Research in Mathematics Education

Series Editors: Jinfa Cai · James A. Middleton

Tonya Gau Bartell Editor

Toward Equity
and Social Justice
in Mathematics
Education
Research in Mathematics Education

Series editors
Jinfa Cai, Newark, DE, USA
James A. Middleton, Tempe, AZ, USA
This series is designed to produce thematic volumes, allowing researchers to access
numerous studies on a theme in a single, peer-reviewed source. Our intent for this
series is to publish the latest research in the field in a timely fashion. This design is
particularly geared toward highlighting the work of promising graduate students
and junior faculty working in conjunction with senior scholars. The audience for
this monograph series consists of those in the intersection between researchers and
mathematics education leaders—people who need the highest quality research,
methodological rigor, and potentially transformative implications ready at hand to
help them make decisions regarding the improvement of teaching, learning, policy,
and practice. With this vision, our mission of this book series is:
1. To support the sharing of critical research findings among members of the
­mathematics education community;
2.  To support graduate students and junior faculty and induct them into the research
community by pairing them with senior faculty in the production of the highest
quality peer-reviewed research papers; and
3. To support the usefulness and widespread adoption of research-based
innovation.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13030

Tonya Gau Bartell
Editor

Toward Equity and Social

Justice in Mathematics
Education
Editor
Tonya Gau Bartell
Teacher Education
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA

ISSN 2570-4729          ISSN 2570-4737 (electronic)

Research in Mathematics Education
ISBN 978-3-319-92906-4    ISBN 978-3-319-92907-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1

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To Jaedyn Bartell
toward a more just and equitable future
in which she may live
Preface

Contributions for this volume stem from the 2015 Annual Meeting of the North
American Group of the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME-NA) held at
Michigan State University. The conference theme Critical Responses to Enduring
Challenges in Mathematics Education invited mathematics education scholars to
reflect upon and critically respond to enduring challenges in teaching and learning
mathematics for all students. To ignite discussion within the field, the conference
was organized around four focal enduring challenges: (1) addressing the needs of
marginalized populations in school mathematics, (2) teaching as responsive to vari-
ous conceptions of mathematics, (3) the role of assessment in teaching and learning,
and (4) the impact of teacher evaluation in high-stakes assessment in teaching.
As suggested by these four challenges, PME-NA has moved beyond a primary
focus on learning as dependent on a psychological representation of the mind alone
to also consider, for example, the social and sociopolitical, attending to context,
identity, culture, power, and the ways systems serve to privilege some and oppress
others along the lines of class, race, gender, and so forth, within and beyond the
boundaries of mathematics education. This book echoes these turns and is intended
for all mathematics educators committed to ongoing work toward equity and justice
in mathematics education. More specifically, authors whose papers explicitly
attended to issues of equity and justice in mathematics education at the 2015
PME-NA conference were invited to contribute chapters. These chapters, then,
reflect current efforts toward equity and justice in mathematics education. The
authors’ work spans across the ten strands of PME-NA (e.g., Student Learning and
Related Factors, Theory and Research Methods, Teacher Learning and Knowledge),
demonstrating a variety of perspectives.
The book is divided into four parts: (1) theoretical and political perspectives
toward equity and justice in mathematics education, (2) identifying and connecting
to family and community funds of knowledge, (3) student learning and engagement
in preK-12 mathematics classrooms, and (4) supporting teachers in addressing the
needs of marginalized learners. Each of these four parts addresses in some way the
enduring challenge of meeting the needs of marginalized students in mathematics
education and examines how race, class, culture, power, justice, and mathematics

vii
viii Preface

teaching and learning intersect in mathematics education to sustain or disrupt

­inequities. Each section includes contributions from scholars writing critically
about mathematics education in diverse contexts. Further, scholars were invited to
provide commentaries on each section so that the book might not only provide a
glimpse of research at a moment in time but also continue to push our thinking and
work forward toward equity and justice in mathematics education.

East Lansing, MI, USA Tonya Gau Bartell

Contents

Part I Theoretical and Political Perspectives Toward Equity

and Justice in Mathematics Education
1 Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education
to Address the Needs of Marginalized Learners ����������������������������������    3
Robert Q. Berry III
2 Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial
Attitudes to Inform Mathematics Education Research������������������������   21
Dan Battey and Luis A. Leyva
3 A Socio-spatial Framework for Urban Mathematics Education:
Considering Equity, Social Justice, and the Spatial Turn��������������������   43
Gregory V. Larnell and Erika C. Bullock
4 Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions
in Advanced Mathematics����������������������������������������������������������������������   59
Aditya P. Adiredja
5 Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education
Starts with Us: Linking Literature on Allywork to the Work
of Mathematics Teacher Educators��������������������������������������������������������   77
Carlos LópezLeiva, Beth Herbel-Eisemann, and Ayşe Yolcu
6 A Commentary on Theoretical and Political Perspectives
Toward Equity and Justice in Mathematics Education������������������������   99
David W. Stinson

ix
x Contents

Part II Identifying and Connecting to Family and Community

Funds of Knowledge
7 Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics
in a Grade 6 Math Class��������������������������������������������������������������������������  105
Ruth Beatty
8 Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical
Funds of Knowledge��������������������������������������������������������������������������������  127
Miwa Aoki Takeuchi
9 A Commentary on Identifying and Connecting to Family
and Community Funds of Knowledge����������������������������������������������������  145
Marta Civil

Part III Student Learning and Engagement in PreK–12 Mathematics

Classrooms
10 “So We Only Have One We Share with More,
and Then They Have Way More and They Share with Less”:
Mathematics and Spatial Justice������������������������������������������������������������  153
Laurie H. Rubel, Vivian Y. Lim, and Maren Hall-Wieckert
11 Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’
Mathematical Discourse in a Multilingual,
Technological Context������������������������������������������������������������������������������  173
Oi-Lam Ng
12 The Micro-Politics of Counting��������������������������������������������������������������  191
Annica Andersson and David Wagner
13 A Commentary on Student Learning and Engagement
in Pre-K–12 Mathematics Classrooms��������������������������������������������������  211
Anita A. Wager

Part IV Supporting Teachers on Addressing the Needs

of Marginalized Students
14 Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics
with English Learners������������������������������������������������������������������������������  217
Zandra de Araujo, Erin Smith, Ji-Yeong I, and Matthew Sakow
15 “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s
Multiple Mathematical Knowledge Bases in the Analysis
and Adaptation of Existing Curriculum Materials������������������������������  241
Frances K. Harper, Corey Drake, Tonya Gau Bartell,
and Eduardo Najarro
Contents xi

16 Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable

Approach to Use with Prospective Teachers������������������������������������������  263
Christa Jackson, Cynthia E. Taylor, and Kelley Buchheister
17 Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building
Connections Among Multiple Mathematical Knowledge
Bases and Assessing Mathematical Understanding������������������������������  287
Lynette DeAun Guzmán
18 Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision
of Mathematics Teacher Education Curriculum����������������������������������  309
Nirmala Naresh and Lisa Kasmer
19 A Commentary on Supporting Teachers in Addressing
the Needs of Marginalized Students������������������������������������������������������  327
Mary Q. Foote

Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  331
Notes on Contributors

Aditya P. Adiredja  is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at The University of

Arizona. Adiredja’s research is situated in the intersections between post-secondary
mathematics, equity, and cognition. His work looks at ways that perspectives on
epistemology and learning determine the kinds of knowledge and students that get
privileged in the classroom. This focus is part of a larger goal of turning under-
graduate mathematics classrooms into spaces where underrepresented students can
personally, intellectually, and professionally succeed as they critically engage with
and learn mathematics.

Annica Andersson  is an Associate Professor at the Department for Mathematics

and Science Teaching, Malmö University. Andersson earned her Ph.D. at Aalborg
University, with a thesis focusing on teachers’ and students’ identities in the context
of critical mathematics education. Her research is located at the intersection of
mathematics education, language, cultural responsiveness, and social justice with a
particular focus on equity, authority, discourses, and human relationships in
­mathematics education school contexts.

Tonya  Gau  Bartell  is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at

Michigan State University. Bartell’s research focuses on issues of culture, race, and
power in mathematics teaching and learning with particular attention to teachers’
development of mathematics pedagogy for social justice and pedagogy integrating
a focus on children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases. She served as a
­co-­chair of the 2015 Annual Meeting of PME-NA from which this book arose, is on
the editorial board of Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, and is a
­co-­editor of the Journal of Teacher Education.

Dan Battey  is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education in the Graduate

School of Education at Rutgers University. Battey’s work examines engaging ­teachers
in learning opportunities that generate and sustain change and which c­ hallenge ­deficit
narratives that limit opportunities for African American and Latino students in
­mathematics. Battey is currently working on understanding mathematics ­education
as a racialized space through researching relational interactions in classrooms.
xiii
xiv Notes on Contributors

Ruth Beatty  is an Associate Professor at Lakehead University. For the past 5 years,

Beatty has worked with research teams comprising First Nations community
­members and educators from Ontario school boards to research the connections
between First Nations cultural activities and the Western mathematics found in the
Ontario curriculum. The goal of this research is to collaboratively design culturally
responsive mathematics instruction and to learn from and incorporate First Nations
­pedagogical perspectives in inclusive classroom settings.

Robert Q. Berry III  Ph.D., is President of the National Council of Teachers of

Mathematics and is a Professor of Mathematics Education in the Curry School of
Education at the University of Virginia, with an appointment in Curriculum
Instruction and Special Education. Berry teaches in the teacher e­ ducation program,
and his research focuses on equity issues in mathematics e­ ducation, with a particu-
lar focus on Black children.

Kelley  Buchheister  focuses her research and teaching on enhancing students’

­thinking and reasoning in early mathematics by developing practicing and prospective
teachers’ understanding of the cultural contexts of learning and constructing appropri-
ately challenging environments that provide the greatest opportunity for all students to
achieve high-quality experiences in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics) disciplines. Furthermore, through her research, Buchheister, along with
her colleagues, closely examines the role of culturally relevant pedagogy and teacher
beliefs in educational experiences and has prioritized equity and cultural contexts of
learning as fundamental elements of early educational experiences.

Erika  C.  Bullock  is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the

Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bullock’s work exists at the intersections of curriculum studies, urban education,
and mathematics education. She historicizes issues and ideologies within mathe-
matics education to examine how power operates within mathematics education to
create and maintain inequities. Bullock’s work has been published in outlets
­including Educational Studies, Educational Studies in Mathematics, The Journal of
Education, and Teachers College Record.

Marta  Civil  is a Professor of Mathematics Education and the Roy F.  Graesser
Chair in the Department of Mathematics at The University of Arizona. Civil’s
research examines cultural, social, and language aspects in the teaching and l­ earning
of mathematics; the connections between in-school and out-of-school mathematics;
and parental engagement in mathematics. She has led funded projects working with
children, parents, and teachers, with a focus on developing culturally responsive
learning environments, particularly with Latinx communities.

Zandra  de Araujo  is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Learning,

Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri. de Araujo’s research
­examines teachers’ use of curriculum, particularly with emergent bilingual students.
Notes on Contributors xv

Corey Drake  is a Professor and Director of Teacher Preparation at Michigan State

University. Drake’s research interests include teachers learning from and about
­curriculum materials, as well as the roles of policy curriculum, and teacher prepara-
tion in supporting teachers’ capacity to teach diverse groups of students. Her work
has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation
and is published in venues including Educational Researcher, Journal of Teacher
Education, and Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education.

Mary Q. Foote  is a Professor Emerita of Mathematics Education in the Department

of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Queens College of the City
University of New York. Foote’s research attends to equity issues in mathematics
education and broadly stated examines issues in mathematics teacher education.
More specifically her interests are in cultural and community knowledge and prac-
tices, and how they might inform mathematics teaching practice. She is currently
involved researching and developing/facilitating two professional development
projects: one supports teachers to teach mathematical modeling using cultural and
community contexts in Grades 3–5, and the other supports teachers to develop more
equitable instructional practices through action research projects that incorporate
examination of access, agency, and allyship in mathematics teaching and learning.

Lynette DeAun Guzmán  Ph.D., is a mathematics education researcher and teacher

­educator at The University of Arizona. Motivated by experiences as a Latinx woman
navigating academic spaces, Guzmán’s scholarship centers on addressing inequities
in education for historically marginalized students with attention to identity and
power. She examines discourses and practices in mathematics education to interro-
gate narrow epistemological and ontological perspectives on teaching and learning
that often exclude students of color. Guzmán enjoys working with prospective and
practicing K-8 teachers to transform classrooms with equity-oriented and
­humanizing practices that value young people as knowers and creators.

Maren Hall-Wieckert  is a former research assistant at Brooklyn College of the

City University of New York. Hall-Wieckert’s interests lie in data science, critical
cartography, and how notions of space and place frame and reframe conversations
in the social sciences, especially around notions of teaching and learning.

Frances K. Harper  is an Assistant Professor of STEM Education at the University

of Tennessee at Knoxville. Her research broadly focuses on issues of equity and
social justice in mathematics education and teacher education, particularly within
urban contexts. She aspires to collaborate with both teachers and students to
­understand the culturally and contextually specific nuances of equitable c­ ollaborative
learning and critical mathematical explorations.

Beth Herbel-Eisenmann  a former junior high mathematics teacher, is currently a

Professor of Mathematics Education at Michigan State University. She uses ideas and
theories from sociolinguistics and critical discourse literatures to research classroom
xvi Notes on Contributors

discourse practices as well as the professional development of secondary m ­ athematics

teachers. She is especially interested in issues of equity that concern authority,
­positioning, and voice in mathematics classrooms and professional development.
Much of her work has been done through long-term collaborations with mathematics
teachers and involves considering how teachers make sense of, take up, and use ideas
from these literatures in their practice through the process of action research.

Ji-Yeong  I  is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at Iowa State

University. Her research interests include effective mathematical pedagogy for
emergent bilinguals (a.k.a. English language learners), mathematics teacher
­education, mathematical modeling, and culturally responsive teaching.

Christa Jackson  Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education in the

School of Education at Iowa State University. Jackson’s research focuses on
­teachers’ knowledge and conceptions of equity in the teaching and learning of
mathematics. Within this knowledge base, she seeks to understand the instructional
strategies and teaching practices mathematics teachers use that afford opportunities
for students from diverse cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds to
learn rigorous, challenging mathematics while simultaneously fostering productive
mathematical identities. Jackson’s work also centers on effective mathematics
instruction at the elementary and middle levels, the preparation of prospective
­mathematics teachers, strategies to help students who struggle in mathematics,
STEM education, and STEM learning.

Lisa Kasmer  is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Grand

Valley State University. Currently, she teaches mathematics courses for undergradu-
ate students pursuing degrees in secondary mathematics education and directs the
Study Abroad: Tanzania program at GVSU.  Through this program, prospective
teachers teach in  local mathematics classrooms while studying the cultural and
­historical aspects of education in Tanzania. Her research interests include d­ eveloping
intercultural competencies for prospective teachers and curricular reasoning of
­middle grades mathematics teachers.

Gregory V. Larnell  is currently an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education

in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at
Chicago. Larnell studied mathematics and African American studies at Lake Forest
College and later studied mathematics education and earned his Ph.D. from the
Colleges of Natural Science and Education at Michigan State University. His work
centers on sociological and sociopolitical inquiry in mathematics education, with
particular attention to mathematics learning experiences and identity; postsecond-
ary remediation and other math-curricular transition issues; urban mathematics
­education; and critical approaches to (in)equity and justice concerning mathematics
learning and teaching. Larnell’s work appears in several outlets, including the
Handbook of Urban Education, the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education,
and the Journal of Education.
Notes on Contributors xvii

Luis  A.  Leyva  Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at

Vanderbilt University – Peabody College of Education and Human Development.
Using intersectionality theory from Black feminist thought and counter-storytelling
methodology from critical race theory, Leyva’s research foregrounds the voices of
marginalized undergraduate students to understand their strategies in navigating
oppressive institutional and interpersonal contexts of STEM education toward the
development of positive academic identities at intersections of their gender, race,
sexuality, and other social identities. His work has been published in the Journal for
Research in Mathematics Education, The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, and
Journal of Urban Mathematics Education. Leyva was a past recipient of the
National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and
currently serves as the principal investigator on a research project entitled
Challenging, Operationalizing, and Understanding Racialized and Gendered
Events (COURAGE) in Undergraduate Mathematics funded by the National
Science Foundation.

