Author(s):
Need
Our project aims to prepare prospective teachers (PSTs) to teach mathematics in diverse settings by developing critical consciousness. While student populations in U.S. schools are increasing in racial, language, and socio-economic diversity, PSTs are predominantly white (Schaeffer, 2021). Thus, it is critical mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) build intentional programmatic features to support PSTs’ development of critical consciousness by adopting critical pedagogies (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008; Shor, 2014). Programmatic structures must allow students to commit to a praxis (Freire, 1996) reflecting on how Anti-Blackness (white supremacy culture) impacts mathematics education and focus on the actions they may have already taken and will continue to take in the future. However, our work shows MTEs lack resources for adopting critical pedagogies (Males et al., 2020). Therefore, we aim to draw on improvement science methods used by the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP) (Martin et al., 2020) to design and refine modules for use in 6-12 mathematics teaching courses to support PSTs in developing critical consciousness.
Guiding Questions
We are guided by the following goals:
1. Design and refine a series of modules for use in 6-12 mathematics teaching methods courses by engaging in a series of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles (Bryk et al., 2015) across three institutional contexts.
2. Study the impact of the modules on PSTs’ critical consciousness by addressing: 1) What impact does participating in the modules have on PSTs’ understanding of countering Anti-Blackness in mathematics? 2) How does the consciousness of secondary pre-service teachers shift while engaged in modules on Anti-Blackness related to the teaching and learning of mathematics?
Outcomes
Our poster will describe and provide findings from the enactment of the following modules: a) Instructor Positionality, b) Exploring what Students Know/Feel about Mathematics/Teaching, c) Identity & Agency, d) Understanding Anti-Blackness, e) Political & Historical Context of Mathematics Teaching and Learning and f) Developing an Action Plan for Student Liberation.
Analysis indicates that the modules are supporting PSTs’ critical consciousness evidenced by PTSs’ exhibiting more advanced stages within the Mathematics with|in conocimientos (Martinez, 2020). These shifts are promising, indicating that the modules have the potential to support PSTs in teaching in diverse settings because their increased critical consciousness will attune them to attending to diverse students’ mathematical needs.
Broader Impacts
This project contributes to ongoing efforts to increase access to research-based resources for MTEs to engage their PSTs in learning to better serve the students in their diverse classrooms. The modules will be enacted in three different university contexts, evaluated by an advisory board with expertise in the field, refined, and then made available to the MTEP community (which includes 65 programs, including 11 under-resourced institutions and/or minority-serving institutions) for further refinement before becoming publicly available and more widely disseminated to the larger 6-12 mathematics education community. MTEs use of these modules can lead to better mathematics instruction in classrooms across the country, leading to more 6-12 students, particularly students from underrepresented groups, developing an interest in and being prepared to enter STEM fields (i.e., increasing the STEM pipeline).
References
Bryk, A. S., Gomez, L. M., Grunow, A., LeMahieu, P. G. (2015). Learning to improve: How America’s schools can get better at getting better. Harvard Education Press.
Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R., & Morrell, E. (2008). The art of critical pedagogy: Possibilities for moving from theory to practice in urban schools (Vol. 285). Peter Lang.
Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). Continuum.
Males, L.M., Sears. R., & Lawler, B.R. (2020). Equity and justice issues in the preparation of secondary mathematics teachers. In W.G. Martin, B. R. Lawler, A. Lischka & W. Smith (Eds.), The power of a networked improvement community to transform secondary mathematics teacher preparation (pp. 57 – 87). Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Martin, W. G., Lawler, B. R., Lischka, A. & Smith, W. (Eds.). (2020). The power of a networked improvement community to transform secondary mathematics teacher preparation. Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Martinez, R. (2020). Mathematics reborn: Empowerment with youth participatory action research EntreMundos in reconstructing our relationship with mathematics (Doctoral dissertation, Iowa State University).
Schaeffer, K. (2021, December 10). America’s public school teachers are far less racially and ethnically diverse than their students. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/10/americas-public-school-teachers-are-far-less-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-than-their-students/
Shor, I. (2014). When students have power: Negotiating authority in a critical pedagogy. University of Chicago Press.
Coauthors
Cyndi Edgington, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; Ricardo Martinez, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA; Robin Anderson, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; Ruby Ellis, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC;; Maggan Quist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
