Using Practice to Clarify the Concept of Equitable Mathematics Teaching

• In Event: Exploring Equity in the Context of Mathematics Teacher Education Practice: A Town Hall Discussion

Abstract

Purpose
The NCTM Research Committee argues that self-examination is researchers’ responsibility because research is a political act — that not taking up well-documented inequity is complicity (Aguirre et al., 2017). Parallel to their characterization of political acts, we characterize practical acts as acts concerned with shaping the doing of teaching. This paper combines the notions of education research as “political act” and “practical act” to argue that deliberation of teaching practice can inform mathematics education equity research.

Theoretical Perspectives
Central to scholarship on equity and social justice is the need to address issues of power, which requires a critical stance (Esmonde & Booker, 2017). Critique is needed for several reasons: a history of inequity and injustice; resistance of those who perceive justice as relinquishing power; and the insidiousness of institutionalized oppression (Aguirre et al., 2017). These dynamics are not just in society: they are dynamics of the academy (Martin, 2015). Still, many maintain faith and choose to work by means available to change what is. Unrelenting oppression has necessitated scholarship focused on naming the problem and digging into theoretical foundations to do so. Consequently, much of the scholarship has been a step removed from practice (Lynn & Parker, 2006; Ledesma & Calderón, 2015).

Who we are
We are part of a group of about two-dozen scholars convening around a mutual concern regarding access to quality education for historically marginalized students. About 1/3 of us identify as Black, 1/3 Latinx or Asian, and 1/3 white. We come from 15 institutions in 10 different states. Our group contains about 1/6 graduate students, 1/3 assistant, 1/3 associate, and 1/6 full professors. Across four 2.5-day meetings, we have built trust, learned about one another’s research, and explored ideas about equitable teaching.

Modes of inquiry
Having familiarized ourselves with each other’s research and theoretical perspectives, we experimented with two forms of dialogue. First, we collectively viewed videos of instruction gathered from our different research projects and discussed our interpretations, implications for equitable teaching practice, and how meanings are attached to conceptualizations from our research. Second, we collectively engaged in activities from teacher education courses we teach and discussed interpretations of what each activity affords, what it suggests about equitable teaching, and how meanings are attached to conceptualizations from our research. Having cyclically experimented with these approaches, we consider the insights gained.

Substantiated conclusions and scholarly significance
Collective deliberation of practice can enhance our individual work and improve communication across scholarship. It clarifies meaning of language and surface issues. For instance, when one of us shared a Latino teacher’s autobiography about how his middle school teacher’s utterance, “Mexicans can’t do math,” derailed him from becoming a mathematics teacher for decades, other scholars saw the construct of projected racialized mathematics identities personified. Further, we examined the tension between the role of context specificity in discussing equitable teaching and the acknowledged need to develop equitable teaching as central to responsible teacher education. These and other crucial insights frame our town hall discussion on the state of equity research.

Authors

• Imani Masters Goffney, University of Maryland - College Park

• Mark Hoover, University of Michigan