Vivian Lim  is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Stella and Charles Guttman

Community College, City University of New  York. Lim’s research interest is in
teaching mathematics for social justice and the role of mathematics education in the
development of youth as citizens.

Carlos  A.  LópezLeiva  is an Associate Professor in Bilingual and Mathematics

Education in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies at
the University of New Mexico. LópezLeiva’s work focuses on teaching and learning
ecologies – in relation to social interactions through language uses and ideologies,
task designs, relationship development, and what counts as mathematics  – that
mediate members’ participation in and meaning making of mathematical practices.
His research comprises three foci: (1) issues of equity in social interactions,
(2) ­ out-­
of-­
school interdisciplinary mathematics teaching and learning, and
(3) ­in-school interdisciplinary mathematics teaching and learning.

Nirmala  Naresh  is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at the

University of North Texas. She received her bachelor’s, master’s, and M.Phil.
degrees in Mathematics from the University of Madras in Chennai, India. Naresh
received her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Illinois State University in the
USA. She currently teaches mathematics courses for undergraduate students pursu-
ing a degree in mathematics and mathematics education. Naresh’s research interests
lie in the domains of ethnomathematics, teaching mathematics for social justice,
and the teaching and learning of probability and statistics.

Oi-Lam Ng  is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the Chinese

University of Hong Kong. Ng received her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from
Simon Fraser University in Canada. Her research interest is on how the design and
use of dynamic geometry technology may influence calculus thinking and support
communication for students with diverse linguistic backgrounds.
xviii Notes on Contributors

Laurie  H.  Rubel  is a Professor of Education at Brooklyn College of the City

University of New  York. Rubel’s research interests include teacher education
around diversity and equity in mathematics education, probabilistic thinking, and
the use of real-world urban contexts in the teaching of mathematics. More
­information about her work around math and spatial justice can be obtained at
www.mathforspatialjustice.org.

Matthew Sakow  completed his Masters of Education in Learning, Teaching and

Curriculum: Mathematics Education at the University of Missouri. Sakow currently
teaches mathematics and the AVID elective as a Knowles Fellow at Columbia River
High School in Vancouver, Washington.

Erin Smith  is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Learning, Teaching and

Curriculum at the University of Missouri. Smith’s interests include equity and iden-
tity in mathematics education, the academic success of emergent bi/multilingual
learners, and the use of positioning theory to examine discursive practices.

David W. Stinson  Ph.D., is a Professor of Mathematics Education at Georgia State

University, Atlanta. Stinson’s research interests include critical postmodern theory
and identity. Specifically, he explores how mathematics teachers, educators, and
researchers (might) incorporate the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of
critical postmodern theory into their education philosophies, pedagogical practices,
and/or research methods. Additionally, he examines how students constructed
­outside the White, Christian, heterosexual male of bourgeois privilege successfully
accommodate, reconfigure, or resist (i.e., negotiate) the hegemonic discourses of
society generally and schooling specifically, including those found in the mathemat-
ics classroom. Stinson serves as the editor in chief of the Journal of Urban
Mathematics Education and recently completed a 3-year term as a member of the
editorial panel of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and a 2-year
term as a member of the AERA Review of Research Award Committee.

Miwa  Aoki  Takeuchi  is an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary,

Canada. Takeuchi’s works are situated in an emerging and transdisciplinary field to
address a complex educational issue: improving access to rich mathematics learning
opportunities, with a focus on linguistic diversity, and cultural and historical
­contexts. She approaches this issue through longitudinal and horizontal analyses of
mathematics learning trajectories (both in-school and out-of-school settings),
students’ identities and lived experiences in learning mathematics, students’
­
­collaboration for mathematics learning, and co-design of learning environments
with learners, teachers, and parents.

Cynthia  E.  Taylor  received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a
­specialty in Mathematics Education from the University of Missouri and is c­ urrently
an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Millersville University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to supervising student teachers, Taylor teaches methods courses, content
Notes on Contributors xix

courses for elementary teachers, general education mathematics courses, and

­graduate courses in the Master of Education in Mathematics program. Taylor’s
interests include studying mathematics teacher educators (what they say and do in
their classroom) and the preparation of prospective mathematics teachers (instruc-
tional strategies and teaching practices). Prior to joining Millersville, she was a high
school mathematics teacher for nearly 10 years.

Anita  Wager  is a Professor of the Practice at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody

College. Wager’s teaching and research focus on culturally relevant and socially just
(mathematics) teaching in early childhood and elementary school.

David Wagner  is a Professor and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Education at

the University of New Brunswick. Wagner’s research focuses on human interaction
in mathematics and mathematics learning and the relationship between such
­interaction and social justice. He serves as an associate editor of Educational Studies
in Mathematics, member of the editorial board of Mathematics Education Research
Journal, managing editor of For the Learning of Mathematics, and member of the
Nonkilling Science and Technology Research Committee.

Ayşe Yolcu  is a Research Assistant at the Department of Mathematics and Science

Education, Hacettepe University, Turkey. Yolcu studies the principles of knowledge
as making up people related to issues of equity in mathematics education.
Specifically, she questions how the practices of school mathematics fabricate
particular human kinds and their differences as the politics of mathematics
­
education.
 Part I
Theoretical and Political Perspectives
Toward Equity and Justice in
Mathematics Education
Chapter 1
Disrupting Policies and Reforms
in Mathematics Education to Address
the Needs of Marginalized Learners

Robert Q. Berry III

Abstract  This chapter uses a hybrid policy analysis-critical race theory (CRT) lens
informed largely by the work of Derrick Bell to make the case that policies and reforms
in mathematics education were not designed to address the needs of marginalized
learners; rather, these policies and reforms are often designed and enacted to protect
the economic, technological, and social interests of those in power. The chapter offers
contrasting narratives between policy intentions and policy enactment, highlighting
how the language of mathematics education policies, when enacted by educational
professionals, positions marginalized learners as deficient within their cultures, fami-
lies, and communities. This chapter is organized into four sections: (1) The Social
Conditions of Marginalized Learners; (2) Theoretical Framework: CRT; (3) Historical
Perspectives and Unpacking Policies and Reforms; and (4) Discussion and Conclusion.
The Social Conditions of Marginalized Learners section describes central features of
the social and historical context in which marginalized learners now function by con-
textualizing the school and mathematical experiences of marginalized learners. The
Theoretical Framework section outlines CRT as a lens for critically examining policies
and reforms. The Historical Perspectives and Unpacking Policies and Reforms section
focuses on how marginalized students have been framed historically in policies and
reforms. The Discussion and Conclusion considers features that are necessary in poli-
cies and reform documents when discussing the needs of marginalized learners.

Introduction

In its 1989 Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (CSSM),
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) argued that schools
were not meeting the economic needs of the time and called for new social

R. Q. Berry III (*)

Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 3

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_1
4 R. Q. Berry III

goals for ­education (NCTM, 1989). The four social goals for education were
(1) mathematically literate workers, (2) lifelong learning, (3) opportunity for all,
and (4) an informed electorate. As ideals, these goals can be seen as unproblematic,
with widespread appeal. They can appeal to mathematics educators who view math-
ematics as universal and desire mathematical literacy for all students, and they may
also appeal to those who view mathematics as multicultural and desire contextual-
ized interpretations of mathematics that all students can appreciate (Mutegi, 2011).
These goals may also appeal to mathematics educators who are concerned with
issues of equity in mathematics education as well as those who view mathematics
education practices as independent of historical inequities (Mutegi, 2011). It is dif-
ficult to argue against the four social goals because they appear to be inclusive and
contain generalizing language that suggests working to erase injustices and exclu-
sion experienced by people who are identified as marginalized (defined here as
Black1, Latin@2, Indigenous, and poor). The generalizing language in these goals
includes all of the political, social, and cultural considerations for reformers to
direct the practices and policies of mathematics education, almost without question.
It is the use of such generalizing language that is problematic, however, because it
varies in interpretation and offers few specific points for enactment.
The third goal in CSSM, opportunity for all, does not appear to be overtly prob-
lematic because it challenges mathematics educators by drawing attention to social
injustices and full participation in society for all by stating:
The social injustices of past schooling practices can no longer be tolerated. Current statis-
tics indicate that those who study advanced mathematics are most often white males.
Women and most minorities study less mathematics and are seriously underrepresented in
careers using science and technology. Creating a just society in which women and various
ethnic groups enjoy equal opportunities and equitable treatment is no longer an issue.
Mathematics has become a critical filter for employment and full participation in our soci-
ety. We cannot afford to have the majority of our population mathematically illiterate.
Equity has become an economic necessity. (p. 4)

Combating injustices and creating a just society are noteworthy goals that many
people would not question. This goal situates equity in mathematics education as
protecting economic interests and creating workers, with little consideration for the
moral grounds or the benefit of marginalized people and communities. In order to
produce workers, a utilitarian perspective of mathematics literacy is needed, thus
ensuring the economic and social interests of those with power. Given the high

1
 I use the term Black to acknowledge the Black Diaspora and to highlight that Black people living
in North America have ancestry dispersed around the world. Black learners who attend schools and
live in North America are racialized in similar ways regardless of country of origin.
2
 I borrow Latin@ from Rochelle Gutiérrez (2013a, 2013b) who stated that the use of the “@ sign
to indicate both an ‘a’ and ‘o’ ending (Latina and Latino). The presence of both an ‘a’ and ‘o’ end-
ing decenters the patriarchal nature of the Spanish language where is it customary for groups of
males (Latinos) and females (Latinas) to be written in the form that denotes only males (Latinos).
The term is written Latin@ with the ‘a’ and ‘o’ intertwined, as opposed to Latina/Latino, to show
a sign of solidarity with individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, question-
ing, and queer (LGBTQ)” (p. 7).
1  Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education to Address the Needs… 5

s­tatus that mathematical knowledge is given in business and society, we must

consider the role that mathematics education plays in a democratic society.
­
Mathematics education is not isolated from the larger society; in fact, it is connected
to patterns of differential economic, political, and cultural power (Apple, 1992).
Mathematical literacy is given high status in reforms because it has “socioeconomic
utility for those who already possess economic capital” (Apple, 1992, p. 98). This
raises questions concerning economic benefits for those who own, control, and
profit from mathematical enterprises. It is plausible to raise questions about whether
mathematics education contributes to social injustices and whether equity in math-
ematics education is an economic necessity or a moral obligation.
An examination of past research, policies, and reforms in mathematics education
suggests that many are a response to economic, technological, and security threats.
For example, the launching of Sputnik brought heightened concern about America’s
national security as well as concern that America was lagging behind the Russians
in mathematics and science. Documents such as A Nation at Risk (Gardner, Larsen,
& Baker, 1983), Before It’s Too Late (National Commission on Mathematics and
Science Teaching for the 21st Century, 2000), Foundations for Success: The Final
Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (National Mathematics
Advisory Panel, 2008), and Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and
Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future (Augustine, 2005) capture the
driving forces that frame mathematics education policy (Basile & Lopez, 2015).
These documents have demonstrated frequent concerns about maintaining America’s
economic privilege in a global market, technological interests in a technologically
advancing society, and threats to national security.
Through a hybrid policy analysis-critical race theory (CRT) lens, this chapter
makes the case that policies and reforms in mathematics education were not
designed to address the needs of marginalized learners; rather, these policies and
reforms are often designed and enacted to protect the economic, technological, and
social interests of those in power. This chapter offers contrasting narratives between
policy intentions and enactment. These contrasting narratives highlight how the lan-
guage of mathematics education policies, when enacted by educational profession-
als, positions marginalized learners as deficient within their cultures, families, and
communities. Consequently, policies and reforms frame marginalized learners as
problems to be fixed and that if marginalized students adopt the values of the domi-
nant culture, then the economic, technological, and security interests of those in
power are maintained. Policies and reforms are about dominant culture interests
rather than the needs and interests of marginalized students.

The Social Conditions of Marginalized Learners

When I use the term marginalized learners, I am not ascribing a sweeping set of
attributes to the collectives of Black, Latin@, Indigenous, and poor peoples; I
recognize that collapsing these groups into one does not acknowledge the
­
6 R. Q. Berry III

intersectionality within these collectives. There are, however, shared histories and
experiences among the collectives. Martin (2013) argued that there is a dominant
discourse in research and policy documents about Black learners and mathematics
focused on a fixed set of cultural and cognitive explanations for negative outcomes,
including cultural differences or deficits, limited mathematical knowledge and
problem-­solving skills, family background and socioeconomic status, and opposi-
tional orientations to schooling. Gutiérrez and Irving (2012) identified similar over-
laps in the dominant discourse regarding research and policy documents that Latin@
and Black learners share. Barnhardt (2001) pointed out how Indigenous learners are
positioned as “at risk” and how their culture and languages are positioned in opposi-
tion to schooling. This positioning, and the fact that the use of Indigenous languages
and culture is discouraged in schooling, is associated with the legacy of federal poli-
cies aimed to “civilize” and “assimilate” Indigenous learners into an American cul-
ture (Barnhardt, 2001; Noel, 2002). Although there are differences among the
collectives, they also share legacies of being positioned as deficient in research and
policy documents and share values and beliefs that prioritize community and family,
a respect for spirituality, and interconnectedness with the natural world (Barnhardt,
2001; Berry, 2008; Gutiérrez, 2013b).
When we consider a historical perspective of public education and policies, we
see that there were intentional policies designed to keep marginalized people unedu-
cated and/or undereducated. There were laws, particularly in Southern states, where
it was illegal to teach Black people who were enslaved to read and write (Anderson,
1988). As public education developed and expanded, schools became institutions to
civilize, Christianize, and control Black and Brown children to keep them passive to
social change so that they would not contribute to social upheaval (Watkins, 2001).
It was illegal to teach Indigenous peoples in their native tongues. Congress created
genocidal policies to strip young Indigenous children from their homes, adopting
“kill the Indian to save the man” (Churchill, 2004). There have been policies sup-
porting linguistic nationalism, condemning multilingual and marginalized learners.
Although during Reconstruction many Black children had access to education, the
withdrawal of federal troops in 1877 led to generations of terror, legal segregation,
and substandard educational opportunities. Given these collective legacies, reforms
in education policies often overlook the generational impact that violence has had on
marginalized people. Rather, a narrative of assimilation and control is ever present.
There is a body of research in mathematics education suggesting that marginal-
ized learners experience devaluation, inequities, exclusion, and violence (Berry,
2008; Gutiérrez, 2002; Gutstein, 2003; Martin, 2015; McGee & Martin, 2011).
Research, policy, and reform “has been violent to marginalized peoples, such as [­ I]
ndigenous groups, who are represented by perspectives that are neither kind to their
cultural worldview nor accurate regarding their priorities” (Leonardo, 2013, p. 5).
Students from Black, Latin@, and Indigenous communities have disproportionately
low representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
fields at all levels of education compared to their representation in the general popu-
lation of the USA (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2015). Due to projected
population growth, people from marginalized groups are expected to be more than
1  Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education to Address the Needs… 7

half of the US population by 2043 (Colby & Ortman, 2014). By the year 2020, more
than half of the children in the USA are expected to be part of a minority race or
ethnic group (Colby & Ortman, 2014). Yet, Black, Latin@, and Indigenous indi-
viduals collectively make up only 13% of the STEM workforce in the USA and only
16% of all STEM undergraduate degrees awarded (NSF, 2015). The number of
Black, Latin@, and Indigenous people earning science and engineering bachelor’s
and master’s degrees has been rising since 1993, but the number of doctorates earned
in these fields has flattened at about 7% since 2002 (NSF, 2015). Since 2000, Black,
Latin@, and Indigenous students earning degrees in engineering and the physical
sciences have also been flat, and earned degrees in mathematics and statistics have
dropped (NSF, 2015). The High School Transcript Study by the National Assessment
of Educational Progress (Nord et al., 2011) found that high school graduates com-
pleting Algebra I before high school are twice as likely to successfully complete a
Precalculus/Analysis course than students who take Algebra I in high school. Only
12% of Black students and 17% of Latin@ students, however, had taken Algebra I
before high school. A report by the College Board (2013) found that even when
Black, Latin@, and Indigenous students are equally prepared for Advanced
Placement coursework, they are still less likely to experience these courses (p. 2).
The data presented above do not exist in isolation. Data are, however, often pre-
sented with little description of the conditions, contexts, and experiences of margin-
alized students. Research, policies, and reforms must consider the positionality of
marginalized learners and the many conditions and contexts in which marginalized
students exist. Schools are social institutions set up by those in power and are orga-
nized to support and value the types of cultural and social capital held by those in
power (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). It is plausible to consider that since policies
and reforms support the value of those in power, there may be differences in the
ways marginalized learners are perceived. Policies and reforms in education often
portray marginalized learners as in need of “fixing” and their cultures, families, and
communities as deprived and deficit (Stein, 2004). For example, Basile and Lopez
(2015) point out a deficit positioning and negative narrative in the document Adding
It Up (National Research Council, 2001):
The same survey found large differences between ethnic groups on the more difficult tests
(but not on the Level 1 tasks) with 70% of Asian and 66% of non-Hispanic white children
passing the Level 2 tasks, but only 42% of African American, 44% of Hispanic, 48% of
Hawaiian Native or Pacific Islander, and 34% of American Indian or Alaska Native partici-
pants doing so. Other research has shown that children from lower socioeconomic back-
grounds have particular difficulty understanding the relative magnitudes of single- digit
whole numbers and solving addition and subtraction problems verbally rather than using
objects … This immaturity of their mathematical development may account for the prob-
lems poor and minority children have understanding the basis for simple arithmetic and
solving simple word problems. (p. 178)

