Noticing to Disrupt the “I’m Not Good at Math” Narrative

• In Event: Expanding Theory on Teacher Noticing Through Collaborative Inquiry and Co-Design

Abstract

Objective or purpose
Prevailing narratives of what it means to be successful in mathematics contribute to creating classroom environments that marginalize students from racial, cultural, and linguistic minority groups (Reinholtz, 2022; Shah, 2019). Disrupting these dominant narratives requires developing awareness of their nature and history and adopting alternative narratives to reposition mathematics and students in classroom interactions (Louie et al., 2021). In this paper, we advance theory on teacher noticing by unveiling how one teacher, Jeff, developed awareness of how dominant narratives position students as more and less competent and how he enacts instruction to disrupt students’ narratives of “not being good at math.”

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
We theorize that teachers’ noticing can serve to disrupt inequitable instruction by reframing students and the discipline (Louie et al., 2021). Mason (2009) proposes that teachers’ disciplined inquiry can cultivate teachers’ developing awareness of themselves as noticers and deeper understandings about the contexts and systems in which they teach, who they serve, and toward what end (Patel, 2015). We also draw on research that illuminates how narratives frame teachers’ noticing and instruction (Louie, 2018; Shah, 2017), and how developing awareness of prevailing narratives in mathematics can enable shifts in teachers’ noticing and instructional practice (Gutierrez et al., 2023).

Methods and data sources
Data comes from a multi-year professional development model that includes group meetings, classroom observations and associated interviews, and a reflective interview. We adopted a participatory action research model to locate knowledge production in practice and position teachers as agents to transform educational systems (Jacobs, 2016). Thus, the first and second author engaged in iterative cycles of focused coding and interpretation (Jordan & Henderson, 2005; Saldaña, 2021) to characterize Jeff’s understanding of the “I’m not good at math” narrative and how he sought to reposition and renarrate students from strengths-based perspectives.

Results
We identified three dimensions of Jeff’s noticing to disrupt the “I’m not good at math” narrative. They include: disrupting mathematics as a static practice, making assessment matter, and attending to and understanding what students need. For example, disrupting mathematics as a static practice shifts students’ perceptions of mathematics from following a prescribed procedure to mathematics as a form of ongoing problem solving that is ambiguous and relies on communication, sensemaking, and reasoning (Skovsmose, 2020). Making assessment matter and attending to students’ needs reflects Jeff’s awareness of how classroom practices remain ambiguous to students that perpetuates a narrative of not being good at mathematics. Collectively, these dimensions of Jeff’s noticing coordinate to reposition mathematics as a problem solving activity, while also repositioning students and their relationship to the discipline to give mathematics meaning and value.

Significance
These findings suggest that teachers’ noticing has consequences for how math is positioned and how students are positioned to learn mathematics. By attending to both, teachers can work toward disrupting pervasive narratives about what constitutes mathematics and who is entitled to do it to expand who has access and belongs in mathematics classrooms and beyond (Larnell et al, 2014; McGee & Martin, 2011).

Authors

• Elizabeth A. van Es, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Jeff Watson, Anaheim Union High School District

• Alison K. Munzer, University of California - Los Angeles