The challenge of being a mathematician as a woman | Jo Boaler | TEDxSaoPauloSalon

Jo Boaler tells about the challenges she faced as a researcher and mathematician being a woman, and how facing these challenges was made easier by writing about these issues openly. Professora de Educação Matemática na Universidade de Stanford e diretora acadêmica do YouCubed, primeiro Curso Online Aberto e Massivo (MOOC) de ensino e aprendizado de Matemática. Autora de nove livros, incluindo o best-seller “Mentalidades Matemáticas - estimulando o potencial dos estudantes por meio da matemática criativa, das mensagens inspiradoras e do ensino inovador”. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@hollyq3870]

Loved this. It should probably have been called "The challenge of being a woman in historically male-oriented careers" or something to that effect. Or even just "being a woman". Incredibly empowering, and i need more....great work!

[@alondramojico6838]

Boaler does not have a mathematics degree, just a degree in math education. It is pretty rich of her to call herself a mathematician. I am sorry but her philosophy of maths education is part of the reason students struggle with math. Because math teachers are told NOT is explain and NOT to practice systematically. You cannot gain mastery like this. Students end up confused and failing their tests and of course they start to hate math. In what discipline do you get good by discussing it but not by learing from good teachers and practicing? It is absurd.

[@chrisharden1781]

Thank you. Working in a high school as a mathematician, the industry is riddled with math ed people who claim to be mathematicians. The teachers will even tell me that having an education degree with a focus in math is the same as having a math degree, which is wildly untrue. If nothing else the basic difference is that for us mathematicians the math is the first concern, whereas for math teachers the math is the last point of concern if it is even a concern at all. These teachers will do just about anything but actually learn math. Watching a bunch of teachers who haven't taken enough math classes to have even learned what Algebra is, holding a bunch of 15-year-olds hostage over mastering a conceptual understanding that the teachers themselves cannot even articulate is just insanity. They will endlessly distract us with discussions of neuroscience and equity when they know even less about these topics than they do the math. They will tell you that we are in crisis because the math classes are not relevant to the kids' lives which is nonsense. The teachers are only about 5 community college (2000 level) math classes above their students. They literally do not know enough math to answer these questions. Because of this they are not even close to asking the right questions about what the real problem is. They have spent the past 30 years actively excluding actual experts in mathematics. They will try hard to dazzle us with new and trendy fads about equity, culturally responsive curriculum, student centered curriculum, pushing conceptual over procedural, etc etc, on and on, to obfuscate the fact that they are watering down the content to just make it easier for kids, which in the end is more about making themselves look a certain way. It is a scam.

[@boalvarado4111]

Seeing different perspectives bring change(delta) also❤

[@jacobpeyser2169]

As much as we should encourage both men and women to engage with STEM, society should not focus on equity, only on equality. That is because equity is simply unnatural, unfeasible, and potentially harmful. Equality of outcome is almost never a result of equality of opportunity in association with natural tendencies.

[@arpitchopra1418]

The world needs more people like her, diligent, persistent and exceptionally intelligent. An amazing speech and a truly inspirational story 👏

[@linghuang7078]

Jo Boaler accused two mathematicians of academic bullying. Let me share some info about the two mathematicians who question her Railside study: R.James Milgram was one of the four Stanford mathematicians who wrote the highly-regarded, internationally competitive 1997-2010 California math standards, which had guided the significant improvements in math performance by California students -- especially the disadvantaged students -- in this pre-Common Core era. As the only academic mathematician on the Common Core validation committee, he refused to sign off the very deficient and mediocre Common Core math standards in 2009. Wayne Bishop was mentor/teacher of Jaime Escalante, a legendary math teacher immortalized by a 1988 film, Stand and Deliver, and a 2016 Forever stamp. Escalante publicly honored Wayne Bishop in the premiere showing of Stand and Deliver. "The current revolution in mathematics curriculum, akin to the Whole Language experiment, that emphasizes group discussion, essays, calculators and guessing and de-emphasizes basic skills and direct instruction." This definition of Whole Math/Fuzzy Math/Reform Math from the 1990s captures the essence of today’s reform math promoted by Jo Boaler.

[@dobrigawitch]

What? Attacked by white male mathematicians? We must stop these reports of being attacked by white male mathematicians!!!

[@chrisharden1781]

@@dobrigawitch Dr. Ling is non-white and non-male fwiw. She isn't being attacked by mathematicians because she isn't proposing nonsense which is destroying the future of STEM.

[@frentz7]

Boaler is a researcher in math *education*, with a variety of publications and popular books. NOT a mathematician. As someone who currently works at one, I doubt most universities would even allow her to teach their undergraduate math majors. I've had three times as much formal education in mathematics as Jo Boaler, and I could never get a tenured position as a "mathematician" because I am NOT one. I am "ABD" (all but dissertation) : I was not able to complete the phd program. (I am fairly well educated, broad coarsework, sure; but then limited creative research; (genuinely) not deserving of a phd (me that is). No published research => NOT a mathematician.) Jo Boaler, .. well maybe anybody with a college education in math can call themselves a "mathematician," but that is at least sort of changing the term to mean something else. Boaler is a rather senior expert / public figure in the area of the math debates -- but not as a result of any actual education or creative thought she has done in mathematics itself. // end rant //

[@frentz7]

Other than that, the challenges of being a woman in math education, or at Stanford in general, I cannot speak to. Or the challenges of being a woman *and* a math education person, as far as how actual mathematicians treat you, or how other math ed people treat you, I am sure she knows well. Her specialty seems to be publicity and talking about how people are treating her research unfairly. [Currently getting brutalized in San Francisco by some parents for what they call the devastating impact of the past few years of trying one of her "experiments."]

[@Epicskillz56]

how can she help others get into stem if she couldn't even make it?

[@MIDDAD]

In my opinion she does not help others. She is very charismatic but advances ideas that are harmful to math education.

[@chetnagupta5241]

❤️❤️

[@Anonymous-54545]

Not crazy about the message that you should inflate your belief of arbitrary methods on your health because "negative thinkers are putting limits on themselves". There could be a million lurking variables here-- maybe the people who didn't think that the exercise was healthy had prior health conditions previous methods advised to them had proven unhelpful or painful in the past.

[@UPAKHOSALA]

Great lady she should be given NOBEL Peace prize

[@DilipKrJha-yb6nv]

Wtf

[@MIDDAD]

Professor Boaler has a Bachelor degree in Psychology and a PhD in mathematics education. I wonder why she pretends she is a mathematician.

[@y001536]

Everyone can be a mathematician. Even one without formal math training can contribute to math, like ramanujan.

[@elee595]

@@y001536 Ramanujan did the math proof. But her? She is focus on the "education side" not the "real math" side then why she called herself a mathematician?

[@gabrielpintoteixeira8416]

@Gerardo Piedras thats exactly what she proved to be wrong through scientific researchs on brain nature