Exploring Tensions in Preservice Teachers' Noticing of Power and Privilege in Elementary Mathematics Spaces

• In Event: Interrogating Mathematics Classroom Teaching Practices for the Pursuit of Racial and Intersectional Justice

Abstract

This work is drawn from a larger project from undergraduate mathematics methods courses at a public Asian American and Pacific Islander and Predominantly Black Institution that recently added an urban education endorsement to their elementary education teacher preparation program. The endorsement requires preservice teachers (PSTs) to demonstrate an understanding of a) race and intersectionality, and b) the role of identity, privilege, and power in their practices. This pilot study investigates how elementary PSTs build on their racial identity when noticing power and privilege in classroom interactions.

PSTs must understand injustices created by deficit ideologies based on students’ identities and attend to ways power and privilege diminishes students’ identity, agency, and access (AMTE, 2017). Martin (2009) asserts all students engage in racialized forms of mathematics learning. Thus, understanding how teachers’ racial ideologies shape expectations, interactions, and students’ mathematical experiences (Author, 2016; Shah & Coles, 2020) is needed. Shah and Coles’ (2020) work with PSTs suggest the importance of how the racial identity and positionality of students and teachers impact PSTs’ noticing of privilege and power. Data was collected from three elementary mathematics methods courses in which PSTs were asked to read an article by Skinner et al. (2019) highlighting the role of noticing power and privilege in classroom interactions. This article follows an elementary mathematics lesson taught by a guest teacher focused on seeing the mathematical strengths of students beyond stereotypes associated with race, gender, and ability. Students in the lesson were described along a range of descriptors (e.g., David – African American boy with an individualized education plan (IEP)). During the lesson, the primary teacher who self-identifies as White and middle-class, reflected on their noticing of classroom interactions amongst the guest teacher and students as well as noted shifts in power dynamics and privilege specific to Black and Latina girls.

PSTs responded in writing to five questions related to the article. Drawing from the larger dataset of 56 PSTs’ responses about noticing power and privilege, 8 PSTs were selected because they mentioned race and other aspects of their identity (e.g., gender, class) in their responses. Analysis included open coding, a constant comparison (Corbin & Strauss, 2014), and a thematic matrix allowing for the comparison and contrasting within and across responses.

Findings indicated most PSTs (n= 4) that identified as White, Asian, or multi-racial (i.e., White and Asian) recognized their own power and privilege as mathematics learners and future teachers, and concerns for how their racial identity could be a tool for creating injustices or causing further harm. These responses further indicated difficulty noticing issues of power and privilege along race and gender in the classroom, given their positive mathematics learning experiences. PSTs self-identified as Black or Latina (n=2) connected to experiences of being invisible and marginalized based on their race and gender in mathematics spaces, without discussions about the influences on their classroom interactions. These findings highlight the complexity of racial identity and positionality, a need for an intersectional approach, and considerations for racial noticing specific to anti-Blackness.

Authors

• Naomi Jessup, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author

• Sheniqua Pierce, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brittany White, Georgia State University
  Non-Presenting Author