Supporting Mathematics Public School Teachers' Professional Development and the Teaching of Statistics in Elementary and Middle School: An Imperative for Teacher Education in Brazil

• In Event: "It's Our Responsibility as Teacher Educators": Toward Justice in Brazilian Public Schooling

Abstract

This research study sought to understand how a formative intervention (Sannino et al., 2016) informed elementary and middle school math teachers’ professional development (their knowledge and teaching of statistics) and how it could be used to discuss local and global issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on Brazilian education. Statistics was used as a tool for understanding teacher’s assumptions about the world; federal policy mandates the teaching of statistics from the elementary school years in Brazil (Brazil, 1997; 2018).
Our formative intervention research study was conducted in the context of university-school partnerships through an on-line professional learning community - PLC (DuFour, 2004) involving teachers from eight public schools and researchers from eight public universities in three different states in Northeastern and one in Southeastern Brazil. We analyzed statistical content knowledge and documented teachers’ perceptions of their teaching practices and student learning through the lens of equity literacy (Gorski, 2017). Additionally, data was generated through the recording of the on-line meetings and artifacts produced by teachers such as Google Forms and teaching sequences.
Data analysis engaged qualitative methods. In the on-line PLC, teachers designed lessons based on the investigative cycle (Wild & Pfannkuch, 1999, MacGillivray & Pereira-Mendoza, 2011). We focused on teachers' explanations and interpretations of their planned lessons and on their responses through the lens of equity literacy. Qualitative data analysis documented the development of teachers’ statistical knowledge, teaching practices, and understanding of equitable student learning. Findings support this model of professional development, which at once attends to teacher and student learning, focusing on equity in Brazilian public schools.

Authors

• Eurivalda Ribeiro dos Santos Santana, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz

• Jose Aires De Castro Filho, Universidade Federal do Ceara

• Maria Elizabete Souza Couto, Federação das Escolas Superiores de Ilhéus e Itabuna

• Juscileide Braga De Castro, Universidade Federal do Ceará

• Dennys Leite Maia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte