This 75-minute interactive session invites educators, designers, and learning leaders to explore how culturally responsive and sustaining education (CRSE) principles can shape more equitable and human-centered math learning through technology. Using a set of prototype “one-pager” design tools, participants will examine how identity, culture, and lived experience can inform digital product development and classroom integration to promote belonging, authenticity, and deep mathematical engagement.
The session begins with a community-building activity and Menti poll to learn who’s in the room and surface participants’ experiences with EdTech and equity (10 minutes). A brief framing presentation will highlight why equity-centered design is critical for addressing systemic barriers in digital math learning (5 minutes). Participants will then explore and critique a sample CRSE design one-pager in small groups, discussing how its prompts and examples might shift practice in their own settings (20 minutes).
Next, participants engage in a collaborative design challenge (20 minutes) using a hypothetical math EdTech case. Working in teams, they apply the toolkit to redesign a feature or learning experience to better support belonging and authentic engagement. Facilitators will guide reflection and share exemplars that connect these design ideas to ISTE Standards for Educators—Leader 2b, Designer 5b, and Analyst 7a.
The session concludes with a group synthesis and discussant reflection (15 minutes) linking insights to broader EdTech equity efforts. Through frequent peer-to-peer exchange, device-based collaboration, and authentic co-design, participants will leave with concrete strategies and tools to humanize mathematics learning—moving beyond algorithms to center the learners themselves.
After participating in this session, attendees will:
1) Gain resource briefs that guide EdTech teams in designing math tools that reflect student identity, culture, and lived experience.
2) Practice applying equity-focused resources in a hands-on design activity that bridges pedagogy and EdTech product development.
3) Leave with a clear framework for embedding culturally responsive, identity-affirming practices into math EdTech design.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491.
Foundational framework for centering students’ cultural identities and experiences in learning design—core to our CRSE one-pager toolkit.
Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2017). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World. New York: Teachers College Press.
Provides conceptual grounding for designing technologies that sustain, rather than erase, students’ cultural and linguistic practices.
Zavala, M., & Hand, V. (2019). Rehumanizing the “Other”: Race, Culture, and Identity in Mathematics Education. Harvard Educational Review, 89(4), 611–638.
Highlights the importance of rehumanizing students in mathematics learning—a central thread in our session.
Nasir, N. S., & Cobb, P. (Eds.). (2007). Improving Access to Mathematics: Diversity and Equity in the Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
Demonstrates how contextual and cultural factors shape equitable participation in math learning.
Design Justice Network. (2018). Design Justice Principles. https://designjustice.org
Provides a participatory, justice-oriented design framework that aligns with our focus on co-designing equitable EdTech tools.
Benjamin, R. (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Polity Press.
Analyzes how algorithms can reproduce inequity—directly relevant to our session’s “Beyond the Algorithm” framing.
Uttamchandani, S. (2023). Equity in Educational Technology: Designing for Diverse Learners. Educational Technology Research and Development, 71(1), 25–42.
Synthesizes recent research on equity-centered design practices in EdTech development.
Gutiérrez, R. (2018). The Need to Rehumanize Mathematics. In Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 20(1), 1–13.
Argues that equity work in mathematics requires attention to identity, power, and lived experience—core to our session’s purpose.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2022). ISTE Standards for Educators. https://www.iste.org/standards/educators
Establishes the professional standards our session explicitly supports (Leader 2b, Designer 5b, Analyst 7a).
ASCD. (2023). Transformational Learning Principles. https://www.ascd.org/transformational-learning
Anchors our session in ASCD’s principles of cultivating belonging and prioritizing authentic experiences.
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