Toward Increasing Equity and Inclusion in Mathematics Classrooms: Exploring Proactive Confrontation in Teacher Education

• In Event: Creating and Interrogating Inclusive Mathematics Environments: Considerations, Barriers, and Recommendations for Practice and Policy

Abstract

Objectives. Expressions of racial bias in math classrooms pose a threat to the full inclusion and equitable treatment of students of color. To combat these biased expressions, mathematics education scholars have recommended that math teachers undergo special training to employ culturally relevant practices as part of their teacher education. According to teacher-educators, however, motivating and helping their teacher-pupils implement culturally relevant classroom strategies has proven somewhat challenging. This is in part due to reluctance among teachers to adopt culturally relevant practices in their own teaching and a lack of fidelity when attempting to enact culturally relevant strategies. The objective of the present research is to evaluate whether teacher-educators would benefit from incorporating proactive confrontation approaches into their pedagogical practice.

Perspective. To psychologists, confronting refers to the practice of identifying how individuals have expressed (or are capable of expressing) bias and communicating disapproval of such expression. Proactive confrontations are those that raise people’s self-awareness that engaging in biased expression is common (but not inevitable) and raise their concern that bias expression is harmful to people of color and, therefore, deserves proactive attention and action. Critically, proactive confrontations anticipate biased statements and behaviors before they have been expressed. This feature may make them especially well-suited for the math teacher-education classroom because a proactive teacher-educator can deliberatively identify and plan for the places where biased speech and behaviors are likely and plan their confrontations accordingly, rather than wait for an expression of racial bias to occur and then decide whether and how to react to it in the moment.

Method/Data Sources. We synthesized theoretical and empirical insights from scholarly works (N = 216), primarily in the fields of psychology and mathematics education, to examine the challenges of employing culturally relevant teaching practices and the efficacy of proactive confrontation to address them.

Results. Successful proactive confrontations suppress the racial bias expression of others by equipping confrontees with three key resources: self-awareness of racial bias expression, concern for students of color, and practical behavioral strategies. Self-awareness and concern contribute to math teachers’ motivation to regulate bias expression, while the behavioral strategies that follow contribute to teachers’ skills and ability to regulate bias expression and change their behavior. In sum, we found a great deal of theoretical and empirical support to suggest that proactive confrontation could be a practical and useful tool for math teacher-educators to challenge racial bias expression in their classrooms and, further, to motivate and empower their teacher-pupils to create more equitable and inclusive math learning environments that inspire and motivate learning and performance among all students.

Significance. Culturally relevant pedagogical approaches show promise for reducing racial bias expression in the classroom and, in turn, raising the academic success and critical consciousness of all students. In practice, however, motivating teachers and helping them implement culturally relevant classroom strategies has proven somewhat challenging. By engaging in proactive confrontation, teacher-educators can help their teacher-pupils to recognize varied forms of racial bias expression in math classrooms and equip them to implement culturally relevant teaching practices effectively.

Authors

• Kathryn M Kroeper, The Ohio State University

• Mary C. Murphy, Indiana University