Social Justice, Gender Equity, and Service Learning in Statistics Education: Lessons Learned from the DOE-Funded Project ACE

• Activity Number: 100
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 4, 2008 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Lawrence M. Lesser*+
• Companies: The University of Texas at El Paso
• Keywords: social justice ; gender ; education ; equity ; service learning ; introductory

Abstract

Equity, service learning, and social justice are powerful vehicles for motivating students to take statistics seriously and for empowering citizens with the statistical literacy needed to speak out more intelligently against injustices. This paper begins by outlining key references from the recent, rapidly emerging literature on these topics in statistics education. A DOE grant on the author's campus dealing with gender equity in the context of STEM fields yielded a natural vehicle to implement these themes in a redesigned statistics course for pre-service elementary and middle school teachers. After describing the grant, the population, and course, this paper presents results of a quantitative survey as well as representative narrative data such as artifacts (e.g., student reflection papers) and a peer observation. Further reflections and connections are made with the literature.