Examining Competence Construction in Mathematics Classrooms: A Model That Situates Professional Learning in Video and Community

• In Event: The Power and Possibility of Creating and Exploring Critical Mathematics Classroom Teaching Video Cases in Teacher Preparation Programs

Abstract

Mathematics education, like the institutions and societies it derives from, is neither culturally neutral nor fair. Mathematics education continues to uphold Eurocentric, middle-class male privilege (Battey & Levya, 2016). Students of color and particularly emergent bilinguals are disproportionately positioned in deficit categories in schools, such disproportionality includes overrepresentation in special education programs and lower track mathematics and underrepresentation in gifted education programs and advanced courses (Collins, 2013; Authors, 2019). As Beth Fierri (2006) has argued, teachers must: “ take responsibility for all students and reject deficit models of disability and ethnocentric views of culture, ethnicity, and race. Anything short of this will fail to address how a dual system of education depends on the practice of marginalizing students based on perceived differences” (p. 426).


This paper shares a project to address a growing call for teacher development and preparation to include a focus on equity, including an expectation that a well-prepared beginning teacher understands “the role of power, privilege, and oppression in the history of mathematics education and [be] equipped to question existing educational systems that produce inequitable learning experiences and outcomes for students” (AMTE, 2017, p. 18). Building on the literature on the use of video in teacher learning, this project uses video to support TCs analysis of competence construction in mathematics classroom interactions. In this paper, we propose a framework to extend TC analysis of teaching to include analysis of the interactional factors that influence the identification of student competence or incompetence in the classroom (Esmonde & Booker, 2017; Authors, 2019). The project proposes a culturally responsive and relational inclusion framework defined as the development of TCs’ attention to competence construction in mathematics classrooms, as: 1) responsive to students’ multiple mathematical knowledge bases (Turner et al., 2012); and 2) situated and interactively organized in relation to the classroom activity system and the socially and historically constructed nature of competence (Esmonde & Booker, 2017).

I share the design principles for video use to support TCs’ development of a critical lens to viewing classroom interactions: the framework used to systematically analyze lessons, the sequencing and selection of video-based activities, and the ways in which the video-based activities interact with the community-based component. Professional learning as measured by TCs’ mathematics lesson plans, videotaped lesson enactments, and post-lesson reflections during a fifteen-week methods course show growth in attention to student thinking and to creating lessons that leverage multiple mathematics competencies (e.g. rich mathematical tasks, multi-modal discourse and problem-solving strategies, and strategies to address status and positioning). However, TCs varied considerably in the kinds of questions asked and the kinds of explanations requested, what student thinking was elicited, and how they responded to students’ suggestions and explanations based on their perceptions of children’s competencies, particularly for male students of color with a labeled learning disability. These findings prompted the reconsideration of video clip selection and video-viewing prompts to deconstruct teaching practices and assessment measures that maintain and disrupt language, gender, and dis/ability hierarchies.

Author

• Cathery Yeh, Chapman University