Preparing Teachers to Teach in Diverse Classrooms

• In Event: Preparing Preservice Teachers for Ambitious and Equitable Mathematics Teaching

Abstract

To teach mathematics in diverse classrooms, teachers need to be deliberate about providing all students productive and supported opportunities to do and learn mathematics. Learning mathematics involves developing knowledge and skill with both topics and practices, in ways that have integrity to the structures of the discipline. At the same time, mathematical work in classrooms happens in a social context where students’ positioning and roles (which can either replicate or work against societal biases) can enhance or inhibit the knowledge to which students have access. Teachers thus need to be able to attend to both the mathematics and the social structures of their classrooms. More importantly, teachers need to be able, in the day to day, minute to minute, work of teaching, to combine the use of mathematical opportunities that have integrity and value together with sensitive engagement with individual students as well as with students as a group, in the context of a school classroom.

To prepare beginning teachers for this work, we focus on practices that promote equity instead of the more typical focus on awareness and beliefs. It is not only possible to teach new teachers how to act in light of ethical and moral commitments to the learning of all students, we hold that there are core mathematics teaching practices that can explicitly be worked on in mathematics teacher education make it possible to effectively support the preparation of teachers in a range of teacher education contexts. In particular, our practice-based teacher education program focuses on four leverage points for equitable instruction: the selection and use of mathematical tasks, careful use of language, explicitness with respect to engagement in the structure of the discipline, and support for participation by all students.

Our presentation will have three parts. We will: (1) frame our approach including describing the four practices that teachers can use to promote equity, (2) share an example in which you can see a teacher engaging in one of these practices, and (3) share how we work with preservice teachers to learn to carry out the practice that is shown in the example and indicate some of the challenges that emerge.

Authors

• Meghan M. Shaughnessy, University of Michigan

• Lindsey Mann, University of Michigan

• Deborah Loewenberg Ball, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor