In Preservice Teachers' Own Voices: Bilinguals' Lessons for Mathematics Teacher Preparation Programs

• In Event: 25.029 - Learning to Teach Mathematics in Bilingual Classrooms: Considering Preservice Teachers' Past, Present, and Future Experiences

Abstract

Objective
Bilingual pre-service teachers’ experiences as mathematics students include scenarios that impacted their mathematics learning through the years. This study uses these scenarios as a point of departure for teacher preparation programs as they strive to provide pre-service teachers with situational awareness and instructional techniques attuned to bilingual students’ needs.

Theoretical Framework
Pre-service teachers (PSTs) commonly enter the profession knowing little about how to support mathematics instruction for English Language Learners (ELLs) (Chval & Pinnow, 2010). While preparing English-Spanish bilingual PSTs, I have learned that PSTs come to the Mathematics Methods class assuming effective mathematics instruction strategies for working with ELLs include the use of pictures, adjusting the speed of their speech, creating vocabulary lists, and providing different assessment forms. These findings agree with Moschkovich's (1999) commonly recommended language development strategies for ELLs. However, she argued that these strategies provide little guidance in developing ELLs' understanding of mathematics content.

This paper identifies scenarios, told in the Bilingual Pre-service Teachers’ (BPTs') own voices, where the meeting of cultures hindered or stimulated their own learning of mathematics, in order to highlight elements supporting mathematical content during mathematics instruction in bilingual contexts.

Methods
Twenty-eight BPTs provided open-ended, written reflections on formative events in their mathematical education, an activity I have found to elicit heightened engagement in teacher preparation classes and to deepen their abilities to put themselves in their students’ shoes. The BPTs wrote a "math life story" recounting experiences with mathematics, considering how those experiences impacted their attitudes towards, and understanding of, mathematics. I coded their responses using content analysis to identify patterns in the codes. I used debriefing (Merriam, 1998) to ensure the initial codes fit into more defined themes.

Results
Perhaps unexpectedly, what BPTs considered negative mathematical experiences have provided decisive motivation for turning to mathematics education and finding their teaching identities in providing quality mathematics instruction to the bilingual Hispanic community. While student experiences alone are insufficient guides to managing mathematics instruction, the motivation they provide leaves BPTs particularly receptive to pedagogical practices that stimulate mathematics learning. Aguirre, Mayfield-Ingram, and Martin (2013) point out that teachers’ mathematical identities take root partly in their own experiences as mathematics students and ultimately influence their instructional decisions in the classroom. Among these 28 BPTs I found how their experiences, feelings, and views about their position in the classroom, language, culture, families, socioeconomic status determined their academic development in mathematics and their decisions to become bilingual teachers.

Significance
Each individual’s experiences are unique. Though this group's experiences may not generalize to all BPTs, I draw attention to commonalities within this group as they were growing up and learning mathematics. These experiences derive value not only from their authenticity, but also from how these same experiences shape the BPTs' identities as mathematics teachers. In contrast to deficit views of PSTs, these narratives show BPTs' depth of educational insight and provide a framework within which they evaluate the utility of the instructional techniques they encounter in training.

Author

• Gladys Krause, The University of Texas - Austin