Teaching Future Teachers About Playing the Game and Changing the Game

• In Event: 72.041 - Researching the Design and Delivery of Equity Courses in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Objective
A substantial group of mathematics educators have called upon professional organizations in mathematics education to take an active role challenging systems of inequity (Martin, 2015; NCSM and TODOS, 2016). These calls prompt the question, how can mathematics educators introduce future teachers and researchers to equity-focused research? This paper describes my self-study (Loughran, 2005) of a graduate course on equity in mathematics education that I taught in 2016. My research questions were: 1) What development was evident in students’ thinking about equity in mathematics education? 2) What new dimensions of equity in mathematics education emerged through my and my students’ interactions with class assignments?
Theoretical Perspective
The course reflected my situated and sociocultural approach to learning and teaching by blending readings and discuss with assignments designed to engage students in reflection and action. This inquiry of my own teaching was a self-study (Loughran, 2005), a methodology for educators to critically analyze practice with the goal of refinement.
Modes of Inquiry
Principles of self-study (Loughran, 2005) were combined with qualitative case study analysis (Patton, 2002). Within case and across case qualitative analysis of course records allowed me to identify strengths in the course design as well as areas for future improvement.
Data & Analysis
Participants were eight graduate students in mathematics education: two doctoral students and six master’s students. The course was organized by five thematic units. Gutiérrez’s (2009) description of equity as including “dominant” and “critical” axes was a touchstone reading introduced early in the course and revisited across the five units. The primary data for this study were the course assignments and student work. Additional data included my reflections as an instructor and the feedback I received from students in personal and electronic communications.
Results
RQ1: Development of Student Thinking. Comparing the students’ early reflection papers with their final projects, all eight students made progress in articulating a vision of equity in mathematics education. Despite this progress, I also observed that some students attempted to stay on “safe” ground throughout class discussions by avoiding in depth discussions of race, social class, and immigration policies.

RQ2: Emergent Dimensions of Equity: Students reflections were dominated by local concerns including living on both sides of the US-Mexico border, access to quality classrooms for the children of my students who were parents, and equity in community college mathematics and developmental mathematics. These emergent foci reflected my students’ positions as members of transnational families and as teachers of community college and remedial mathematics courses at the college level.
Significance
This paper describes one effort to respond to the calls for mathematics educators to take an active role challenging systems of inequity within and beyond the field (Martin, 2015; TODOS and NCSM, 2016). The results of this self study provide me with guidance on re-designing this course for future iterations. Additionally the broader impact will occur with documenting and sharing results of such efforts across the mathematics education community.

Author

• William Carl Zahner, San Diego State University