Introduction to Section III: Equity and Social Justice Considerations in Mathematics Education

This chapter brings a historical-economic lens to tracing inequality to highlight our responsibility regarding outcomes to advance equity and social justice in mathematics education. Following the views expressed by Thomas Piketty (2020) in his Capital and Ideology on how a society should be structured, it is argued that fundamental ideological changes are needed in our society in both our perception of who deserves existing wealth, privilege, and power and the paths for their redistribution to achieve equity and social justice in mathematics education. The collection of chapters in this section highlights how the current ideologies about inequity express themselves through the work of researchers, teachers, curriculum developers, in mathematics classrooms, mathematics textbooks, and mathematics assessments, and show ways in which such work can contribute to better futures.