Political Knowledge in Teaching Mathematics: Activities to Advance Preservice Teacher Understandings for Antiracist Teaching

• In Event: Articulating Theoretical and Methodological Approaches for Mathematics and Science Teachers' Pursuit of Racial Justice

Abstract

Purpose and Perspectives
Without understanding that teaching is a political act, mathematics teachers are unlikely to see their role as advocates for equity and change and may simply reproduce the teaching they experienced and the accompanying inequities. To prepare PSTs to navigate such politics and become antiracist teachers, we focus on developing their political knowledge in teaching mathematics (Author, 2013, 2015). Such knowledge includes: understanding how systemic oppression operates in schools, dismantling deficit discourses and race evasive practices about historically underserved students (Picower, 2009), negotiating high-stakes testing pressures (Au, 2016), and navigating the (inequitable) education system in order to advocate for one’s students, especially those of historically marginalized backgrounds (Author, 2017). We investigate the following research questions: (1) What is the nature of the politics that teachers of mathematics face in their everyday work? (2) How can intentionally-designed activities prepare teachers to deeply understand how politics affect their teaching and students?

Methods
Our project involves a purposeful investigation of three cases. We focus on three university-based mathematics teacher education programs each with different PST populations, with regard to PST racial backgrounds, grade levels PSTs will teach, and geographic location. We are three womxn of color mathematics education scholars, all working in public universities, two of which are predominantly white institutions. We analyzed interview transcripts, PSTs’ journals, assignments, class discussions, and rehearsals in mathematics methods courses, when engaged in activities specifically designed to develop their political knowledge in teaching mathematics.

Results
Using qualitative thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) we found that we tailored our facilitation of the activities we designed specifically for each of our PSTs and the school contexts in which they student-taught. For instance, at one site because many PSTs identified as white and were placed in predominantly white K-12 schools, one author first engaged them in activities that interrogated cisheteropatriarchy, which garnered high engagement from white female PSTs. PSTs were then exposed to activities that focused on considerations of race in relationship to power, privilege, and oppression (e.g., tracking practices), and then to how additional intersectional identities, e.g., dis/ability status, linguistic backgrounds, sexual orientation, and gender identity affect mathematics teaching. Second, we found that PSTs own K-12 schooling experiences greatly influenced their preparedness for navigating the politics of teaching mathematics. Third, PSTs experienced incidents that required in-the-moment attention, such as students making racist comments related to COVID 19 to the single Asian American student in a class. Last, our identities as womxn of color mathematics teacher educators influenced our awareness of such political scenarios PSTs faced that they often dismissed as “typical” or “normal,” e.g., inequitable tracking practices.

Significance
Preparing PSTs to become skilled mathematics teachers, committed to equity, and prepared to take action to navigate the politics of teaching mathematics is a substantial challenge to complete in a teacher education program. The activities and associated context-specific adaptations we present in this paper offer the field useful tools to better prepare PSTs to become antiracist educators committed to equity and justice in their future schools.

Authors

• Kari Kokka, University of Pittsburgh

• Rochelle Gutierrez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Marrielle Myers, Kennesaw State University