The content of the quote from Adding It Up not only presented the data from a
deficit position but also used the language surrounding the data to position margin-
alized learners in “a static racial hierarchy, via what may be inferred as a biological
deficit, with White children” (Basile & Lopez, 2015, p. 534). Also, it implies that
8 R. Q. Berry III

the conditions and contexts of marginalized students are the reasons for
­underperformance, rather than structural issues of schooling, ways these learners
might be positioned, or variable access to jobs, healthcare, and other resources.
When examining how policies and reforms respond to the needs of marginalized
learners, there is a constant pattern in which they are routinely given the least access
to advanced mathematics content, the fewest opportunities to learn through methods
other than memorizing facts and mimicking teacher-modeled procedures, and the
least access to well-prepared mathematics teachers (Berry, Ellis, & Hughes, 2014).
As a result, these learners experience the following conditions: (a) reduced access
to advanced mathematics courses that prepare them for higher education and
improved career options; (b) routine exposure to activities that focus primarily on
rote, decontextualized learning through drill and practice with little to no engage-
ment that promotes reasoning and using mathematics as a tool to analyze social and
economic issues, critique power dynamics, and build advocacy; and (c) less access
to qualified teachers of mathematics who both understand mathematics deeply and
understand their students’ cultural and community context deeply in order to give
learners access to mathematical knowledge (Ellis, 2008; Flores, 2007; Martin,
2007). The effect of these conditions on marginalized learners’ attainment in math-
ematics demonstrates well that such an approach constrains outcomes to a narrow
range of proficiencies focused on basic skills.
While the disproportionality in conditions of marginalized learners is a cause for
concern, it is important to understand that addressing the needs of these learners
may not have been the primary goal of prior policies and reforms in mathematics
education. Berry and colleagues (2014) argued that prior policies and reforms in
mathematics education have failed due to having been developed to address the
needs and interests of those in power. In fact, many past policies and reforms in
mathematics teaching and learning have come at the expense of the needs and inter-
ests of marginalized learners by framing policies and reforms based on economic,
technological, and security interests of those in power.

Theoretical Framework: Critical Race Theory

Derrick Bell, a former attorney with the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) during the civil rights era, employed his interest-­
convergence principle to explain how the US Supreme Court issued the landmark
ruling in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (Brown) in 1954. The
Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brown case revoked the “separate but equal” doctrine,
which legally sanctioned segregation in public education and daily life. Bell (2004)
argued that the Brown decision was not the result of America coming to terms with
its democratic ideals or moral sensibilities; rather, the Supreme Court was more
interested in providing “immediate credibility to America’s struggle with commu-
nist countries to win the hearts and minds of emerging third world people” than in
doing what was morally right (p. 233). Under the interest-convergence principle,
1  Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education to Address the Needs… 9

Brown is best understood as progress requiring the coincidence of a pressing issue,

more than a commitment to justice (Donnor, 2005).
Brown provided the impetus for legislation, such as the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 and its reauthorizations Improving America’s
School Act of 1994, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and Every Student Succeed
Act (ESSA) of 2015. Similar to its predecessors, the ESSA has a purpose statement,
“To provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-­
quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps” (2015, Sec. 1001).
Stinson (2015) argues that decades of legislation, like ESSA, do not have the “will”
to facilitate the violent reform necessary to change the conditions of marginalized
learners. I argue that such reform is a grassroots proposition, rather than one facili-
tated by federal legislation; that is, activities similar to the Black Lives Matter
(BLM) movement will demand that the perspectives and worldviews of marginal-
ized peoples be given consideration such that the conditions, contexts, and experi-
ences of those marginalized will be understood and appreciated. BLM is a grassroots
effort that is unapologetic in its rhetoric and challenges structural racism, anti-­
blackness, and institutionalized violence in school reform, policy, and research.
Grassroots efforts like BLM decentralize whiteness when discussing policies and
reforms. An argument can be made that schools and schooling were created for
maintaining the power and privilege of whiteness. Zion and Blanchett (2011) argued
that the reason large-scale improvement in outcomes for marginalized learners has
yet to be realized is that the problem has not been framed appropriately. It must be
framed as part of the history of racism and, as an issue of civil rights and social
justice, viewed through a critical lens.
Interest-convergence is an analytical viewpoint for examining how policies and
reforms are dictated by those in power to advance their political, social, and eco-
nomic interests (Donnor, 2005). Bell’s (1980, 2004) interest-convergence principle
theorizes that any empowered group will not help any disempowered group unless
it is in their best interest to do so. For Bell, the historical advancement of Black
people’s needs and interests is a result of being fortuitous beneficiaries of measures
directed at furthering aims other than racial equity and social justice (2004). Bell
states, “Even when interest-convergence results in an effective racial remedy, that
remedy will be abrogated at the point that policymakers fear the remedial policy is
threatening the superior societal status of Whites, particularly those in the middle
and upper classes” (2004, p. 69). Interest-convergence principle has its theoretical
grounding in CRT, which draws from a broad literature in law, sociology, history,
education, and women’s studies (DeCuir & Dixson, 2004; Ladson-Billings & Tate,
1995; Matsuda, Lawrence, Delgado, & Crenshaw, 1993; Solórzano &Yosso, 2001).
With respect to the use of CRT in education, as Solórzano and Yosso (2002)
explained, “critical race theory in education is a framework or set of basic insights,
perspectives, methods, and pedagogy that seeks to identify, analyze, and transform
those structural and cultural aspects of education that maintain subordinate and
dominant racial positions in and out of the classroom” (p. 25). In education, interest
convergence provides a framework to discuss power dynamics as framed by
systemic interests and a loss-gain binary (Milner, 2008). Interest-convergence
­
10 R. Q. Berry III

p­ rinciple has been used to examine policies and practices related to teacher ­education
programs (Milner, 2008), practices for STEM education serving marginalized learn-
ers at universities (Barber, 2015), intercultural movements in multicultural educa-
tion (Caraballo, 2009), inclusion in special education (Zion & Blanchett, 2011),
intercollegiate athletics (Donner, 2005), the development of historically Black
­colleges/universities (Gasman & Hilton, 2012), and postsecondary access for Latino
immigrant populations (Alemán & Alemán, 2010). This body of work provides a
lens for using the interest-convergence principle to examine the motivating factors
for policies and reforms in mathematics education in order to understand whose
interests are served and the resulting fortuitous beneficiaries.
In mathematics education, Gutstein (2009, 2010) and Martin (2003, 2009, 2013,
2015) have examined several mathematics education policies using critical theory
and the interest-convergence tenet of CRT.  Gutstein argued that the policies and
reforms are motivated primarily by the desire to maintain global economic
­superiority against the rising educational and intellectual infrastructure of other
nations. For example, in President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign:
Whether it’s improving our health or harnessing clean energy, protecting our security or
succeeding in the global economy, our future depends on reaffirming America’s role as the
world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation. And that leadership
tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today, especially in math, science, tech-
nology, and engineering … And that’s why my administration has set a clear goal: to move
from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math education over the next decade.
(White House, 2009)

Gutstein (2010) pointed out that framing education as a US economic problem

that affects us all, and therefore would benefit all, is based on the assumption that
the benefits will “trickle down” from those whose interests are served. He suggested
this is misleading, as US productivity has increased since the 1970s, yet income and
wealth polarization has grown. Consequently, while the policies claim success will
benefit all citizens, only those with the most wealth have received any benefit.
Policies are more about the interests of those in power, and with wealth, and less
about the interests of marginalized people. Martin (2003, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015)
has also examined the many ways in which mathematics education policy docu-
ments have worked to erase the lived experiences of marginalized learners. That is,
within mathematics education research and policy, race has typically been invoked
only as a categorical variable used to disaggregate data and to rank students in a
racial hierarchy of mathematics ability; racism is rarely invoked. Martin found that
mathematics education policy and reform documents promote a market enterprise
working for the financial benefit of a select few. Martin (2003) stated that the
status of African American, Latino, Native American, and poor students has not been a
primary determinant driving mathematics education reform. When discussions do focus on
increasing participation among these students, it is usually in reference to workforce and
national economic concerns. (p. 11)

Often, education policy documents have aligned mathematics illiteracy with

Black, Latin@, and Indigenous learners as a threat to the economic well-being,
prosperity, and elite status of the USA (Martin, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2013).
1  Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education to Address the Needs… 11

Unpacking Historical Perspectives, Policies, and Reforms

A common theme among policy and reform documents is a call for increased
­participation of marginalized learners in STEM fields. These calls usually refer-
ence increased demands on the US economy, the drive to stay ahead technologi-
cally of international competitors, and a need to secure the USA from international
security threats. Rarely are there references focused on the needs of marginalized
communities. Positioning marginalized people’s increased participation in mathe-
matics to meet interests that may not include their own commodifies them by affix-
ing a market value to their collective potential labor and intellectual property, or
what Basile and Lopez (2015) describe as racial commodification. Racial com-
modification is the method by which racial hierarchies are replicated. From a CRT
perspective, we must consider whose interests are protected and how policies and
reforms maintain the protections of those with power. In Foundations for Success:
The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (NMAP, 2008), we
see examples of commodification:
Moreover, there are large, persistent disparities in mathematics achievement related to race
and income—disparities that are not only devastating for individuals and families but also
project poorly for the nation’s future, given the youthfulness and high growth rates of the
largest minority population. (pp. 4–5)

In this example, and throughout the document, there is little discussion of the
conditions, contexts, and experiences of marginalized students. It appears that this
document is suggesting that the youthfulness of the largest minority population
reflects a segment of the population that needs to be tapped to protect the interests
of those with power. In fact, marginalized learners are commodified by suggesting
that increased participation in mathematics among marginalized learners will pro-
vide benefit and potential resources for economic gain. It is not clear, however, how
marginalized people will benefit from such gains. One might assume that benefits
for marginalized people will “trickle down” from those in power or that benefits
might be widespread, but historically this has not been the case.
Many policy and reform documents simultaneously commodify marginalized
populations while blaming them for the disappointing performance of the USA on
international mathematics assessments (Basile & Lopez, 2015; Martin, 2013).
Innovation America: Building a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
Agenda (National Governors Association, 2007) described this simultaneous com-
modification and blaming by stating:
Projected demographic shifts have the potential to magnify the U.S. problem if STEM
achievement gaps are not rectified. As the U.S. domestic college population stabilizes at
about 30 million students from 2010 to 2025, population groups currently underrepresented
in STEM fields will attend college in growing numbers. If the achievement gap persists,
increasing numbers of students will be unprepared to succeed in college and in STEM
degree attainment. (p. 6)

Such language positions marginalized students as responsible for the entire

­performance of the USA on international measures; by discussing achievement
12 R. Q. Berry III

gaps next to international test scores, this language, and other similar languages,
suggests a causal link between the marginalized students and international
­performance (Basile & Lopez, 2015).
Policy documents and reforms in mathematics education build from a history
and legacy of protecting economic, technological, and security interests of the
USA rather than considering the needs and interests of marginalized communities
and people. In their review of the history of school mathematics, Ellis and Berry
(2005) noted a tension between reforms in mathematics education focused on effi-
ciencies with an emphasis on procedural learning and a belief that mathematics
beyond arithmetic should be reserved for those deemed capable of advancing to
such heights. The focus on efficiencies is found in calls that focus on measuring
knowledge attainment using efficient standardized assessments. Efforts to improve
mathematics education
situated many learners in an a priori deficit position relative to disembodied mathematical
knowledge—meaning learning mathematics was taken to be harder for certain groups of
students due to their backgrounds and/or innate abilities—and failed to acknowledge the
importance of mathematics for all students. (Ellis & Berry, 2005, pp. 10–11)

Throughout this history, systems of standardized assessment were developed as

a means to justify the separation of students within and between schools by race,
class, and ethnicity. The use of assessments to stratify was built on the assumption
that a distribution of mathematical ability exists that can be fairly measured and
meaningfully interpreted as the basis for separating students and providing unequal
access to opportunities to learn mathematics. The conflation of this with societal
beliefs about race and intelligence cannot be overlooked; the interest of those with
power was preserved. To that end, the remaining parts of this section focus on his-
torical markers in mathematics education. The goal is to draw connections between
the history of mathematics education and the positioning of marginalized learners in
policy and reform documents.

Sputnik and the New Math Movement

The launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik on October 4, 1957, by the Russians
gave impetus to improve mathematics education in America. The response to
Sputnik led to federal funds being allocated for mathematics education through the
National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 intended to support US national
security interests (Walmsley, 2003). NDEA provided funds to identify the “best and
brightest” scientific minds and was designed to fulfill defense interests in mathe-
matics, science, engineering, and foreign languages. The appeal of identifying the
“best and brightest” was built on protecting national security and defense interests
(Tate, 2004). As one of the most militarized countries in the world, we cannot over-
look the fact that this military motivation for improved mathematics education is
still part of the discourse of policy documents and reforms.
Approximately 3 years prior to the launching of Sputnik, the US Supreme Court
issued the landmark ruling in Brown which revoked the “separate but equal” d­ octrine.
1  Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education to Address the Needs… 13

Black parents and community leaders sought desegregation based on the assumption
that better school resources were available in schools where white children were
taught and that better resources provided greater opportunities. The Brown decisions
occurred in the midst of efforts to reform what mathematics should be taught and
how it should be taught. This “new math” reform offered new mathematics content
as well as new pedagogical approaches (Walmsley, 2003). One main idea of “new
math” was to reduce focus on the drill and practice approach to teaching mathemat-
ics and increase focus on approaches where students could develop conceptual
understanding of mathematics. These pedagogical approaches included the use of
manipulatives, guided discovery learning, teaching practices, and the spiral curricu-
lum (Walmsley, 2003; Willoughby, 2000).
When we consider that many schools remained segregated and the process of
desegregation was slow and that schools serving Black children often received used
textbooks handed down from schools serving white students (Snipes & Waters,
2005), the reforms of “new math” did very little to address the needs of marginal-
ized children, specifically Black children (Tate, 2000). That is, Black children did
not have access to the new content or the pedagogies associated with the “new
math” reform. Within the interest-convergence framework, this era was character-
ized as one of “benign neglect” (Tate, 2000, p.  201) for marginalized students
because the needs and interests of marginalized students were largely ignored. This
does not imply that these learners did not have access to quality teaching in segre-
gated schools; in fact, there is a body of research that suggests that many teachers in
segregated schools “made do” with substandard materials and provided high-­quality
teaching (Foster, 1997; Siddle-Walker, 2000; Snipes & Waters, 2005; Standish,
2006). Rather, the “new math” reforms focused on identifying the “best and bright-
est” while ignoring the needs of marginalized learners.

The Back to Basics Movement

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the “back to basics” reform movement in mathe-
matics emerged in response to the perceived shortcomings of “new math” (Burrill,
2001). During this period, the NSF discontinued funding programs focused on “new
math,” and there was a call to go back to the “core curriculum” which was under-
stood to be basic skills in mathematics. The “back to basics” movement called for
teaching mathematics procedures and skills and was closely connected to the mini-
mum competency testing movement used by states in the 1970s and 1980s (Resnick,
1980; Tate, 2000). Testing had a significant impact on the mathematics content that
was taught and the methods used to teach. Typically, students were taught mathe-
matics content deemed important for passing tests. Although the emphasis on skills
did result in slightly improved standardized test scores for marginalized children, it
did not adequately prepare these students for mathematics coursework requiring
higher levels of cognition and understanding (Tate, 2000). This emphasis continued
to limit marginalized learners’ opportunities to achieve and access upper-level
mathematics courses (Tate, 2000).
14 R. Q. Berry III

Considering the impact of emphasizing basic skills and testing, it is plausible

that the pedagogies and the curriculum offerings during the “back to basics”
reform were similar for marginalized students as during the “new math” reform.
The pedagogies of “back to basic” were already a part of marginalized students’
mathematical experiences. The growing emphasis on testing during this period
was used to legitimize the perception that many marginalized students were not
capable of rigorous studies in mathematics (Perry, 2003). The “back to basics”
movement provided more focus on using testing to pathologize marginalized
students as being inferior, deficient, and deviant. During this period, we find the
first of many research studies focusing on the achievement gap in mathematics
that describe marginalized learners as deficient and in need of fixing (Perry,
2003). The analysis of achievement gap language provided no descriptions of
conditions or the context of experiences of marginalized learners. In fact, these
reports presented marginalized learners as static, with little within-group diver-
sity. If one considers the context of the late 1960s and 1970s and the persistent
limited educational opportunities available to marginalized learners, discussion
of an achievement gap serves to reinforce an ideology about marginalized chil-
dren’s intellectual inferiority.
A result of the research and policies of the back-to-basics period led to the
National Commission on Excellence in Education report titled, A Nation at
Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (1983). The report suggested that
education reform is necessary because competitors throughout the world are
overtaking America’s preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technol-
ogy. Furthermore, the report stated, “If an unfriendly foreign power had
attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that
exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war” (p. 1). The inflam-
matory rhetoric of A Nation at Risk heightened concerns about national security
and argued that America was lagging behind in mathematics and science when
compared internationally. A Nation at Risk stated that through educational
reform, American children’s promise of economic, social, and political security
in the future would be earned by meritocratic ideals of effort, competence, and
informed judgment.

The Standards Movement

In 1980, NCTM put forth its Agenda for Action, which diverged from “back to
basics” and put forward recommendations that moved away from solely the notion
of basic skills toward problem-solving, use of technology, measures other than
conventional testing, and pedagogy and curriculum to accommodate the diverse
needs of the student population. The Agenda for Action, not a standards docu-
ment, was the foundation for the first standards document, Curriculum and
Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (CSSM) , developed by NCTM
(1989). The standards supported conceptual understanding as a primary goal with
1  Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education to Address the Needs… 15

algorithmic fluency following once conceptual understanding was developed.

Critics of CSSM argued that the primary goal of conceptual understanding through
an ­inquiry-based approach did not help children acquire basic skills efficiently
nor learn standard algorithms and formulas (Klein, 2003). Tension between pro-
ponents and opponents of CSSM resulted in the “Math Wars,” and there were
proponents for improving mathematics instruction for marginalized children on
both sides. The tensions of the “Math Wars” appear to have an underlying narra-
tive focusing on the nation’s technological interests, social efficiency, and per-
petuation of privilege. There were intense debates focused on curriculum,
teaching, and assessment, but little debate focused on understanding the realities
of children’s lives. For marginalized learners, issues of race, racism, and identity
were not under consideration in the “Math Wars.”
The NCTM revised its standards document in 2000 through the release of the
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM). PSSM was received as
more balanced than CSSM, which led to some calming of, but not an ending to, the
“Math Wars.” PSSM highlighted equity as the first of its six principles for school
mathematics. Martin (2003) critiqued the PSSM’s equity principle, however, for not
providing a sense of equity that considers the contexts of students’ lives, identities
of students, nor conditions under which mathematics is taught and learned:
The Equity Principle of the Standards contains no explicit or particular references to
African American, Latino, Native American, and poor students or the conditions they face
in their lives outside of school, including the inequitable arrangements of mathematical
opportunities in these out of school contexts. I would argue that blanket statements about
all students signals an uneasiness or unwillingness to grapple with the complexities and
particularities of race, minority/marginalized status, differential treatment, underachieve-
ment in deference to the assumption that teaching, curriculum, learning, and assessment are
all that matter. (p. 10)

Following the release of NCTM’s Principles to Actions (2014), Martin (2015)

offered a critique similar to the one he had issued in 2003. He challenged poli-
cymakers and researchers to facilitate the kind of violent reform needed to
change the conditions of African-American, Latin@, Indigenous, and poor stu-
dents in mathematics education. Too often, race, racism, social justice, contexts,
identities, conditions, and more are relegated as issues not appropriate for math-
ematics education when in fact these issues are central to the learning and
­teaching of mathematics.
In 2010, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM, National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State
School Officers) emphasized an inquiry-based approach to mathematics teaching
and learning. The mission statement makes clear that these reforms were emerging
from the same interests of college and career readiness by positioning American
students to be able to compete in a global economy. Nowhere to be found is mention
of the gross inequities within society that continue to be reflected in students’ edu-
cational outcomes. Once again, framing the reform from the position of economic
interest diminished the needs of learners to focus primarily on the acquisition of
mathematics content and practices.
16 R. Q. Berry III

Discussion and Conclusion

This brief review of policies and reforms in mathematics education suggests that
economic, technological, and security interests were, and continue to be, drivers of
many policies and reforms. These policies and reforms situated mathematics
­education in a nationalistic position of being color-blind, in a context where race,
racism, conditions, and contexts do not matter. This positions schools and
­communities as neutral sites rather than cultural and political sites. Despite the
­evidence that racism and marginalization exist in schools and communities, many
still adhere to the belief that color-blind policies and pedagogical practices will
best serve all students. It is difficult to argue against ensuring students’ c­ ompetitive
place in the global marketplace. A careful look at policies and reforms focused on
identifying the “best and brightest,” identifying “high achievers,” stratifying
­students based on characteristics, or identifying “failing” positioned some as
­competent while labeling others as being deficient. Policies and reforms have
­typically not attended to the social realities and needs of marginalized students in
ways that lead to improvements in their life circumstances.
In order to have any meaningful policy gains, we must decentralize whiteness
when discussing policies and reforms. There is significant evidence suggesting that
whiteness is at the center of many educational policies and reforms. By decentral-
izing whiteness, we disrupt its power and privilege. Decentralizing whiteness opens
the space and broadens opportunities to consider the roles that histories, contexts,
and experience play in the development of reforms and policies.
Given the growing body of research focused on context, identities, experience,
and conditions of marginalized learners (e.g., Gutiérrez, 2002; Jett, 2010; Martin,
2013; Noble, 2011; Stinson, 2015; Thompson & Lewis, 2005), mathematics educa-
tion policies and reforms can draw from this body of work in establishing new poli-
cies and reforms. This body of research considers issues of race, racism, contexts,
identities, and conditions as variables that impact the mathematical experiences of
marginalized learners. This body of research challenges the dominant discourses
and pushes the field of mathematics education to consider sociological, anthropo-
logical, and critical theories. It encourages researchers to consider outcomes other
than achievement as the primary measure of success. One finding from this research
is that educators must create opportunities for students to experience mathematics
learning using the resources they bring to classrooms; teachers must know and
understand learners’ identities, histories, experiences, and cultural contexts and
consider how to use these to connect students meaningfully with mathematics.
There is a need for policies and reforms that focus on leveraging communities’ and
community-members’ knowledge and experience in mathematics education.
Mathematics teaching and learning not only occurs in classrooms but also occurs in
other spaces. By leveraging these resources, we situate mathematics teaching and
learning as a way to structure experiences that are contextual and provide opportu-
nities for exchange of mathematical ideas. The use of context in mathematics
­education can help learners to recognize and build upon the cultural and social
resources they bring to the mathematics classroom.
1  Disrupting Policies and Reforms in Mathematics Education to Address the Needs… 17

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Chapter 2
Making the Implicit Explicit: Building
a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes
to Inform Mathematics Education Research

Dan Battey and Luis A. Leyva

Abstract  Scholars continue to document that African American kindergartners

bring the same competencies as their white peers (Ginsburg et  al, Int J Psychol
16(1):13–34, 1981; O’Connor et al, Rev Res Educ 33(1):1–34, 2009). Research has
found, however, that they experience low-quality mathematics instruction (Davis
and Martin, J Urban Math Educ 1(1):10–34, 2008; Lubienski, J Negro Educ
71(4):269–287, 2002), which does not leverage the mathematical abilities of African
American students. The mechanisms for how these disparities are produced are less
clear (Battey, Educ Stud Math 82(1):125–144, 2013a; Lubienski, J Negro Educ
71(4):269–287, 2002). For instance, we do not understand the mechanism through
which mathematics instructional quality or the cognitive demand of tasks is reduced
for African American children. In this chapter, we argue that a potentially missing
piece in understanding mechanisms that produce disparities in mathematics educa-
tion is implicit racial attitudes. To make this theoretical case, we draw on work both
inside and outside of mathematics education across four literatures: (1) the quality
of mathematics instruction that African American students receive, (2) relationships
developed with teachers, (3) racialized teacher perceptions of behavior and aca-
demic aptitude, and (4) racial microagressions in mathematics. The chapter ends
with two examples of how implicit racial attitudes can be embedded in existing
research in order to illustrate how the field could study ways to disrupt the perpetu-
ation of deficit perspectives shaped by racial ideologies and systemic forms of
oppression.

D. Battey (*)
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
L. A. Leyva
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 21

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_2
22 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

Introduction

Disparities in the quality of instruction and achievement outcomes for African

Americans are well documented (Davis & Martin, 2008; Ladson-Billings, 1997;
Lattimore, 2005; Lubienski, 2002; Means & Knapp, 1991; Strutchens & Silver,
2000). Making these achievement and instructional quality differences even more
problematic, numerous researchers have demonstrated that African American kin-
dergartners bring the same mathematical competencies and achieve at similar levels
as their white peers (Ascher, 1983; Cole & Scribner, 1974; Entwisle & Alexander,
1992; Ginsburg, 1978; Ginsburg, Posner, & Russsell, 1981; O’Connor, Hill, &
Robinson, 2009; Phillips, Crouse, & Ralph, 1998). The mechanisms for how these
disparities are produced, however, are less clear in mathematics education (Battey,
2013a; Lubienski, 2002). For instance, we do not understand the mechanism through
which mathematics instructional quality or the cognitive demand of tasks is reduced
for African American children. Here, we argue that a potentially missing piece in
understanding mechanisms that produce disparities in mathematics education is
implicit racial attitudes. To make this theoretical case, we draw on work both inside
and outside of mathematics education and argue that research needs to begin explor-
ing implicit racial attitudes within mathematics education to better understand the
dynamics that produce lower-quality instruction and reduced learning opportunities
for African American students.
Before outlining the chapter, it is important to situate work on implicit racial
attitudes within a broader frame of racism. Racism is based on a racialized social
system, “a network of racialized practices and relations that shapes the life chances
of the various races at all levels” (Bonilla-Silva, Lewis, & Embrick, 2004, p. 558).
Racism is then enacted through a dialectic that is both symbolic or ideological and
material or resource-based (Lewis, 2004). When ideologies are internalized, they
become implicit racial attitudes, which then can guide behavior and social interac-
tions. These interactions can produce differential material consequences in the form
of changing access to curriculum, lowering the cognitive demand of tasks, and in
turn, producing differential achievement. We focus on implicit racial attitudes, how
they guide behavior, and how they are situated within a broader system of racism to
recognize the broader structures that produce these dynamics.
Four different literatures inform the argument of this chapter. We first define and
examine the literature on implicit racial attitudes. The chapter then looks across
scholarship on the four literatures: (1) the quality of mathematics instruction that
African American students receive, (2) relationships developed with teachers, (3)
racialized teacher perceptions of behavior and academic aptitude, and (4) racial
microaggressions in mathematics. In looking across these literatures, we lay out
how we see implicit racial attitudes interacting with existing findings. More specifi-
cally, we highlight how implicit racial attitudes may play a role in African American
students having limited access to high-quality mathematics learning opportunities
and supportive teacher-student relationships, being subjected to deficit expectations
of academic ability and engagement, and dealing with microaggressions of
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 23

­ athematical ability. Such complex interactions between implicit racial attitudes

m
and various educational constructs (e.g., instructional quality, achievement, stu-
dents’ identities as mathematics learners) that shape racialized mathematics learn-
ing environments and experiences for, in this case, African Americans, capture the
need to adopt implicit racial attitudes as units of analysis in mathematics education
research. By shedding light on the subtle operations of implicit racial attitudes in
mathematics education, researchers can advance opportunities for teachers to be
more critically aware of how they frame students and thus disrupt the perpetuation
of deficit perspectives shaped by racial ideologies and systemic forms of oppres-
sion. The chapter ends with two examples of how implicit racial attitudes can be
embedded in existing research.

