Iowa City Community School District offers teacher trainings in “ethnomathematics” and queer “Herstory,” according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE).
“Ethnomathematics: The Study of Math as a Cultural Activity,” is the name of the teacher training session at ICCSD where “educators will approach the mathematics classroom as ethnographers, exploring the origins of our current practices and questioning the hierarchies they produce.”
“Teachers do not need to pretend to be ethnographers and study math through a cultural lens,” PDE Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi said in a statement. “They need to be able to teach students the math they need to know to pursue and succeed in the future whether in higher ed and/or career paths that require that knowledge.”
Another teacher training course offered by ICCSD called “WE ARE EVERYWHERE: Paris is Burning” highlights “Protest, Power, and Pride in Queer History and culture.”
“Learners will explore often forgotten Herstory and ideas of intersectionality and discuss topics of Race, Sexuality, Class, and Gender discussion focusing on LGBTQIA+,” it says, “through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene.”
Other “equity” courses offered by the school district are “Decentering the Educator in the Classroom” and “Analyzing Systems of Behavior and Discipline.”
ICCSD has been pushing “equity” — a word often used instead of critical race theory and gender theory — since at least 2014.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.