Matemáticas y prácticas racistas en la escuela: experiencias con docentes de Bogotá.

Abstract

This research paper intends to share some reflections resulting from the “Racist Practices at School: An Analysis of Mathematics Teacher Practice” report, conducted during the time spent at the Universidad Pedagogica Nacional to pursue a master’s degree in education. This report wanted to analyze, from a decolonial perspective, how racist practices, and other forms of discrimination associated with them, are configured and replicated in the pedagogic processes of mathematics teachers in Bogota’s district schools. More specifically, the practices of mathematics teachers as they relate to Afro-Colombian children. Based on extensive and in-depth interviews, fieldwork, and class observation with teachers from different district schools, one specific institution allowed the exploration of how the various forms of racism and discrimination manifested at school through the narratives of teachers and children. However, the results presented in this article focus more on the narratives of teachers’ own pedagogical experiences with Afro-Colombian children. These reflections critique the different universalism that identifies the possible conditions which allowed these practices to exist and become inescapable in Colombia today. Furthermore, these findings propose a roadmap to slowly but progressively overcome these specific situations and how they affect children’s dignity at school.