Making a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes

Explicit racial attitudes reside on a conscious level and are typically characterized
by overtly racist talk and actions (Dovidio, Kawakami, & Gaertner, 2002).
Researchers have found that although explicit racial attitudes have diminished,
implicit racist attitudes have not (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2008). It is this decrease in
explicit attitudes that many point to as a lessening of racism. However, as defined
prior, racism is a social structure and therefore is not dependent on attitudes. The
notion, then, that a decrease in explicit racial attitudes potentially lessens systemic
racism is misleading at best. In contrast to explicit racial attitudes, implicit racial
attitudes are characterized by unconscious feelings and beliefs, which can be
orthogonal to publicly professed attitudes (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). In this way,
implicit racial attitudes can reside in individuals or teachers even though they pro-
fess overt beliefs in being equitable. Implicit attitudes are a result of exposure to
stereotypes (ideologies) and characterized as evaluations and beliefs automatically
activated by the presence of a particular stimulus, in this case, racial interactions
(Dovidio, 2001).
Implicit attitudes are uncorrelated with explicit attitudes. Explicit attitudes about
race are linked to deliberate behavior, while implicit attitudes about race guide
spontaneous and unconscious behaviors (Dovidio et al., 2002). Because contempo-
rary research has found that whites assert that racial prejudice, or antipathy toward
a racial group, is wrong (Bobo, 2001), which is consistent with publically professed
explicit racial attitudes, generally accepted values about fairness and equality inhibit
the direct expression of implicit racial attitudes (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2008). Implicit
attitudes, then, do not require an endorsement for prejudiced views; rather, they
represent exposure to broad deficit ideologies. Therefore, contemporary prejudice,
aligned with colorblind racism, is often complex since professed and internalized
attitudes can be at odds. Individuals deny personal prejudice, but underlying this are
unconscious negative beliefs about particular races (Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler,
2000). Therefore, implicit racial attitudes could be impacting the quality of
24 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

i­nstruction and relationships in mathematics classrooms, since all teachers are sub-
ject to internalizing stereotypes.
What often keeps these beliefs implicit are proxies that are used for race (Dovidio
& Gaertner, 2004). Scholars within mathematics education have made the case that
labels referencing culture, family values, or testing categories can serve as proxies
for race since, socially, we have a difficult time discussing these complex issues
(Diversity in Mathematics Education [DiME], 2007). These labels conceal patterns
of behavior across racial lines, such as teachers working in one way with students
stigmatized as “far below basic” (Battey & Stark, 2009; DiME, 2007). A teacher
could justify a student’s lack of learning by placing blame on the cultural practices
of a student’s family. This is even more problematic given that whites who would
not discriminate explicitly tend to discriminate against African Americans when
bias can be attributed to some factor other than race (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004).
These racial proxies cloud instances when teachers access racial stereotypes, which
can unconsciously affect their behavior. Implicit racial attitudes could, then, reduce
the quality of education for African Americans through teachers’ lowered expecta-
tions of the type of instruction appropriate for these students.
We do not want a focus on attitudes, however, to disconnect this work from
broader forms of racism. Implicit racial attitudes are merely an internalization of
symbolic racism in the form of racialized narratives. For example, given the preva-
lence of the ideology of a racialized hierarchy of mathematics ability (Martin,
2009), this could be internalized by mathematics teachers. Proxies, in turn, allow for
the implicit attitudes to remain unconscious as teachers’ racial attitudes can be
explained away in terms of “ability” or “competence.” This then allows automatic
behaviors, such as reducing cognitively demanding tasks or focusing on rote math-
ematics, to go unchecked. These behaviors then contribute to reproducing dispari-
ties in mathematics (material racism), which subsequently reproduces the ideology
of a racial hierarchy of ability. Implicit attitudes provide a way to explain how this
ideology gets reproduced in mathematics classrooms despite teachers’ good
intentions.

Quality of Mathematics Instruction

Research has shown that mathematics teachers of African American students are
more likely to teach mathematics vocabulary out of context, disconnect procedures
from students’ thinking, use unexplained procedures, assess students based on fol-
lowing steps rather than student thinking, and use fewer resources such as manipu-
latives even when available (Davis & Martin, 2008; Ladson-Billings, 1997;
Lattimore, 2005; Lubienski, 2002; Means & Knapp, 1991; Strutchens & Silver,
2000). While the overall lack of quality of mathematics instruction in US schools
has been noted in research from TIMSS (Hiebert et  al., 2003), Lubienski (2002)
found that even when controlling for socioeconomic status (SES), African American
students were more likely to experience instruction that framed mathematics as
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 25

primarily around the memorization of facts, having one correct strategy and being
assessed using multiple-choice questions. To illustrate the lack of availability of
high-quality instruction, a national sample of African American students in the USA
reported that “there is one way to solve a math problem” and “learning math is
mostly memorizing facts” (Strutchens & Silver, 2000). Given the history of unequal
opportunities to learn, findings indicated that African American students often do
not have access to quality mathematics education (DiME, 2007).
The field, however, still does not understand the mechanisms that deliver lower-­
quality mathematics instruction to African American students. For example, Hill
and colleagues demonstrated that teachers’ mathematics knowledge for teaching
(MKT) is directly related to student SES and minoritized status, meaning that lower-­
income students of color have teachers with less mathematical knowledge (Hill,
2007; Hill & Lubienski, 2007; Hill, Rowan, & Ball, 2005). They have also sepa-
rately shown that MKT is related to student achievement (Hill et  al., 2005).
Therefore, MKT certainly plays a role in students’ mathematics achievement. More
recently, however, research speaks to the indirect relationships between MKT,
instruction, and student learning in mathematics (Shechtman, Roschelle, Haertel, &
Knudsen, 2010). Across 181 classrooms over 3 years, Schectman and colleagues
(2010) found that while MKT was correlated with student learning, it was not
directly related to it. Additionally, MKT was not correlated with the quality of
instruction. Shechtman et al. (2010) state that their “results suggest that mathemat-
ics knowledge for teaching may have a nonlinear relationship with student learning,
that those effects may be heavily mediated by other instructional factors” (p. 317).
This research suggests that our notions of quality mathematics instruction may
not be as directly related to learning as mathematics educators once thought and that
these variables may be heavily mediated by factors that the field is not actively con-
sidering, especially for lower-income African American students. Several case stud-
ies demonstrate how teachers behaved in racialized ways with African American
students through proceduralizing mathematics, hyper-focusing on misbehavior, and
dismissing student contributions (e.g., Battey, 2013a; Jackson, 2009; Spencer,
2009). Researching a low-income, predominantly African American classroom,
Jackson (2009) showed how the teacher framed students as deficient academically,
behaviorally, and morally. This framing shaped instructional practices that focused
on repeating steps to get a correct answer, having fun, and reserving understanding
for later in their school careers because they needed basics now. The work offered a
glimpse into a classroom where a teacher altered mathematical practices for reasons
related to racially deficit views.
Spencer’s (2009) study found similar deficit reasoning about African American
students from teachers. She noted that African American students were disengaged
from mathematics instruction and posed this observation to the teacher, Mr. Chung,
in an interview. Mr. Chung dismissed the explanation of race to explain African
American students’ disengagement, instead explaining it through a lack of prior
knowledge on the part of students. Spencer documented, however, that the level of
middle school mathematics did not allow for much thoughtful engagement; the con-
tent was largely focused on basic skills. Mr. Chung went on to relate student
26 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

d­ isengagement to limited family involvement and poverty. Issues of culture, family

involvement, and poverty can be used as proxies for race (Johnson & Martinez,
1999); we use these markers for race when we would otherwise be uncomfortable
naming race as a reason (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004).
A contrasting case is presented in Battey’s (2013a) study about a classroom
focused more on understanding mathematics. In this research, the teacher enacted
many of the instructional practices aligned with reform efforts such as problem
solving, student explanations, and mathematical discussions. However, interactions
showed the teacher either ignoring or dismissing two African American boys’ con-
tributions. In instances of ignoring, it was as if the students were invisible, though
she was looking directly at them. In instances of dismissing, the teacher rolled her
eyes or challenged students on issues of language use (viz., the use of African
American Vernacular English) rather than addressing their mathematical thinking.
These interactions highlighted the way that racialized interactions can position
African Americans as invisible in moments (Feagin & Sikes, 1994) and contradic-
torily hyper-visible in others (Higginbotham, 2001). The teacher explained these
instances as related to students’ prior knowledge, behavior, and laziness, each of
which can be seen as proxies for race.
Across these case studies, teachers attributed their poor treatment of African
American students to terms shown to serve as proxies for race (Wang, 2003): prior
knowledge, behavior, laziness, poverty, and family involvement. Even though the
studies themselves point to this link with race, without concluding or exploring
implicit racial attitudes they all point to treatment by mathematics teachers consis-
tent with holding implicitly racial attitudes toward African American students.
Therefore, in addition to explaining the lower quality of instruction that African
American students often receive, implicit racial attitudes could also explain the non-
linear relationship between MKT and student learning. For instance, a teacher with
MKT may not enact high-quality instruction due to racially biased attitudes and
therefore produce less student mathematics learning. Implicit racial attitudes could
mediate the effects of MKT such that many students do not receive the high-quality
mathematics instruction that they deserve.

Teacher-Student Relationships

In addition to the quality of instruction, teacher-student relationships have been

found to be a critical component of both psychosocial and academic development.
Jerome, Hamre, and Pianta (2009) determined that teachers in their study rated
relationships with African American students as more conflictual than their relation-
ships with white students. The study examined students longitudinally from kinder-
garten through sixth grade and, while they didn’t parse the teachers out by race, the
teachers across the grades ranged from 88% to 95% white. While teachers’ and
white students’ ratings of their relationships were quite similar, teachers rated their
relationships with African American students as more conflictual than African
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 27

American students did. Jerome and colleagues also noted that teachers rated their
relationships with African American students as becoming more conflictual over
time. While they note it would have been helpful to have a more racially diverse
teacher sample, or to parse the findings by teacher race, the implications of their
work are that white teachers perceive their relationships specifically with African
American students as conflictual. Furthermore, Pianta and Stuhlman (2004) found
that teacher-student conflict is a better predictor of standardized test performance in
mathematics than teacher-student closeness. These findings raise the issue of how
relationships relate to student learning, independent of the quality of instruction.
The conflict that teachers perceived in their relationships with African American
students could be explained through implicit racial attitudes as well. In perceiving
conflict in their relationships, stereotypes of African Americans as loud, aggressive,
and violent could be accessed. This, in turn, could lead to more attention being paid
by teachers on controlling students’ behavior and so forth. As Gregory, Skiba, and
Noguera (2010) noted, the “discipline gap” is closely related to racially biased
teacher expectations resulting in differential discipline, suspension, and expulsion
for African American students. Broader ideologies, internalized through implicit
attitudes, could impact relationships between teachers and students that have critical
implications beyond even mathematics learning.
We have found that the quality of relationships is not related to the quality of
instruction in mathematics classrooms in urban schools with high populations of
African American and Latinx1 students (Battey & Neal, in press; Battey, Neal,
Leyva, & Wiggins-Adams, 2016). In this work, the variability in the quality of
teacher-student relationships across classrooms has been enormous. Some class-
rooms were consistent in handling student thinking positively, while others framed
student ability and thinking in mixed ways or skewed negatively. While classrooms
varied in handling mathematical thinking, over 90% of behavioral interactions were
negative. The reasons, however, for such high frequencies of negative interactions
are unknown in this work, though the negative focus on behavior could be a sign
that teachers accessed stereotypes about African American misbehavior. Implicit
attitudes hold potential for expanding our understanding of this relational phenom-
enon, especially in classrooms where high-quality relationships are not developed.
From the student side of relationships, research has shown how African American
students perceive and cope with relationships of varying quality that differentiate
access to high-quality mathematics instruction and support (Leyva  & Strothers,
2014). More specifically, African American students often attribute stronger teacher-­
student relationships to placements in higher-tracked classes such as honors and
Advanced Placement (AP), where students are perceived as being able to engage
with challenging mathematics. African American students who are aware of their

1
 The term Latinx is used to decenter the patriarchal nature of the Spanish language that tradition-
ally groups Latin American women and men into a single descriptor Latino, a masculine term
denoting only men. The “x” in Latinx allows for gender inclusivity among Latin Americans
(including those who identify as agender, gender-nonconforming or gender fluid, queer, and trans)
compared to the either-or term Latina/o that implies a gender binary.
28 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

underrepresentation in these classes come to see themselves at a relational disad-

vantage with their mathematics teachers and can be dissuaded from seeking sup-
port. For example, one African American woman described her strategy of bringing
an AP calculus peer as a “catalyst” to receive better support from her teacher during
extra help sessions in high school (Leyva & Strothers, 2014). This illustrated the
additional effort that this African American student had to exert in order to manage
her teacher’s possibly implicit racial attitudes. When teachers bring implicit racial
attitudes unchecked into mathematics classrooms, the burden is placed on students
to navigate these racialized spaces.
Across this research, the findings on teacher-student relationships more broadly,
and within mathematics specifically, are consistent with implicit racial attitudes
being a factor in producing more negative and conflictual relationships between
teachers and African American students. This can be observed in the ways in which
teachers chose to not provide instructional support, held low expectations, and
focused on misbehavior among African American students.

 acialized Teacher Perceptions of Behavior and Academic

R
Aptitude

The broader literature in education has found that African American students receive
more negative consequences for their behavior. Ferguson (2000) found that black2
and white boys were disciplined quite differently. White boys who broke school
rules were treated as if their behavior was innocent. On the other hand, black boys
who broke school rules were treated as if their behavior was intentional and fully
conscious. Therefore, punishments of black boys were much more severe. The pun-
ishment of black students potentially removes them from mathematics instruction,
but it can also impact teachers’ perceptions of their cognitive abilities. To under-
score this, Neal, McCray, Webb-Johnson, and Bridgest (2003) studied teachers’ per-
ceptions of African American movement styles. The middle school teachers rated
students with African American movement styles as opposed to European American
styles as lower in achievement, more aggressive, and more in need of special educa-
tion services. While both studies presented above examined student behavior, the
implications of the second study reveal that racial perceptions of behavior can
impact teacher expectations of students’ cognitive aptitude and thus lower the qual-
ity of instruction and learning opportunities made available to African Americans in
the classroom.
These findings show how perceptions of behaviors impact teachers’ intellectual
expectations of students in ways consistent with implicit racial bias. In fact, Downey
and Pribesh (2004) stated that it is more likely that racial bias impacts teachers’
understanding of behavior than simple racial matching of teachers and students. A

2
 We use the term black here to remain consistent with the author’s language in the research. We do
this consistently throughout the paper.
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 29

recent study examined the impact of racial matching on teachers’ expectations

(Gershenson, Holt, & Papageorge, 2016). The authors examined intellectual expec-
tations of the same black student by a black and a non-black teacher. They found
that black teachers held significantly higher expectations for students than non-­
black teachers. For example, non-black teachers were 12–30% less likely to expect
black students to go to college than black teachers. The effects were greater for
black male students. Additionally, the major finding of this study was that “racial
mismatch between students and teachers lowered teachers’ expectations that stu-
dents would earn a four-year college degree was largely driven by math teachers’
expectations” (p. 221). Since the teachers in the study rated the same students, the
authors argued that this is evidence that teachers are unconsciously racially biased.
Beyond this work, a more detailed understanding of teachers’ implicit racial atti-
tudes would help the field better grasp how these attitudes shape teachers’ expecta-
tions about, interpretations of, and reactions to African American students’
mathematical behavior and thinking.
In a study more closely related to mathematics that specifically considered
implicit racial attitudes, Dovidio (2001) assessed white college students’ explicit
and implicit prejudices. White students were tested into three groups: (1) prejudiced
whites (high explicit prejudice/high implicit prejudice), (2) implicitly biased whites
(low explicit prejudice/high implicit prejudice), and (3) non-prejudiced whites (low
explicit prejudice/low implicit prejudice). The students were then asked to solve a
logic problem together with black students and to report their perceptions. The
study found that both implicitly biased and non-prejudiced whites perceived inter-
actions as positive, while blacks only perceived interactions with non-prejudiced
whites as positive. In addition, non-prejudiced whites grouped with blacks solved
the problem quicker (4:35) than groups with prejudiced whites (5:42) or implicitly
biased whites (6:10). Interestingly, the groups with implicitly biased whites solved
problems the slowest, possibly because of the ambiguity of unconscious racial inter-
actions. While Dovidio is not a mathematics educator, the implications are clear in
these peer interactions during problem solving – a common practice across mathe-
matics classrooms. Similarly, African American students’ perceptions of teachers’
implicitly biased attitudes potentially could impact their success in mathematics
classrooms.
The studies discussed in this section show similar findings to those in prior sec-
tions, furthering the case that implicit racial attitudes are at play in classroom set-
tings. For example, teachers perceived African American behavior as more
aggressive and intentional, which is consistent with the findings from the section on
relationships showing teachers focusing on misbehavior. Likewise, teachers per-
ceived African American movement styles as exhibiting less intellectual capacity,
which is consistent with teachers providing lower cognitively demanding instruc-
tion to African American students in urban schools. In each of these ways, behavior
and academic capability could be seen as proxies for race, thus leaving teachers’
attitudes implicit, resulting in the mistreatment of African American students and
limiting their learning opportunities in mathematics classrooms.
30 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

