Reimagining Mathematical Understandings Through an Equity Lens: How Students Demonstrate Robust Understandings in Project-Based Classrooms

This study reports on the design and implementation of an equity-focused, project-based algebra curriculum in two advanced eighth-grade classrooms. We document with substantial detail a promising approach to capturing how students demonstrate and build robust mathematical understandings in ways that strongly connect to equity issues. We illuminate important avenues through which the proposed framework, design principles, and the Teaching for Robust Understanding framework (Schoenfeld, 2020) can effectively support the design, implementation, and assessment of equity-focused PjBL curricula. The paper concludes by discussing implications for researchers, teachers, curriculum designers, and the broader project-based learning (PjBL) community.