Aguirre, J., Mayfield-Ingram, K., & Martin, D. (2013). The Impact of Identity in K–8 Mathematics Learning and Teaching: Rethinking Equity-Based Practices. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (original) (raw)
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Attention to the pursuit of equity has been a growing priority for mathematics classrooms in the last two and a half decades. While classroom discourse has become a central feature of classrooms that strive toward equity, one continuing concern for classroom researchers in mathematics education involves understanding how and when group interactions support or interfere with student learning. In this dissertation, I respond to these calls by simultaneously offering perspectives of mathematical learning from underrepresented students alongside empirical evidence of these students’ transformative classroom experiences. In this study, I used ethnographic methods to analyze student and teacher classroom interactions and interviews during the first and last units in a semester one Algebra 1 class where learning was facilitated primarily by student-led whole class and student-student small-group interactions. In Paper 1, I propose a combined analytic framework for studying classroom interactions by coordinating Status and Positioning Theories. In Paper 2, I investigate the teacher’s classroom structures and pedagogical practices to reveal a process for delegating mathematical authority to students. Students' perceptions reveal the classroom structures, and pedagogical practices expand what counts as mathematical smartness in this classroom. In Paper 3, I investigate students’ changed perceptions of competence over the course of the study. I find that the development of specific social and sociomathematical norms mediated students’ perceptions of improved competence in this classroom. Throughout this dissertation, I argue that this teacher’s practice strives toward equity by expanding mathematical smartness and changing students’ perceptions of competence in mathematics. I suggest that future work should analyze the systemic inequities that lead to uneven representation of any groupings of students in tracked classrooms. I also argue that future work striving toward equity in mathematics education should further investigate empirical evidence of additional processes for delegating authority to high school students, additional classroom structures and pedagogical practices that expand mathematical smartness, additional social and sociomathematical norms that can mediate students’ perceptions of competence, and additional classrooms that contribute to successes for all students in high school mathematics.
Working towards equity in mathematics education: A focus on learners, teachers, and parents
Proceedings of the Twenty Eighth Annual Meeting of …, 2006
This paper presents a reflection on my research largely grounded on my interest in students', teachers', and parents' ideas about mathematics. Starting with some considerations from a cognitive point of view, in particular preservice teachers' understanding and beliefs, I move onto sociocultural aspects. I specifically address issues related to context, valorization of knowledge, participation, and in-school and out-of-school mathematics. I draw on examples from my research in Latino, working-class communities to highlight the need (yet the complexity) to focus on all interested parties (parents, teachers, and students) and on mathematics if we are to address equity in mathematics education.
Some Conceptions are Difficult to Change: One Middle School Mathematics Teacher's Struggle
1998
A framework for investigating approaches to mathematics teaching in light of recent reforms is described. This framework is used to explore the struggles of a veteran middle school mathematics teacher as he attempted to modify his practices. The report was developed during a two-year period during which the teacher was interviewed and observed regularly. The teacher was successful in broadening some aspects of his pedagogical thinking and practice. For example, he reformed his teaching to emphasize important mathematical concepts. However, at least in part because of his views of pedagogical authority, he was unable to let his students explore ideas, solve open-ended problems, and debate intended meanings of mathematical ideas and solutions on a regular basis.
Developing Mathematics Educators
Third International Handbook of Mathematics Education, 2012
Past research has largely characterized disadvantage as an individual or social condition that somehow impedes mathematics learning, which has resulted in the further marginalization of individuals whose physical, racial, ethnic, linguistic and social identities are different from normative identities constructed by dominant social groups. Recent studies have begun to avoid equating difference with de fi ciency and instead seek to understand mathematics learning from the perspective of those whose identities contrast the construction of normal by dominant social groups. In this way of thinking, "understanding" disadvantage can be discussed as understanding social processes that disadvantage individuals. And, "overcoming" disadvantage can be explored by analyzing how learning scenarios and teaching practices can be more fi nely tuned to the needs of particular groups of learners, empowering them to demonstrate abilities beyond what is generally expected by dominant discourses. In this chapter, we consider theoretical and methodological perspectives associated with the search for a more inclusive mathematics education, and how they generally share a conceptualization of the role of the teacher as an active participant in researching and interpreting their students' learning. Drawing from examples with a diverse range of learners including linguistic, racial and ethnic minorities, as well as deaf students, blind students, and those with speci fi c dif fi culties with mathematics, we argue that by understanding the learning processes of such students we may better understand mathematics learning in general.
International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2018
In this paper, we explore the ways in which learning more about research on students' experiences in mathematics classrooms has the potential to transform the work we do with teachers in teacher preparation, professional development, and research settings. We focus in particular on questions of student access to and participation in mathematics and highlight studies of the racialized and gendered experiences of students and the connections between these experiences and broader narratives about race, gender, and ability/disability. We conclude with questions and possibilities raised by these studies for our individual and collective efforts to support and understand teacher learning and changes in teacher practice.
What Mathematics matters to Teachers
Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators, 2016
This article draws attention to the need of mathematising the teachersof mathematics. The paper questions and seek answers to the didactical approaches that should be adopted to engage teachers in acts of thinking mathematically.One of the proposed ways is by challenging teachers’ existing mathematical cognition in a constructive manner. The paper further elaborates a task that was instrumental in setting up conditions for thinking, reasoning and making conceptual connections.
Explorations Into Pedagogy Within Mathematics Classrooms: Insights From Contemporary Inquiries
Curriculum Inquiry, 2013
Pedagogy within mathematics classrooms is of keen interest in any educational discussion. On a wider scale, pedagogical practice that produces desirable outcomes is considered a major instrument for achieving national objectives. Circumstance and setting may vary, but the question relating to how mathematics teachers construct their practice is as relevant in the contemporary environment as it has been in the past. That question lies at the heart of this review. The review will first reflect briefly on past understandings of pedagogy within mathematics education. It will then discuss more recent work focused of pedagogy and pedagogical change that draws on poststructuralist thinking. In keeping with a poststructuralist sensibility, within these discussions the notion of teachers' identity as key to pedagogical practice will be a central organizing principle.