Racial Microaggressions in Mathematics Classrooms

Another source of understanding how implicit racial attitudes affect classrooms is

to ask African American students themselves about their mathematics experiences.
Much of this work focuses on racial and mathematical identities (e.g., Berry, 2005;
McGee & Martin, 2011; Martin, 2006), but microaggressions are also identified in
this work. Microaggressions are insults or slights that are automatic and sometimes
unconscious, directed toward oppressed groups (Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000;
Sue, Capodilupo, & Holder, 2008). Within the narratives of African American stu-
dents’ experiences in mathematics, interactions that would be considered microag-
gressions are identified. Many of these experiences stem from deficit discourses of
African Americans’ mathematics ability (Martin, 2009). The discourses, we argue,
shape racial attitudes reflected in microaggressions that position students as illegiti-
mate members of mathematics classrooms resulting in poor relationships with
teachers, lower-quality instruction, and at times, dis-identification with mathemat-
ics (Spencer, 2009).
McGee and Martin (2011) discussed successful undergraduate black mathemat-
ics and engineering students as being constantly aware that their racial selves were
undervalued. The stereotype of blacks as innately incapable in mathematics was
identified as the primary force for students to adopt stereotype management strate-
gies for their academic success. The students, for example, were driven to prove
stereotypes wrong in persisting and succeeding academically, which was emotion-
ally and psychologically exhausting. Participants reflected on teachers’ and school
administrators’ lower academic expectations for them as black students in mathe-
matics and engineering. One student shared, “These people [teachers and her peers]
don’t expect too much of me in this class, and so … if you tell me that I can’t do
something, then I want to prove to you that I can” (p. 1365). Here we see how the
stereotype of blacks as not mathematically capable lowered academic expectations
of ability and thus prompted this student to prove others wrong. The students in
McGee and Martin’s (2011) study also reflected on invoking evidence of their aca-
demic achievement, or “always being on point” (p. 1365), as a countering response
to microaggressions framed by racial stereotypes such as blacks as academic under-
achievers. Another student recalled citing his high mathematics achievement scores
and consistent homework completion when accused of stealing a classmate’s
phone – an accusation that the student perceived as being shaped by the stereotype
of black males as thieves.
In addition, some students reflected on managing the stereotype of “acting white”
(Fordham & Ogbu, 1986), by cultural code-switching and frontin’ (McGee &
Martin, 2011). McGee and Martin (2011) define frontin’ as the “performance or
demonstration of an act that is socially acceptable by the dominant culture but cre-
ates a series of self-sacrifices to one’s own personal identity” (p. 1381). Students did
this, in predominantly white spaces, including mathematics classrooms, to avoid
being subjected to racial microaggressions of ability and belongingness. One stu-
dent commented on nodding excessively in mathematics classes to manage feelings
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 31

of hyper-visibility resulting from often being the only black student in mathematics
courses:
Sometimes it seems like they are watching me to make sure I get it or that I belong. It’s like
they are waiting for me to [#$%] up. So I just nod no matter what…Then at an inconspicuous
hour I go find the TA. (p. 1370)

Other students adopted behaviors perceived by others as stereotypically black to

resist racial judgments while also “manipulat[ing] and manag[ing] the stereotype on
[their] own terms and for [their] own purposes” (p.  1371). McGee and Martin’s
(2011) study illustrated how the internalization of stereotypes about black students
can give rise to implicit racial attitudes that shape microaggressions about belong-
ing in mathematics classrooms, being smart, or completing work that African
American student participants managed in a variety of ways.
Other research has also documented ways in which mathematics teachers have
enacted microaggressions focused on beliefs about the lower intellectual capacity of
African American students. For example, Martin (2006) discussed a teacher who
told a student that they had gone as far as they could mathematically. Rather than
offering support, advice, or understanding of mathematical struggles, the teacher
assumed the student was simply not smart enough to do more mathematically.
Another student reflected on how racialized views of mathematics ability brought
teachers to overlook African American students as “being [among] the best and
brightest” (p. 213) and thus limited their access to opportunities such as enrollment
in gifted programs. Martin (2006) discussed how this student also saw how class-
rooms taught by white teachers can present mathematics as not belonging to African
Americans through racial microaggressions of ability, or “teaching classroom inter-
actions [that] often perpetuated the superiority of Whites in areas like mathematics
and science” (p. 214). These examples capture the possibility of implicit racial atti-
tudes of mathematical ability resulting in African American students’ experiences
of microaggressions about their academic competence through communications
with teachers and mathematics instruction.
Berry (2005, 2008) also noted how teachers and administrators discriminated
against African American males in three ways: (1) they resisted placing African
Americans in gifted programs, (2) focused on behavior rather than cognitive abili-
ties, and (3) pre-diagnosed students as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disor-
der (ADHD). For example, African American males’ behavior, rather than their
academic performance, was used to assess their intellectual potential in mathemat-
ics (Berry, 2005). These student behaviors were often perceived, however, as being
inappropriate and worthy of punishment due to racial or cultural differences between
the students and the “school grounded in the ethos of the white middle-class culture
that values and demands certain ways of talking, writing, dressing and interacting”
(p. 56). Berry’s work connects to the literature on teachers’ racialized perceptions of
African American behavior and academic aptitude. The difference here is that these
are not merely perceptions but teachers’ actions toward students in the form of
microaggressions.
32 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

If mathematics education researchers are noting African American students

experiencing racial microaggressions in classrooms, then someone must be enact-
ing them. A sideways glance, questioning if they are in the right class, or surprise
that they are good at mathematics are all noted in the literature. Each of these reac-
tions is consistent with implicit racial attitudes in that they are automatic responses
consistent with attitudes expecting less. Those enacting these microaggressions, if
not holding explicitly racially biased attitudes, are certainly holding implicitly
racially biased attitudes. Understanding more about this phenomenon can only
increase the field’s knowledge of ways of responding and transforming mathematics
education for more socially affirming learning opportunities among African
American students.

 mbedding Implicit Racial Attitudes in Mathematics

E
Education Research

Despite the promise that these four research literatures present, no study within
mathematics education has yet explored implicit racial attitudes. A Dutch study in
education more broadly, however, pointed to the significant potential of the con-
struct in future mathematics education research. In the study, van den Bergh,
Denessen, Hornstra, Voeten, and Holland (2010) examined the impact of teachers’
implicit attitudes on their expectations for students and achievement differences
between groups of students across 41 classrooms. They found that teachers with
more implicit racial bias, as measured with the implicit attitudes test (IAT), held
lower expectations of the intellectual capacity of their ethnic minority students. In
addition, achievement differences between students of Dutch origin and ethnic
minority students were larger in classrooms with teachers who were more implicitly
biased. Finally, they found that students of Dutch origin actually showed an increase
in achievement in classrooms where teachers were implicitly biased against ethnic
minority students. This study highlighted the interconnected nature of implicit
racial attitudes to other educational constructs, including teacher expectations and
student achievement, which were explored in the reviewed literature on African
American students in mathematics. But implicit racial attitudes could also be con-
nected to research on, for example, cognitive depth, professional development (PD),
and student identity. Here, we describe two studies to illustrate ways in which
implicit racial attitudes could be embedded in future mathematics education
research.
The goal here is not to critique prior work, as the notion of implicit racial atti-
tudes was only in its infancy at the time that some of these studies were performed.
Instead, we want to illustrate ways in which implicit racial attitudes could be embed-
ded in different lines of research in mathematics education and in different study
designs, both quantitative and qualitative. The studies we highlight focus on the
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 33

space of teacher change and student identity, two key areas in thinking through the
impact of implicit racial attitudes in mathematics education.
One area to better understand the impact of implicit racial attitudes would be
around teacher change. In some of our own work examining the ways in which PD
impacts the teaching of elementary mathematics, implicit racial attitudes could help
us understand more about how to support teacher change, why some teachers resist
taking on new practices, and how teacher change impacts student learning in math-
ematics. Specifically, we take the study of PD published by Jacobs, Franke,
Carpenter, Levy, and Battey (2007) as a quantitative example of considering implicit
racial attitudes in mathematics education research. In this work, the authors docu-
mented how PD, across a large district serving 99% African American and Latinx
students, impacted teachers’ mathematics knowledge and knowledge of student
thinking as well as student learning of early algebraic concepts. Matching schools
within the district, the study compared the effects of mathematics PD across treat-
ment and control conditions. The main findings of the study were that, while treat-
ment teachers’ mathematics knowledge did not differ from the control group at the
end of the PD, their knowledge of students’ strategies around early algebra did. In
addition, students in treatment classrooms better understood the equal sign and
developed more strategies using relational thinking. Interestingly, the authors note
in the manuscript that in the PD, “we also engaged teachers in telling stories about
the mathematics their students could do rather than what they could not do” (p. 265)
in order to challenge prevalent deficit narratives about the student population in
mathematics. This raises the possibility that the PD had effects beyond teachers’
mathematics knowledge and instructional practices. At the time, however, the
authors did not measure the impact of the PD on teachers’ notions of student capa-
bilities or the impact of teachers’ racial attitudes on mathematical learning.
If we were going to integrate work on implicit racial attitudes into this research,
we could focus on two different goals. One goal would be to measure implicit racial
attitudes pre-post or at intervals during the PD work, to see if the focus on challeng-
ing deficit narratives produced change in teachers’ implicit racial attitudes. This
would allow us to better know the extent to which mathematics PD influenced
teachers’ implicit racial attitudes. A second goal would be to better understand the
impact of racial attitudes on teacher and student change. We could use the measure
of implicit racial attitudes to examine which teachers gained more knowledge
related to student thinking in mathematics as well as which teachers implemented
the practices in their classrooms. Additionally, the regression model in the study
could then use implicit racial attitudes to measure if they moderate change in teacher
knowledge and practice or student learning of mathematics. Therefore, adding the
construct of implicit racial attitudes would allow the field of mathematics education
to measure the quality of PD, not just by the knowledge created or the practices
implemented, but also by insights on when and why some teachers may or may not
implement instructional practices based on the ways in which they frame African
American students.
As noted in both van den Bergh and colleagues’ (2010) study and the preceding
section of this chapter on teachers’ expectations, implicit racial attitudes can impact
34 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

teachers’ perceptions of student behavior and their academic aptitude. There is no

reason to think that mathematics is immune to these forces. Teacher changes in
expectations have real effects on classroom interactions, which can cause teachers
to lower the cognitive demand of the mathematics, hyper-focus on negative behav-
ior, or interact with students in a way that ignores or demeans their intellectual
contributions. Students make meaning of these teacher behaviors in terms of the
relationships they build with mathematics, subsequent student behavior, responses
to microaggressions, and the energy exerted in classrooms. Therefore, the other area
of research we consider for integrating work on implicit racial attitudes is student
identity.
Implicit racial attitudes could also be explored with respect to student identity in
a qualitative manner. This is akin to much of the work on student identity that situ-
ates the exploration of identities within instructional and relational dimensions of
classroom contexts as well as a broader racialized society (e.g., Langer-Osuna,
2015; Leyva, 2016). One of our past studies, for example, used counter-storytelling
methodology (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001) to examine co-constructions of mathe-
matics and social identities among Latinx students pursuing engineering majors at
a large, predominantly white university (Leyva, 2016). The analysis focused on how
the Latinx students constructed their identities in making meaning of their mathe-
matics experiences in and out of the classroom. Counter-stories were constructed
using mathematics autobiographies, interviews, a focus group, and field notes from
observations in their university mathematics classrooms. Stimulus narratives were
presented during the focus groups to characterize the extent to which these dynam-
ics, based on three research articles, shaped their identity constructions (taking up
space (Hand, 2012), stereotypes of mathematical ability (Shah, 2017), and teacher-­
student relationships (Battey et al., 2016)).
Findings illuminated classrooms’ constructions of a racial hierarchy of mathe-
matics ability through teachers’ instruction that limited the Latinx students’ oppor-
tunities for participating compared to white and Asian American peers. In addition,
the Latinx students reflected on how opportunities for building supportive teacher-­
student relationships at the university were limited because most instructors were
not interested in connecting with students. The Latinx students noted some excep-
tional teachers who developed academically and emotionally supportive relation-
ships that they viewed as motivating their success in challenging racial discourses
in mathematics. Implicit racial attitudes were not explicitly adopted in this study’s
analysis; however, the findings capture how they could potentially explain racial-
ized instruction and learning opportunities for classroom participation and support-
ive teacher-student relationships that influenced the Latinx students’ mathematics
identity development.
Future study designs may select teachers with more or less implicit racial bias to
show the variation in their mathematics instruction and interactions with their
African American students. In turn, the students themselves could be interviewed
about their mathematics identity, racial identity, the quality of instruction, and their
relationships with teachers. Links between implicit racial bias and effects on African
American students and their agency could, therefore, be explored in more detail.
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 35

Similar to Dovidio’s (2001) work around problem solving, mathematics education

researchers could look more in-depth at the ways that non-biased teachers, implic-
itly biased teachers, and possibly even explicitly biased teachers impact African
American students’ identities in varying ways. For example, how do African
American students respond similarly and differently in making sense of their math-
ematics classroom experiences in relation to their racial and mathematical selves
when teachers are implicitly biased? What variation is observed among teachers
who are non-, implicitly, and explicitly biased in their interactions with students
including instructional decisions, building relationships, and responding to aca-
demic contributions and classroom behavior?
A teacher who has internalized the ideology of a racial hierarchy of mathematics
ability would implicitly believe that African Americans are less capable mathemati-
cally. In this case, they could enact lower expectations of African American students
in learning mathematics through posing tasks of low cognitive demand and class-
room interactions that do not frame students as academically competent. African
American students, in turn, could react to the quality of mathematics instruction that
is available and expectations that they perceive their teacher to have. Students may
respond by dis-identifying with mathematics, disengaging from “boring” mathe-
matics, persevering due to the importance of mathematics, or proving the teacher’s
expectations wrong. Each of these responses impacts learning, but the teacher’s
lowering of cognitive demand and negative interactions with students limits their
opportunities to understand the mathematics at a deeper level. A comparative case
of a nonracially biased teacher would be interesting to show how students respond
differently in this context. In looking at the interaction between implicit racial atti-
tudes, student identity, and classroom interactions, we could detail the impact of
varying levels of bias on a variety of mathematics classroom environments.

