Mathematics Teacher Educator Podcast

Episode 35: If the World Were a Village: Learning Mathematics While Learning About the World

December 15th, 2021  |  Season 8  |  39 mins 39 secs

Long-standing and ongoing calls exist for making mathematics meaningful, relevant,
and applicable outside the classroom. Major mathematics education organizations (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics [NCSM], Association of Mathematics Teacher
Educators [AMTE], TODOS: Mathematics for ALL) have called for mathematics to be seen as a tool for understanding and critiquing the world. To prepare students and teachers to do this, we must go beyond “everyday” contexts and include analysis of social justice issues into our courses. We share an activity designed to
address these calls while also addressing the mathematics goals of the course. We share data showing that prospective teachers learned mathematics while also learning about their world and reframing their view of mathematics as a tool to make sense of the world.

Episode 34: Mathematics Teachers’ Understanding of Privilege and Oppression

December 15th, 2021  |  Season 8  |  31 mins 9 secs

The Access, Allies, and Agency in Mathematical Systems project team designed
a professional development for mathematics teachers positioning equity at the systemic level and activities aimed at supporting mathematics teachers in considering the influence of privilege and oppression on mathematics teaching and learning (Scroggins, 2017). Here, we examine the levels of oppression activity, aimed at supporting mathematics teachers in understanding that oppression operates at multiple levels (i.e., as a system) and that these levels exist and operate in/on mathematics education. Such understanding can support mathematics teachers in disrupting inequities, and how mathematics teachers engage in this activity can support mathematics teacher educators in preparing teachers to do such work. Specifically, we explore the question: How does this activity support mathematics teachers’ understanding of levels of oppression?

Episode 33: Exploring Power and Oppression: An Examination of Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Professional Growth

December 15th, 2021  |  Season 8  |  41 mins 18 secs

The preparation of mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) varies widely, with little
guidance regarding the essential skills and knowledge necessary to tackle the field’s
looming challenges. Equitable access to, and engagement with, mathematics has
surfaced as an elusive goal of mathematics education organizations. MTEs, therefore, ought to identify and engage with resources that help them comprehend and confront systemic oppression and inequities. We present the process and reflections from an examination of MTEs’ professional growth through engagement in a collaborative interrogation of critical texts outside of mathematics education. Participation in this series of structured readings and dialogue led MTEs to develop a deeper understanding of the historical movements and events that created today’s local and global status quos. Furthermore, MTEs could more readily make connections between macrocontexts of colonialism, violence, and oppression, and the micromanifestations of power and marginalization within mathematics education. Implications for future development of MTEs are discussed.

Episode 32: Developing an Asset-Based View of Students’ Mathematical Competencies Through Learning Trajectory-Based Lesson Study

December 15th, 2021  |  Season 8  |  33 mins 37 secs

equity and diversity; learning trajectories (or progressions); teacher education—in-service/professional development; geometry and geometrical and spatial thinking

This article details the design and implementation of a professional development model called Learning Trajectory-Based Lesson Study focused on issues of equity, identity, and agency. We developed the Vertical Articulation to Unpack the Learning Trajectory (VAULT) tool to orient teachers’ instructional planning toward an asset-based view of students’ mathematics competencies. We examined teachers’ use of the VAULT to plan, implement, and debrief on student strategies for one spatial reasoning task in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. The VAULT facilitated intentional planning for a progression of anticipated strategies and equitable access to instruction. Teachers demonstrated an asset-based view of all student thinking independent of grade-level expectations.