Fairness in political districting: exploring mathematical reasoning

Abstract

For this paper, I explored the informal reasoning of undergraduate social science students in a mathematics class. They were looking into the mathematics of political districting, in particular gerrymandering. Using Sellars’ notion of the space of reasons and analytic categories from the socioscientific issues literature, I examined the reasons students gave for the positions they took. I observed the way mathematics played a role in their reasoning and, how, when they addressed a social issue, their reasoning was more holistic. The analytic categories illuminated my data on how mathematics was integrated into the students’ informal reasoning.