GLSEN and math and misrepresentation of a study. It doesn't add up.
When the LGBTQXYZ says that a study backs up some claim, be very suspicious.
So there is this article online by GLSEN, titled, “How Do We Make Math Class More Inclusive of Trans and Non-binary Identities.”
Given that math is extremely crticial in all the STEM professions, we want to make sure no one is messing around with math.
However, the focus on this article is how these panic LGBTQXYZ articles work and another way in which academic studies are utilized.
So the justitification of this article is as follows:
Mathematics teachers have a unique role to play in the lives of their students, because understanding algebraic concepts and statistics has become a central focus for creating productive adults, and researchers have determined that LGB high school students are less likely to complete Algebra II than their non-LGB classmates.
The article is in a magazine published by Oxford Univ. Press. Unlike a lot of the “studies” referenced by the LGBTQXYZ purveyors of panic it isn’t published by what is known as a predatory journal or a journal having a hefty Author Publishing Charge, (APC), in which the author pays to get their paper published. There is a link to an article in which I review the fact that Trevor has had four of these type articles to justify their agenda.
However, the link in the words, “researchers have determined,” goes to this article.
https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/54/4/523/1653028
What the abstract states, since the article is behind a paywall, is this:
Previous research has demonstrated that sexual minority youth report greater levels of school-related problems, including a weaker sense of attachment to school and more trouble with teachers and peers. This lack of social integration is likely to affect their educational success. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the newly collected Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement study provide the first opportunity to fully explore whether and to what extent same-sex attracted youth enter adulthood with an educational disadvantage.
This article is a worthy study. Oxford Univ. Press is generally really good. Likely bullying does affect academic performance. However, it is something that affects academic performance in general.
So likely LGBTQ students might be tending to not taking any difficult classes and yes probably Algebra II is one of those classes they aren’t completing as often as other students. Though the author of this essay took a lot of math in high school and college and knows that you need to be focused on the math and drive yourself.
I would suggest that maybe LGBTQ students might not be taking lots of math because they have incorporated stereotypes that they are artistic. or something.
However, the article on the GLSEN website tends to give you the idea that there is a specific LGBTQ problem with algebra. The article isn’t technically wrong, but it is written to easily be misunderstood.
One of the suggested artivity is to do a big model of the “spread of the use of the singular they/them/their pronouns” in a small town. I suggest they learn algebra instead.
Modeling is a whole different thing than algebra and any reasonable model would invovle differential equations and calculus or the design of some type of algorithm. I suppose some hacked up thing could be done and called a model.
These proposed studies are obviously didactic and contrived and students really don’t care to be lectured to.
A teacher taking a strong stance against bullying and verbal slurs would do a lot of good to help LGBTQ students, but contrived efforts, besides interrupting effective education, just would make the teacher look like some ridiculous ideolog.
This is what the students need to learn.
https://www.fishtanklearning.org/curriculum/math/algebra-2/
Setting up these two suggested exercises would actually take a lot of time and it is the time they need to devote to actually learning algebra.
In reading the GLSEN article I have to wonder if the person who wrote it actually teaches algebra and how this got past the editors of their website is another question.
Also, having the teacher walk through some problem that students couldn’t do themselves as an exercise isn’t useful.
If someone brings up that they don’t think LGBTQ can do math, there have been stereotypes that Gays aren’t suited to being engineers, I think that bringing up some person who is accomplished in math and is LGBTQ would be appropriate.
A teacher might have a poster concerning great mathematicians and accomplishments and some personal info and a couple of these mathematicians could be LGBTQ.
There can be things teachers can do to help LGBTQ students. Besides opposing bullying, such as ending stereotypes that we are all artistic or something and moving into overcrowded fields with limited chances of success and economic insecurity would be a big benefit.
Emphasizing to LGBTQ students that STEM means you have an advantageous position in the economy and are very much less likely to be subjected to job discrimination and much more easily able to find another job if you are. An STEM profession also provides economic security and independence.
Engaging in educational fads isn’t really helpful to LGBTQ students.
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