Faculty

Debasmita Basu completed her Ph.D in Mathematics Education from Montclair State University, New Jersey. Born and brought up in India, Debasmita came to the United States to pursue her doctoral studies in 2014. Before that, she was a high school mathematics teacher in India for four years. During her time teaching there, she was dismayed that her students tended to consider mathematics as a set of rules and formulas with little to no connection to their lives. Hence, with the greater goal of changing the nature of school mathematics, Debasmita started her doctoral studies. Her research agenda focuses on designing mathematical activities that aim to cultivate students’ critical consciousness towards various social and environmental justice issues and help them realize the power and value of mathematics. Such activities develop within students an appreciation towards the utilitarian value of mathematics in their daily lives and use mathematics literacy to understand social and environmental phenomenon relevant to their lives.

Ph.D in Mathematics Education, Montclair State University, New Jersey, 2019.

Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) in Mathematics, Shri Shikshayatan College, Kolkata, 2012.

Masters in Mathematics, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India, 2010.

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Mathematics, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, 2008.

Ellis, Basu, D., Chan, & Harper (2022). The Value of a School Lunch. Upper Elementary School Social Justice Math Book. In T. G. Bartell, C. Yeh, M. D. Felton-Koestler, R. Q. Berry III, and colleagues (Eds.), Upper elementary mathematics lessons to explore, understand, and respond to social injustice: Corwin Mathematics & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 

Chan, Basu, D., Ellis, Harper, & Ruef (2022). The True Cost of that $29 T-shirt in the Store Window. Middle School Social Justice Math Book. In B. M. Conway IV, L. Id- Deen, M. C. Raygoza, A. Ruiz, J. W. Staley, E. Thanheiser, and colleagues (Eds.), Middle school mathematics lessons to explore, understand, and respond to social injustice: Corwin Mathematics & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Basu, D., & Nguyen, H. (2021). Eating Healthy: Understanding Added Sugar through Proportional Reasoning. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23):12821. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312821.

Basu, D., & Nguyen, H. (2021). COVID-19 and its Disparate Impacts on Black Families. Benjamin Banneker Association’s journal, The Lighthouse Almanac, 2(1), 21-32.

Basu, D., Panorkou, N., Zhu, M., Lal, P. & Samanthula, B. (2020). The Mathematics of Gravity. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PreK-12, 113(1), 39-46.

Davidson, J., Greenstein, S., Basu, D., & Davidson, J. (2020). Making mathematical sense of food justice. In R. Q. Berry, III, B. Conway, IV, B. R. Lawler, & J. W. Staley (Eds.), High school mathematics lessons to explore, understand, and respond to social injustice: Corwin Mathematics & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2020). Examining the Role of Covariational Reasoning in Developing Students’ Understanding of the Greenhouse Effect. In Proceedings of the epiSTEME 8 International Conference to Review Research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education. Mumbai, India.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2019). Integrating Covariational Reasoning and Technology into the Teaching and Learning of the Greenhouse Effect. Journal of Mathematics Education, 12(1), 6-23.

Basu, D., & Greenstein, S. (2019). Cultivating a Space for Critical Mathematical Inquiry through Knowledge-Eliciting Mathematical Activity. Occasional Paper Series, 2019(41), 4.

Basu, D., Panorkou, N., & Zhu, M. (2019, March). Examining the Social Aspect of Climate Change through Mathematics. Paper presented In Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2019 IEEE.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2018). Expanding Students’ Contextual Neighbourhoods of Measurement Through Dynamic Measurement. In T. E. Hodges, G. J. Roy, & A. M. Tyminski, (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (p. 1155- 1162) Greenville, SC: University of South Carolina & Clemson University.