The authors began this work with the understandings that (a) there is no “neutral” when it comes to the teaching of mathematics, and (b) mathematics teacher educators need to do something to help produce teachers of mathematics that develop students’ relationships with mathematics and push against the inequities that exist both within and outside of the classrooms in which they will teach. In response, the authors created, deployed, and studied a learning module in an attempt to enact antiracist mathematics teacher education. The learning module activities, the findings about the learning from the prospective teachers who engaged in the module, and messages for mathematics teacher educators who want to engage in this work are shared.
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Joel Amidon, Anne Marie Marshall, and Rebecca E. Smith
Christine Andrews-Larson, Jonee Wilson, Matthew Mauntel, Jessica Smith, and Thomeca Hawthorne-Glover
Support students in developing contextual reasoning about integer subtraction.
Jennifer M. Suh, Holly Tate, Maryanne Rossbach, Samara Green, Kathy Matson, Julia Aguirre, Padhu Seshaiyer, and Sam Steen
This article details the development of design principles to support teachers in planning for a Community-Based Mathematical Modeling task with a focus on social justice in the elementary grades. By reflecting on the dilemmas we encountered in the design and enactment of the tasks, we developed five design principles that allowed us to address issues of social justice as well as attend to powerful mathematical ideas to bring awareness and take action around a local problem. Through our article, we hope to share with mathematics teacher educators design principles to help plan for tasks with pre- and in-service teachers that prioritize connecting mathematics to social issues and empower both teachers and students to take action to make a positive impact in the community.
Lindsay M. Keazer and Kathleen T. Nolan
Ear to the Ground features voices from several corners of the mathematics education world.
Jody Guarino and Sara Manseau
Read about Diego, a kindergarten student, as he develops his mathematical identity and competency.
Alessandra King, Sophia Ouanes, and Claire Doh
Students and teachers enjoy exploring the boundaries between mathematics and art.
Liza Bondurant and Daniel Reinholz
This article focuses on using simulations of practice in teacher education. We studied preservice teachers’ engagement with a popular simulations platform, which creates mixed-reality simulations of five digital avatars controlled by a single live interactor. Because simulations are only an approximation of real practice, our overarching goal was to understand how mathematical stereotypes might arise in simulated spaces. We used Discourse analysis to classify the stereotypes present and the EQUIP observation tool to understand how PTs made participation opportunities available. We found that the simulations might have perpetuated overtly racist and sexist stereotypes and that negatively stereotyped students were afforded lower-quality opportunities to participate. We discuss how to mitigate potential harm caused and offer guidance for redesigning more equitable and antiracist simulations. Our goal is to raise critical questions for our field around the use of simulations of practice.
Galeet BenZion
It is June, and the academic year is over or almost over. As teachers, we are looking forward to our time away from school, which provides an excellent opportunity for reflection and gaining a fresh perspective. How can we approach our next year's instruction such that it is more accessible to the diverse student population we serve?
Sunghwan Byun, Niral Shah, and Daniel Reinholz
We introduce a teacher learning practice called EQUIP-ing, which aims to foster sociopolitical noticing by leveraging EQUIP, an equity-oriented classroom observation tool. We detail our iterations of EQUIP-ing to a field-based Number Talk experience in a secondary mathematics methods course with 25 White prospective teachers (PTs). We offer empirical accounts of how EQUIP-ing empowered PTs to connect their teaching practices with racialized and gendered patterns of student participation; as a result, PTs began to reconsider taken-for-granted practices. However, we also found that PTs demonstrated potentially detrimental ways of attributing marginalizing patterns to minoritized students without actionable plans to redress the inequity. We conclude by inviting mathematics teacher educators to apply EQUIP-ing while emphasizing purposeful support for asset-based noticing.
