An English Only Fountain: A Response to Tamsin Meaney’s Critique of English Privilege in Mathematics Education Research
Stinson, David W
Citations
Abstract
In this brief written reaction to Tamsin Meaney’s essay “The Privileging of English in Mathematics Education Research, Just a Necessary Evil?”, the author’s explicit purpose is to provoke an emotional response to Meaney’s plenary address with the juxtaposition of two visuals: (1) Table 1 – a list of English Only mathematics education conferences; (2) Figure 1 – a picture of a Whites Only water fountain. While intentionally aiming for an emotional response, however, it is important to note that the author is not suggesting that the injustices of Jim Crow and Apartheid were (are) one in the same nor that the injustices of English Only is somehow equivalent to the injustices of Jim Crow or Apartheid. But rather to note, borrowing from the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963/1998): “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (p. 189).