thing that we have to talk about is the fact that a lot of math classes are cold low empathy environments now this is partly the binary nature of math problems right you either get the correct answer you don't it's black or white it's right or wrong and when math is a proxy for smart it's very easy to feel dumb when you get the wrong answer and in case students don't already feel it far too many are told they're dumb by a teasing classmate or even worse an adult when they get the wrong answer another very averse of fact is the way math is used by other disciplines at the university level calculus is notorious for high failure rates and sometimes other disciplines engineering pre-medicine they might use those high failure rates as a way to sort of weed out there majors and make no mistake among students in a calculus class it's absolutely common knowledge that they are the weeds finally I have to acknowledge my own contribution to low empathy math environments for most of my career I thought teaching was just a presentation of facts I thought a good math lecture was one where you had carefully chosen examples where you did accurate calculations articulate explanations it was all about the math it was never about people but recently a colleague pointed out to me that my job is not to teach math it's to teach people and how those people feel about math and themselves and me and how I'm interacting with them has a huge impact on whether or not my lecture makes any sense I really wish I had understood this thirty years ago and kind of apologized to my students from a long time ago sorry anyway the third thing that we have to talk about is pretty uncomfortable it's sexist racist stereotypes about who is supposed to be good at mathematics so let's acknowledge the elephants in the room we've all internalized the ideas that Asians are better at math than white people that white people are better at math than black and brown people and that men are better at math than women these stereotypes are like a nasty little virus they infect you when you're young without your knowledge or your consent but just because we're all infected doesn't mean that we're equally impacted I really I want I'm gonna I'm gonna get through this I once asked my calculus class what are the stereotypes about you when it comes to success in mathematics the men didn't really understand the question but the women did an african-american woman raised her hand and she said people don't think black girls are smart enough to be good at math she was 18 years old and she carried that weight to class every single day with grit and grace which brings me to a heartbreaking conclusion when you take the binary myth and a low empathy environment and you filter those things through deeply-held stereotypes and bias what you get is differential impact so what I mean by this is that the binary myth is demoralizing for anybody but it impacts black women more than white men being in a low empathy environment feeling stupid when you get the wrong answer that's not fun for anyone but it impacts women more than men and this is not just an opinion there's tons of research that demonstrates differential impacts for instance there was a recent study on how math exams are great at the middle school level when students exams are graded by their teacher boys outperform girls when their exams are graded blindly girls outperform boys why well probably because their teachers are giving boys a little more benefit of the doubt maybe more partial credit for ambiguous work a sort of implicit bias reinforcing an ugly stereotype about who is supposed to be good at math even amongst my really talented students differential impacts are a real thing and they can be a big deal there was a stunning study published just last year where physics professors were asked to assess candidates for a junior faculty position now these candidates were for a faculty position in physics they all had PhDs in physics extremely good at math what the professor's didn't know is that actually all the resumes were identical the only thing that was different was the name at the top some had white male names some had Hispanic female names and so on well when the evaluations came in the resumes that had male names at the top were rated higher than the resumes with female names at the top across the board when you took race into consideration those with white names and Asian names were rated higher than those with Hispanic and african-american names and when both race and gender were taken into consideration african-american women and Hispanics were rated least hireable now let this sink in University Professors looked at identical resumes and rated them differently based on the race and gender of the name at the top for some of my students very talented who've already went through elementary school middle school high school swimming upstream while white men like me just have to swim this sexist racist future awaits so what are we gonna do well one thing we can all do is accept the overwhelming scientific evidence in fact learning about this evidence had a huge role in my own evolution over the years for instance humans are not binary humans always fall on a continuum and math ability is no different what we believe in say about math and who's good at it it matters a lot and it impacts kids so check yourself and be vigilant stereotypes exist bias is real and women particularly women of color pay a heavy price these things are facts and we must accept them if you only take away one thing from this talk I hope it's this math people is a myth that needs to die math is a skill to be learned not a trait that you're born with or without so please be very careful what you say particularly around children they don't need to be infected with any more nasty little viruses I want to close with a special mess to people like me to white men it's time for us to stop talking and start walking the walk sexism is not a woman problem it's a man problem racism is not a problem with the marginalized it's a problem with those in power and it's time for us to get off the bench into the game and join those who have been fighting the good fight for a very long time because whether we're in the context of mathematics are much more broadly it's absolutely outrageous to put the burden of change on the very people who are underrepresented marginalized and discriminated against that is on us the ones who have enjoyed the benefits of a patriarchal social structure forever so please accept the very uncomfortable fact that our resumes probably would have been rated lower if the name at the top had been in Hispanic woman's and do something to ensure that everybody has the same opportunities that we had thank you you\n"