Creating State-wide Value for High-Quality Mathematics Instruction

• In Event: Surfacing Teacher Learning Needs from the Ground Up: Research-Practice Partnerships to Cultivate Innovative Practices

Abstract

Objectives
The [BLINDED] is a longstanding research-practice partnership (RPP) among state university researchers, state education mathematics leaders, and over 300 district-, school-, and classroom-based mathematics educators. Since 2016, our partnership has worked as a statewide professional learning infrastructure, developing resources and experiences that ensure more equitable learning opportunities and support for mathematics teachers in our state. Our current focus is on fostering a shared vision of high-quality mathematics instruction (VHQMI). Over 70 mathematics educators and researchers have worked together since 2022 to collaboratively design and refine resources and experiences that promote a shared instructional vision and coherence in the state education system. Our research questions include: (a) In what ways does participation in representative collaborative design generate and translate value for a shared VHQMI? (b) What features of our facilitation of the collaborative design process with educators representing various levels of a state education system enable or constrain the creation of value for a shared vision of HQMI?
Theoretical Framework
We draw on Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner’s (2020) theory of learning as value creation in social learning spaces (SLS), conceptualizing our collaborative design teams as SLS. In these spaces, learning occurs through generating value and translating value. Generating value refers to the production of a thing (e.g., a resource, an idea, a practice, an identity) that is useful in making the difference one cares to make. Translating value is the process of using something that has been produced. We examine how participation in collaborative design generates and translates value for a particular instructional vision and what features of facilitation influence that process.
Methods
Members of the project team (n = 64) participated in semi-structured interviews that elicited value creation stories, using a protocol adapted from Booth and Kellogg (2014) and Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2020). Interviews were transcribed, cleaned, and coded based on value creation cycles using a team-refined codebook. We summarized and then mapped () each participant’s value story and identified themes across all mappings.
Findings
Preliminary findings show that participants consistently generated and translated value for HQMI through the co-design process. All participants described immediate value, such as connecting with a community of mathematics educators and accessing a statewide professional network. Many translated this immediate value into potential, applied, and realized value and extended it by sharing learnings in new contexts, illustrating how value creation in one space can influence others. We will present detailed examples during the session, including how our facilitation might have influenced the process.
Significance
Over the past nine years, our partnership has sought to improve students' experiences in mathematics by co-designing resources. As research partners, we have documented the widespread uptake of our designs across the state system (e.g., Authors et al., 2022a; Authors et al., 2022b). However, we have struggled to theoretically frame how this work contributes to systemic change. Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner’s (2020) framework offers a promising lens for understanding how co-design efforts create and translate value across levels of a state education system.

Authors

• Allison McCulloch, North Carolina State University

• Catherine Stein Schwartz, East Carolina University

• Katherine Mawhinney, Appalachian State University

• Michelle L. Stephan, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• P. Holt Wilson, University of North Carolina - Greensboro