Discussion

Research in mathematics education is clear that African American students gener-

ally receive low-quality access to instruction and experience microaggressions in
mathematical spaces. Outside of mathematics education, researchers have found
that teachers perceive their relationships with African American students as more
conflictual than the students themselves and that teachers have negative perceptions
of student behavior and lower expectations when there is a racial mismatch. All of
this work raises the possibility of a mechanism that is producing these racialized
dynamics for African American students in mathematics classrooms. By not consid-
ering the possibilities of applying this lens to our work, we may be limiting our
understandings of the subtle and not so subtle ways that race impacts mathematics
learning and teaching. Such limited understandings about these processes also con-
strain the ways in which we can support teachers in changing their behaviors and
attitudes for more socially affirming mathematical learning opportunities among
African American students.
36 D. Battey and L. A. Leyva

Examples of teachers expressing racially biased attitudes are occasionally evi-

dent in the literature within mathematics education (see, e.g., Battey, 2013a; Battey
& Stark, 2009; Jackson, 2009; Spencer, 2009), though none of this work discussed
teachers’ views as manifestations of implicit racial attitudes. Another set of work
specifically focused on PD efforts aimed at changing mathematics teachers’ deficit
views of students around race (Battey & Chan, 2010; Battey & Franke, 2015; Ho,
2010; Spencer, Park, & Santagata, 2010). Ho (2010) specifically discussed one
white teacher who struggled to change her deficit-based views of students as she
engaged in mathematics PD. While some change was evident, the tensions between
changing her instructional practice and positioning students as unsuccessful contin-
ued through the end of the PD. Interestingly, as we considered research on mathe-
matics PD that challenges deficit views, we noted that many studies highlighted
changes in teachers’ practices that result from a focus on social justice or multiple
mathematical knowledge bases (e.g., Turner et  al., 2012). While both of these
threads of work are critically important, we still need new ways for engaging teach-
ers’ racially biased views of students in the field. By focusing mathematics PD work
on implicit racial attitudes, new insights may be gained about how to support teach-
ers in challenging biased views that limit African American students’ access to and
sense of belongingness in mathematics.
We are not arguing that teachers are aware of the ways in which racial attitudes
are affecting their instructional practices, expectations, perceptions of behavior,
relationships with students, and classroom interactions. Much the opposite, they
may be largely unaware of the ways in which race impacts the quality of their teach-
ing and interactions with African American students. And yet, high levels of expo-
sure to low-quality mathematics teaching and negative interactions cause African
American students to experience frustration and anxiety, leading to disengagement,
greater dropout rates, and lower grades (Carroll, 1998; Feagin, Vera, & Imani, 2001;
Solórzano, Allen, & Carroll, 2002; Tabibnia, Satpute, & Lieberman, 2008). Whether
teachers are aware or not, their framings of mathematics and interactions with
African American students have significant repercussions. Understanding the
implicit influences on these classroom dynamics changes the way we might work
with mathematics teachers to transform their instruction with African American
students.
For instance, a recent psychological study looked at ways to reduce implicit bias
toward blacks. It found that effective interventions included counter-stereotypical
exemplars, evaluative conditioning methods, and specific strategies to override
biases (Lai et al., 2014). Ineffective interventions had participants engage with oth-
ers’ perspectives, consider egalitarian values, or induce positive emotions. Many
times in PD, we might engage teachers with considering students’ perspectives as a
way to better connect them with their African American students. While this can
increase their knowledge of students and their everyday lives, it may not deconstruct
their implicit biases. Therefore, this would need to be coupled with successful strat-
egies from Lai et al.’s (2014) study such as countering stereotypes, associating posi-
tive attributes with African Americans (evaluative conditioning), or raising
institutional racism as a constant check to internalized deficit views. These s­ trategies
2  Making the Implicit Explicit: Building a Case for Implicit Racial Attitudes… 37

have not yet been explored in addressing inequities in the context of mathematics
PD (Battey & Franke, 2015).
Interestingly, the interventions in Lai et al.’s (2014) study were more successful
when also raising the negative consequences and attributes of whiteness. Therefore,
merely associating African Americans with positive attributes will not be successful
if whiteness remains neutral and unchallenged (Battey, 2013b). Additionally, while
educators consistently refer to changing student demographics in US schools as a
reason to modify instruction, this will not produce the transformation we desire
either. As one study found, exposing whites to the narrative about changing demo-
graphics in the USA produced more negative attitudes toward Latinxs, Blacks, and
Asian Americans as well as increased pro-white bias (Craig & Richeson, 2014).
Deconstructing whiteness, then, is critical in order to understand the ways in which
race is a comparative hierarchy, as in the case of the discourse of a racial hierarchy
of mathematics ability (Battey & Leyva, 2016; Martin, 2009). To date, no work in
mathematics education has addressed ways to deconstruct whiteness in PD, either
(Battey & Franke, 2015). Thus, both in order to deconstruct the mechanisms nega-
tively impacting African American students in mathematics classrooms as well as
identify ways of supporting equitable mathematics teaching, implicit racial attitudes
may be key in future work in mathematics education.
Because of unconscious internalization of deficit ideas, we cannot explicitly ask
teachers about these moments since much of the experience is implicit. This makes
work on implicit racial attitudes so valuable. Implicit bias can play out in automatic
responses and nonverbal behavior as well as be attributed to proxies for race. In
looking for implicit bias, we might uncover the unconscious ways in which internal-
ized racial narratives are shaping teachers’ interactions in undesired ways. This
potentially connects to classroom interactions of reducing cognitive demand, deval-
uing students’ mathematical thinking, and publicly admonishing misbehavior – all
interactions documented in work on relational interactions between teachers and
students in mathematics classrooms (Battey, 2013a; Battey & Franke, 2015; Battey
& Neal, in press; Battey & Stark, 2009). Connecting implicit racial bias with work
on MKT, quality of instruction, cognitive demand, and relational interactions can
move the field forward in understanding a complex dynamic that is underexplored.
Additionally, researching the intersections of this work might shape new ways of
thinking about transforming mathematics education through supporting teachers in
actively resisting the consumption of stereotypes about African American students.

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Chapter 3
A Socio-spatial Framework for Urban
Mathematics Education: Considering
Equity, Social Justice, and the Spatial Turn

Gregory V. Larnell and Erika C. Bullock

Abstract In recent years, equity- and social justice-oriented discourses in

­mathematics education have been working to move the field toward an understand-
ing of mathematics education as inherently and simultaneously social and political.
Critical to this movement is the development of concepts that support scholarship,
policy, and practice that are oriented toward equity and social justice. In this chap-
ter, we propose a framework that engages scholarship in mathematics education,
urban education, critical geography, and urban sociology. The resulting socio-­
spatial framework for urban mathematics education features a visual schematic that
locates mathematics teaching and learning—vis-à-vis a mathematics-instructional
triad—within a system of socio-spatial considerations relevant to US urban con-
texts. We situate the math-instructional triad amid a three-dimensional frame.
Representing the first axis, we describe established categories of social significa-
tions or urban education: urban-as-sophistication, urban-as-pathology, and urban-
as-authenticity. The concepts that represent the second (spatial) axis are drawn
from considerations of how space is continually constructed: empirical space, inter-
active-connective space, image space, and place space. The third axis concerns the
various moments and perspectives that have evolved and continue to unfold in
mathematics education practice, scholarship, and policy. Particularly, we draw on
recent depictions of the field’s “moments”: the process-product, interpretivist-con-
structivist, social turn, and sociopolitical turn. Finally, we use the urban system
initiatives sponsored by the National Science Foundation in the 1990s to illustrate
the elements of the framework and to demonstrate how the framework can help the
field to clarify the relationship between the arrangements of spatial geography and
distribution of social opportunity.

G. V. Larnell (*)
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
E. C. Bullock
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 43

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_3
44 G. V. Larnell and E. C. Bullock

Introduction

In this chapter, our goal is to spur the reconceptualization of urban mathematics e­ ducation
scholarship toward developing new and clearer pathways for exploring equity and social
justice discourses within the broader field. Although our use of “urban” throughout this
chapter is situated in the context of the United States, we intend for this reframing to
have potential applications in, and implications for, other national urban contexts. Urban
mathematics education has been a long-­established, yet loosely organized, subdomain
(and too often ill-defined or unnamed) for practice and scholarship—including research,
curriculum, and policy development. Relatedly, the relationship between urban
­mathematics education and equity and social justice discourses has also been ambiguous
over time. We argue that this ambiguity has resulted in disjointed periods of scholarship
that—perhaps in the spirit of improving “urban”-oriented mathematics education
research and practice—have primarily initiated and examined general mathematics
­education reforms within locales that typically feature high population densities, expand-
ing demographic diversity, and/or large- and moderately sized municipal land areas.
Although the general notion that “urban” as a spatial consideration has been
limited, historically, to conventional notions of the “big city,” our central claim in
the chapter is that urban mathematics education has been defined tacitly as a social
consideration in ways that veil a taken-as-given confluence with race and class dis-
courses—often characterizing urban almost reflexively as “inner city.” These over-
simplified renderings are more apparent within earlier scholarship, but we would
suggest here that they have not yet given way fully to contemporary, more complex,
and ever-evolving notions of urban. Our objective for this chapter is to reframe
research within this domain by simultaneously clarifying and underscoring the com-
plex relationships between mathematics teaching, learning, and curriculum; place
and space; and the social, economic, and political conditions that accompany his-
torical and contemporary understandings of urban life. As Martin and Larnell (2013)
argued, the stakes for this work are high: “Because mathematics education is not a
neutral enterprise, these conditions, significations, and potential necessarily impli-
cate the values, ideologies, and power relations among its participants” (p. 373).
In the following sections, we review the extant trends in scholarship regarding
urban mathematics education as a research- and practice-oriented domain. We then
present our framework for urban mathematics education and explicate its multiple
components. Finally, we provide an example of how the framework may be useful
for analyzing the trajectory of urban mathematics education scholarship through a
historical exemplar of urban mathematics education policy in the United States, the
urban systemic initiatives of the 1980s and 1990s.

On the Trajectory of Urban Mathematics Education Scholarship

During the past few decades, urban mathematics education has emerged more
prominently as a vibrant new area of scholarship in the United States—evinced
most recently by the founding and proceedings of the Journal of Urban Mathematics
3  A Socio-spatial Framework for Urban Mathematics Education: Considering Equity… 45

Education (JUME), founded in 2008. The roots of this subdomain of mathematics

education extend back at least to efforts during the 1980s (Tate, 1996), concurrent
with the development and publication of standards by the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) for mathematics curriculum and evaluation
(1989), for the practice of mathematics teaching (1991), and for assessment (1994).
These developments also coincided with commensurable shifts in research: mathe-
matics education scholarship around the world was entering its much-discussed
social turn (e.g., Meyer & Secada, 1989; also see Lerman, 2000; Martin & Larnell,
2013; Stinson & Bullock, 2012).
For researchers, teachers, policymakers, and education-interested foundations in
the United States (e.g., the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation), a
crucial new question emerged: How would the then-new version for school mathe-
matics reform extend to and take shape in urban districts and classrooms (Tate,
2008)? We contend that this question has loomed large over the development of
urban mathematics education as a domain. Both the question and the adjoining con-
cern remain central given the most recent policy shift toward, development of, and
state-level adoption of the Common Core State Standards for School Mathematics.
In his commentary in the inaugural issue of JUME, Tate (2008) issued the
­following charge:
The challenge is to build theories and models that realistically reflect how geography and
opportunity in mathematics education interact. If this challenge is addressed, the field will
be one step closer to making scholarship in urban mathematics education visible. (p. 7)

Our aim in this chapter is to broaden the discourse in urban mathematics

e­ ducation in line with Tate’s charge. Moreover, that aim is to develop theoretically
and attend to the relationship between place, access and opportunity, and the pro-
gression of scholarship in mathematics education. Urban mathematics education
scholarship has advanced to a point at which we may now begin to evaluate its
production of knowledge—and, particularly, the building of “theories and models
that realistically reflect how geography and opportunity in mathematics education
interact” (p. 7). What has the study of urban mathematics education entailed? What
can it become? The purpose of this chapter is to take “one step closer” toward
addressing these questions and to consider the implications of a socio-spatial under-
standing of urban mathematics education on our understandings of the connections
between mathematics and social justice.

Urban Mathematics Education, Equity, and Social Justice

This framework represents a departure from reductive notions of urban as “big city” or
“inner city” toward the understanding that urban mathematics education is a complex,
inherently interdisciplinary domain in its own right. It is more than just mathematics
education performed with, or on, people who are labeled as “urban” based on race and/
or class signifiers (Chazan, Brantlinger, Clark, & Edwards, 2013). Also, it is more than
just a descriptor for situating traditional or reform-oriented mathematics teaching and
learning in certain locales (i.e., the “inner city”). Thus, it is important that we address
46 G. V. Larnell and E. C. Bullock

the need for a consideration of urban mathematics education that is separate from—yet
connected to—prevailing equity discourses in mathematics education.
It is true that equity discourse and urban mathematics education have common
interests, especially concerning commitments to underserved communities.
Examining mathematics education in urban spaces through an equity-oriented lens
appropriately centers conversations on children of color and their mathematical
identities and experiences. However, engagement with the urban in such work is
often limited either to contextual descriptors connected to racial demographic and
free-and-reduced-lunch data or to situated applications of mathematics curricula or
pedagogies in spaces inhabited by people who are largely Black and/or Brown and
poor. These limits at the level of data representation do not adequately consider the
ways in which the urban as its own domain may necessarily affect research design,
data collection, and data analysis.
As a descriptor in research, therefore, “urban” functions as a sort of veil. This
veiling allows the researcher to acknowledge race and class in superficial ways that
obscure weightier systemic issues related to the deeply saturated influence of race-
and class-based ideologies (Martin, 2009). This urban-as-veil perspective also
frames our collective understanding of urban populations in ways that, perhaps
ironically, obscure populations that do not align with static notions of urban educa-
tional contexts as Black, Brown, and/or poor. The challenge with this veiling is that
it allows equity discourse to disengage from the enormously consequential and
broadly societal issues concerning urban education, racism, and classism that
inhabit mathematics classrooms and other aspects of the “network of mathematics
education practices” (Valero, 2012, p. 374).
We argue that this framework for urban mathematics education encourages a
more complex understanding of the urban that attends to the role of place and space
in mathematics education and, additionally, unveils race and class as distinct cate-
gories that each warrant significant analysis in their own right. We propose that
engaging the elements of this framework allows equity-oriented mathematics edu-
cation researchers to remove the urban veil in a way that acknowledges the roles of
place, race, and class as distinct and mutually constitutive. This positioning allows
mathematics education researchers to explore the interactions between geography
and opportunity within a multidimensional framework that acknowledges the politi-
cal underpinnings of opportunity gaps that equity discourses reveal.

 Socio-Spatial Framework for Urban Mathematics

A
Education Scholarship

In the spirit of addressing Tate’s (2008) challenge (also see Rousseau Anderson,
2014), our objective is to posit a new theoretical framing for scholarship in urban
mathematics education—the first of its kind (see Fig. 3.1). In this section, we detail
the theoretical concepts undergirding the framework. We situate this framing
squarely (but not entirely) in mathematics education scholarship—using as our
3  A Socio-spatial Framework for Urban Mathematics Education: Considering Equity… 47

Spatial Logic of Urban

So
Co

cie
m
Sc

tie
m
ho

s
un
oli
Learner/s

itie
ng

s
sy
ste
m
s
School
Moments of
Mathematics Education
Teacher/s Mathematics

Significations of Urban

Fig. 3.1  Socio-spatial framework for urban mathematics education scholarship

central unit of analysis the well-regarded mathematics-instructional triad of

teacher(s), learner(s), and mathematics (Cohen, Raudenbush, & Ball, 2003; NCTM,
1991; Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver, 2009).
The NCTM Research Committee (Gutstein et al., 2005) argued that, in order for
researchers to advance equity in mathematics education, we must “break with tradi-
tion, expand boundaries, and cross into fields outside of mathematics education and
outside education” (p. 96; emphasis original). In this spirit, we extend beyond math-
ematics education, looking toward the interdisciplinary areas of urban sociology,
critical geography, and urban education to consider the various forces that influence
mathematics teaching and learning in urban spaces as well as the social significa-
tions that shape interactions in urban settings and to emphasize the ways in which
urban spaces and their meanings are reciprocally constituted. We recognize, how-
ever, that the task of defining urban has been a challenge across disciplines, and our
attempt here is to incorporate what is known, inasmuch as we can, given what is
available to us at the moment (Milner & Lomotey, 2013).
In recent decades, there has been considerable momentum in the humanities and
the social sciences to consider space as a social construction that is integral to social
analysis (Arias, 2010). This spatial turn renders geographic considerations equal to,
and mutually constructed with, temporal and social considerations in the analysis of
social phenomena (Warf & Arias, 2009). This framework represents a spatial turn
within mathematics education research in which temporal (i.e., the Moment of
Mathematics Education axis), social (i.e., the Significations of Urban axis), and
geographic (i.e., the Spatial Logic of Urban axis) elements are taken together as
mutually constitutive of urban mathematics education (Fig. 3.1).
48 G. V. Larnell and E. C. Bullock

To inform the framework with respect to the social meanings that shape urban
mathematics education, we draw on Leonardo and Hunter’s (2007) typology of
­significations that circumscribe urban education (also see Martin & Larnell, 2013).
We represent that typology as an axis of the framework that intersects with spatial
considerations of urban, drawn from human and critical geography (e.g., Soja, 1980;
Thrift, 2003) and urban sociology (e.g., Johnson, 2012). These two axes, when taken
together, are intended to signal a “socio-spatial dialectic” regarding urban education
(also see Soja, 2012). By socio-spatial dialectic, we mean that the social significa-
tions and spatial considerations necessarily interact to determine meaning for urban
that, as Tate (2008) suggested, “realistically reflect[s] how [spatial] geography and
[social] opportunity in mathematics education interact” (p. 7). We add a third axis to
situate the socio-spatial elements in relation to the evolution of mathematics educa-
tion. It incorporates the various theoretical orientations (e.g., cognitivism/behavior-
ism, constructivism, sociocultural perspectives) that have emerged amid “moments”
of mathematics education during the past century (Stinson & Bullock, 2012). Next,
we elaborate upon each of the three axes and the markers that characterize each as
well as the mathematics-instructional triad that is central to the framework.

