DOPE MATH®: Revolutionizing Math Education with Jaliyla Fraser

When I sat down with Kyle King, host of The Contagious Culture Podcast, we talked about the truth.

About mindset, leadership, and the quiet ways math culture in schools collapse when reflection is replaced by routine. Our converstion became a reminder that conversations about math education mean nothing unless they lead to transformation. It asked one question every math educator and leader should be brave enough to answer:

“What if we stopped managing people and started illuminating them?”

The Real Problem Behind Low Math Morale

We talk about math morale all the time. We blame the workload, the pay, the test scores, the lack of time.

But math morale isn’t destroyed by hard work. It’s destroyed by hypocrisy.

When leaders say they value teachers but silence their voices, culture breaks. When teachers say they believe in students math brilliance but teach through fear, trust breaks. As I said on the podcast, culture isn’t built on charisma. It’s built on consistency.

If we're not modeling the values we promote, we're managing, not leading. Reflection has to meet responsibility, or morale will always suffer.

In math education, we love frameworks, toolkits, and rubrics. But the most powerful leadership strategy is still the simplest one: be curious.

Curiousity changes everything.

When math teachers ask better questions, they collect better data. When leaders choose curiosity over control, they build trust instead of tension. When schools cultivate curiosity for math, they create cultures that grow from the inside out.

Curiosity cuts through compliance. It reminds students that learning is human. It reminds adults that leadership is relational, not positional. Curiosity is the hack. It’s how we see people clearly enough to lead them well.

Leadership That Holds a Mirror

I describe myself as a mirror, and that reflection is rarely comfortable. Being a mirror means showing others what they can’t see, but it also means facing the reflection yourself. You can’t transform what you won’t confront.

Students aren’t confused because math is hard. They’re confused because we’ve made it mechanical.

When leaders avoid reflection, culture breaks. When they lead with mirrors instead of megaphones, they model the courage they expect from their teams.

Accountability is contagious.

So is avoidance.

Choose which one you want your team to catch.

At Fraser’s Mathematics Solutions, we don’t call ourselves consultants. We’re Illuminators.

Our mission is not to fix math teachers. It’s to help them find their light.

Every coaching session, every curriculum, every workshop we design begins with one principle:

Find the light. Strengthen it. Reflect it back.

When we illuminate people, we restore confidence where exhaustion once lived. We replace burnout with belief. We remind math educators that excellence is not perfection, it’s alignment.

That’s how culture spreads.

The way math is currently taught exposes everything about our systems.

Do we reward memorization instead of meaning?

Do we prioritize answers instead of understanding?

Do our classrooms make students afraid to be wrong or excited to explore?

Math is a mirror for leadership.

It reflects whether we lead through fear or through faith in our students.

If we want courageous math teachers, we have to model courageous leadership. If we want confident students, we have to create confident systems.

Math isn’t just content. It’s culture and transforming it starts with courage. But it starts with small, daily decisions to lead with reflection instead of reaction. Ask before you assume, reflect before you respond and illuminate before you instruct.

That’s how culture becomes contagious.

Because Math and Leadership Deserve More Truth

If there’s one truth I hope every reader takes away, it’s this: Math was never the problem.

The problem is our willingness to settle for comfort instead of confronting what’s broken.

It’s about boldness, it’s about creating schools where honesty and excellence can exist in the same room.

Listen to the full conversation with Kyle King on YouTube.

Let the words meet you where you are; then illuminate someone else.