[Maths-Education] Re: Jo Boaler

[Tandi Clausen-May]

Dear Peter
The first link, to Jo's personal statement, does not seem to work.  I would
like to read it.
Thanks!   Tandi

-----Original Message-----
From: maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Peter
Gates
Sent: 08 November 2012 17:24
To: mes-conf at nottingham.ac.uk; maths-education at nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Maths-Education] Jo Boaler

Dear Mathematics Educators and Friends,
On November 1, Dr Jo Boaler addressed the PME-NA community to discuss the
importance of communicating our research with broader audiences and
recognizing and facing the challenging political climates in which we work.
However, she also shared a disturbing story of the unrelenting and unfair
attacks she has been subjected to from a few individuals in the
"mathematically correct" community.  In bravely sharing this story, she made
it evident that there have been serious breaches of academic rules (keeping
sources of data private) and of ethical behavior (harassment and vindictive
personal attacks on Jo Boaler). In threatening her academic freedom-i.e.,
her freedom to conduct research without harassment-and in insisting on
posting in a public space an article that breaks confidentiality and is
inaccurate, these actions also threaten our fundamental values.  Jo Boaler
is a valued and respected member of our community, and we should not stand
by and see such activity without lodging a protest. Furthermore, we see the
attacks on the work of Professor Boaler as an attack on the work of the
whole mathematics education community toward the improvement of the teaching
and learning of mathematics, and lack of action on the part of Stanford
continues to harm our community and our work.
For these reasons, we request that you:
a)    Make your own judgment by reading Jo Boaler's personal statement,
posted at
http://www.stanford.edu/~joboaler/<https://mail.lsbu.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=
HabvE9Q6JUKADB59yEUhWUSIzsdXkM8IJT7Gj4swWa4BAWAoKPQ0UQpVCt_ExBfRvlxy1PJ8JYg.
&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.stanford.edu%2f%7ejoboaler%2f> outlining the events
and the article in question posted at
ftp://math.stanford.edu/pub/papers/milgram/combined-evaluations-version3.pdf
b)    Then we hope you choose to act by either or both:
i.      Signing the petition found at
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-community-of-mathematics-educators-join-
in-defending-fundamental-values
ii.    Sending a personal letter to the president and provost of Stanford.
If you could email those (President
Hennessy,(president at stanford.edu<mailto:president at stanford.edu>), Provost
Etchemendy (etch at stanford.edu<mailto:etch at stanford.edu>), and blind copy Jo
Boaler (joboaler at stanford.edu<mailto:joboaler at stanford.edu>), that would be
ideal.
Please join the PME-NA community in responding to this unfair and
unacceptable circumstance as soon as possible.  We believe that Stanford
University is currently reviewing the situation and tends to underestimate
its potential negative effects on our colleague and on our community of
scholars as a whole.  Academic freedom is the basis of all of our scholarly
work.


Thanks,
Steve

Professor Stephen Lerman
Department of Education
London South Bank University
103 Borough Road
LONDON SE1 0AA
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7815 7440
Fax: +44 (0)20 7815 8160
url: https://sites.google.com/site/lermansteve/home
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