Zone of Reclamation: The Reconstruction of Urban Teacher Mathematics Identities

• In Event: 46.085 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 46.085-2 - Can I See Myself Here? Marginalized Identities and STEM Learning

Abstract

This paper examines the professional development of three urban teachers participating in a university partnership designed to integrate numeracy and literacy through action research. The larger project is grounded in designing curriculum that is responsive to issues of equity and access for English learners (ELs). In order to achieve the goals of content integration, these teachers had to re-construct their own mathematics identities. Using third space theory, we analyze how teachers struggled with “mathematics” as an exclusive domain. Our findings suggest that university researchers used various tools to mediate a zone of reclamation whereby teachers named and struggled through the following: (1) a perceived integration of mathematics and language; (2) embedded fear of mathematics; and (3) mathematics as reductive.

Authors

• Aria Razfar, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Zayoni Nidia Torres, University of Illinois at Chicago