Spatial Axis of the Framework

To substantiate the spatial aspect of this framing, we draw on Thrift’s (2003) four
conceptions of space to establish four markers along the spatial axis: (a) empirical-­
constructing space, or the ways in which space is rendered measurable or objective;
(b) interactive-connective space, or the pathways and networks that constitute space;
(c) image space, or the visual artifacts that we readily associate with certain kinds
of spaces; and (d) place space, or the everyday notions of spaces in which human
beings reside—even if notions of “human” and “being” are actively being reconsid-
ered (p. 102). Each of these types refers to ways in which space is conceptualized in
relation to human geography, and not necessarily with respect to either a strictly
geographical sense of urban spaces or the meanings that are derived from them.
This allows us to avoid constraints of a spatial logic that is determined solely by, for
instance, characterizations based on population density or physical geography (see
Milner, 2012). Thrift’s four conceptions of space allow for four distinctive concep-
tions of urban as space, which allows one to look across their various permutations
in ways that provide a nuanced perspective on space.

Social-Signification Axis of the Framework

While urban is not easily defined, it is clear that it is not simply geospatial; it also
carries social and political meanings. Therefore, considerations of the urban in
mathematics education must engage these social and political dimensions directly
3  A Socio-spatial Framework for Urban Mathematics Education: Considering Equity… 49

because “‘place matters’ in the study of urban mathematics education” (Rousseau

Anderson, 2014, p. 10). The markers along the social-signification axis are Leonardo
and Hunter’s (2007) three significations of urban: (1) urban-as-sophistication (or
cosmopolitan space), (2) urban-as-pathological (or urban as “dirty, criminal, and
dangerous;” p. 789), and (3) urban-as-authenticity (or the politics of authenticity).
As we argued earlier regarding urban-as-veiling, urban does not always refer to the
geographical urban space; rather, studies have used the label “urban” as a proxy
descriptor for poor, Black, and/or Brown populations who inhabit these spaces and
disproportionately fall victim to the segregation and concentrated poverty that often
characterize these spaces (Darling-Hammond, 2013). Such employment of “urban”
ignores the heterogeneity of urban space, its politics, its people, and their
­experiences (Fischer, 2013).

Theory-Moment Axis of the Framework

With a third axis in the framing, we attempt to construct (at least initially) what could
be called a mathematical-socio-spatial dialectic. That is, we situate the mathematics-­
instructional triad within the dimensional space of not only the socio-­spatial dialectic
but also with respect to the ongoing “moments” of mathematics education theory and
practice (Stinson & Bullock, 2012; also see Martin & Larnell, 2013). Put differently,
the axes represent the intersectionality of geography (or spatiality), social opportunity,
and the development of mathematics education, which is what Tate (2008) originally
outlined. The moments of mathematics education—the “process-product,” “interpre-
tivist-constructivist,” “social turn,” and “sociopolitical turn” moments—are simultane-
ously occurring categorical periods of research, practice, and policy (also see Gutiérrez,
2013). These periods have often been indexed by a crisis metaphor within mathemat-
ics education scholarship (Washington, Torres, Gholson, & Martin, 2012); this notion
of crisis also connects to particular significations of urban life and contexts.

Mathematics-Instructional Triad as the Center

of the Framework

At the center of the framework is the principal set of relations involved in

­mathematics teaching and learning: the interactions and participation by and among
learners, among teachers, learners and teachers together, and other interactions per-
muted according to learners, teachers, and mathematics curriculum (see Fig. 3.2).
As Cohen et al. (2003) suggest, “teaching is what teachers do, say, and think with
learners, concerning content, in particular organizations and other environments, in
time” (p. 124). This depiction of a triadic relationship is traceable beyond mathe-
matics education scholarship to the works of John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, Theodore
Sizer, and others (Cohen & Ball, 2000).
50 G. V. Larnell and E. C. Bullock

Fig. 3.2 Mathematics-­
instructional triad, with
Cohen and Ball’s (2000)
focus on interaction

Not only does this positioning center the processes of formal and informal
­ athematics teaching and learning, but in terms of the diagrammatic representation
m
of the framework, the triad represents a kind of coordinate point with respect to the
social, spatial, and mathematics education “theory-moment” axes that we describe
in the following sections. Furthermore, we embed this triad within these multiple
levels and axes to acknowledge that the mathematics-instructional triad alone is a
limited representation of the ways in which mathematics education unfolds amid
sociohistorical and contemporary contexts (see Weissglass, 2002).

Ecological Rings of the Framework

In addition to the axes that situate the mathematics-instructional triad amid social,
spatial, and sociohistorical considerations, we also locate the triad—and its associ-
ated network of practices—amid nested and reciprocally formative organizational
fields in which mathematics teaching and learning occur (Arum, 2000; Martin,
2000; Weissglass, 2002). We consider the activity of mathematics teaching and
learning within schooling systems (e.g., classrooms, schools, districts), communi-
ties, and at broader societal levels. Our attention to these levels also incorporates
issues related to state regulation (e.g., Common Core State Standards, National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices, and the Council of Chief State
School Officers, 2010), professional associations (e.g., National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics), market competition (e.g., choice and charter move-
ments), and other institutional forces that shape and circumscribe school-level prac-
tices (Arum, 2000). We recognize, however, that this aspect of the framework
should be further developed to address the nuances of particular contexts to which
it may be applied—particularly, the various global contexts beyond the United
States (from which this current articulation emerges).
3  A Socio-spatial Framework for Urban Mathematics Education: Considering Equity… 51

 utting the Framework to Work: Analyzing Opportunity

P
Initiatives

It has been (too) well documented that students in “veiled” urban schools (i.e.,
schools that are predominately Black/Brown and/or poor) experience inferior
opportunities to learn mathematics (see, e.g., Berry, Ellis, & Hughes, 2014). Their
race-classed counterparts in more affluent urban and suburban spaces more often
enjoy both the human and material capital required for successful navigation of
academic mathematics (Tate, 1996). Although race and class provide ready expla-
nations for this disparity, what happens when we remove the veil to consider the
particularizing role of the urban in this common narrative? What has it meant, his-
torically, to consider urban mathematics education as a means toward addressing
inequitable access to opportunity beyond the local mathematics classroom?
In a recent Iris M. Carl Equity Address at the NCTM annual meeting, William Tate
(2016) revisited briefly a major urban mathematics education initiative during the
1990s, the urban systemic initiatives (USI) sponsored by the National Science
Foundation (also see Borman et  al., 2004; Knapp, 1997; Martin & Larnell, 2013;
Stevenson, Dantley, & Holcomb, 1999). As Tate (2016) suggests, the USI represent the
last major national effort that explicitly linked issues of mathematics teaching and
learning with explicit intentions to address educational quality in urban school districts.
The USI clearly exemplified the interpretivist-constructivist moment of the framework
(also see Stinson & Bullock, 2012) in that it adopted the then-best practices concerning
learner-centered theories of cognition and extended them into urban classroom envi-
ronments yet did not fully acknowledge social factors related to the issues the USI
sought to address. Although the connection to the “moments” axis is relatively clear,
there remains a need to elaborate the connections to the spatial and social-signification
elements. Our purpose here is not to exhaustively explore the utility of the framework
but to consider how the USI may help to clarify the meanings of the various parts of the
framework that are less familiar to the mathematics education audience.

Applying the Spatial Axis

Consistent with the central argument of this chapter, there was very little attention
to spatial considerations within the original framing of the USI. Instead of drawing
on complex themes such as connective pathways within urban boundaries or the
various ways that urban spaces are rendered as empirical objects, locations were
selected for inclusion in the USI strictly by way of child-poverty rates and popula-
tion density (i.e., by selecting “22 of the 28 largest urban school districts in the
United States” (Stevenson et  al., 1999, p.  445)). This large-city formulation has
persisted as a means to identify urban education spaces (see Milner, 2012).
Applying the framework’s spatial axis—namely, the empirical-space element—
we can problematize this limited empirical conceptualization of urban space and
argue that child-poverty rates and population density are only two of many ways by
52 G. V. Larnell and E. C. Bullock

which urban spaces are determinable. Other criteria combinations could be used to
broaden or further delineate the types of spaces that are considered urban.
Furthermore, we can also apply the place-space element of the framework and
thereby question whether the organization of the USI incorporated any input or
cooperation from the people who live in the communities being affected.
Lastly, applying the spatial dimension also yields questions and possibilities for new
development related to image space and interactive-connective space, respectively:
How did USI themselves contribute to the development of narrative representations for
communities signified as urban within mathematics education, particularly deficit-ori-
ented narratives? How did the USI address the disparate populations and resources
across schools within districts by creating intradistrict resource and support networks?

Applying the Social-Signification Axis

The purpose of the USI was to create a district-level effort “to increase achievement
in both mathematics and science for all students and close the achievement gap
between mainstream and marginalized students throughout the district in question”
(Borman et al., 2004, p. 250). Districts qualified to apply for USI funds based on their
concentrations of child poverty. This formula systematically painted participating dis-
tricts with a broad brush based on an urban-pathological view that portrays this space
and its communities as impoverished, in need of external-­interventional assistance,
and perhaps more nefariously, portraying its adults as unfit to care for their children.
Paradoxically, however, there is an implicit reliance on an urban-sophisticated sen-
sibility that these urban districts, representing the nation’s largest populations as pri-
mary symbols of national progressive capacity, had the extant wherewithal to resolve
achievement gaps in mathematics and science and that these spaces would then lead
the country in equitable practice at a large scale. In other words, the USI relied on an
understanding of urban spaces as pathologically poor and uneducated, yet the pro-
gram also capitalized on a sophisticated sense of the urban district as “the meeting
point of civilization” (Leonardo & Hunter, 2007, p. 782) from which success related
to diversity in mathematics education would emanate. The USI’s success was also
attached to a sense of urban authenticity in that the project began with marginalized
children in mind and was targeted toward increasing their opportunities for success
without undermining their cultural practices. In this way, the USI differed from other
efforts labeled as subtractive (Valenzuela, 1999) or ghetto (Anyon, 1997) schooling.

Reimagining Research Based on the Proposed Framework

Our intention here is not to evaluate USI directly or the research disseminated
from the various USI projects. Rather, we use USI as a shared example from which
we consider what such research could look like within our proposed framework.
3  A Socio-spatial Framework for Urban Mathematics Education: Considering Equity… 53

It is essential to note, however, that while we have addressed how the USI projects
connect to each axis of the framework it is not possible to retrofit these projects to
align with the current framework. To do so would deny the framework’s epistemo-
logical requirements and its power to not only evaluate extant research but also to
create new questions and to propose new opportunities. Put differently, for an ini-
tiative like the USI to take hold today given the framing that we are proposing
would require a complete rethinking of what those individual efforts would
entail—ideologically and structurally.
We offer this framework for urban mathematics education as a means to avoid
simply reforming our current practices by, instead, proposing a foundational shift.
Stinson and Bullock (2015) remind us of the explicit, and nearly linear, connec-
tions among epistemology, theory, and methodology and, thereby, among data col-
lection, analysis, and representation in research. This framework for urban
mathematics education scholarship honors this connection and requires a holistic
rethinking of the research process, not simply an intervention on one part of the
process or another. To attend to urban mathematics education in ways that acknowl-
edge mathematics, spatial-turn logic, and the social significations of urban, as well
as the interplay among them, requires that scholars wrestle with these consider-
ations at the center of their thinking throughout this process. For example, efforts
to simply rethink representation, while important and possibly necessary, are not
sufficient to meet this framework’s requirements. Investigating urban mathematics
education outside of the processes and practices of veiling that have become com-
mon in mathematics education research generates new questions and may require
a rethinking of extant questions.
Given that the framework requires a full rethinking of the research process, our
consideration of USI requires such a rethinking. The intention for the USI was to
design mathematics education interventions targeted specifically toward urban
spaces. However, as our framework has revealed, the USI did not fully engage the
socio-spatial aspects of the urban. So, what could it mean to rethink it, and does the
framework inform such a rethinking?
One possibility (again, reimagining) for approaching the USI through the
framework could be to position urban-authentic elements of communities as cen-
tral and the true source of how urban sophistication is conceptualized and con-
ceived through policy efforts. In the same way that mathematics educators have
argued against deficit views of communities in the broader field (e.g., Aguirre,
Mayfield-Ingram, & Martin, 2013; Clark, Frank, & Davis, 2013), urban-patho-
logic views must also be relegated as unproductive for urban mathematics educa-
tion (e.g., Gholson & Martin, 2014; Walker, 2007a, 2007b, 2012). Urban-pathologic
views, however, should be recognized fully as outgrowths of systemic forms of
oppression that rely on societal ideologies (e.g., capitalism) that also inform
notions of urban sophistication. This is not to suggest that issues of privilege and
oppression should not factor into urban mathematics education; rather, the oppo-
site is true: instead of positioning these as issues that characterize communities,
position them as systemic socialization forces with broad and generational effects
that reinforce the fabric of urban life.
54 G. V. Larnell and E. C. Bullock

Conclusion

The terms “equity,” “social justice,” and “urban” may include conceptual points of
intersection, but one little-explored commonality among them is the curious fact that
in contemporary use the terms obscure as much as they signify. Many scholars have
attempted to clarify the meaning and utility of equity within mathematics education
discourse (e.g., Gutiérrez, 2002; Martin, 2003; Secada, 1989), and others have revis-
ited the heritage of social justice discourse in mathematics education (e.g., Larnell,
Bullock, & Jett, 2016), but few have engaged clarifying the conceptualization of urban
mathematics education, despite its relatively quick growth as a domain of scholarship.
In the absence of a clear and shared sense of what urban mathematics education is (i.e.,
what its contours and elements are, at least), the mathematics education research and
practice community seems content with a taken-as-assumed sense of urban: that urban
mathematics education represents efforts to import reformed teaching and learning
practices and strategies to locales that have both densely populated spaces and a sig-
nificant proportion of socioeconomically poor residents and/or residents of color.
In research particularly, consideration of the urban has been reduced to implied
requirements related to data representation that include reporting demographic data
that paints a picture of students and schools as stereotypically “urban” while neglect-
ing a deeper interrogation of the space. This definitional shallowness may result
from the nurturing of good intentions (or guilt), but the research community also
may be close to hitting a wall in terms of the power of new contributions that may
push development of urban mathematics education scholarship in ways that respond
to ever-evolving concerns and contextual circumstances.
Our purpose in this chapter was—following Tate’s (2008) call—to help the field
to avoid this potential conceptual dead end by clarifying the relationship between the
arrangements of spatial geography and distribution of social opportunity. Our frame-
work draws on concepts from a variety of disciplines and places mathematics educa-
tion concepts both at the center and as a central guiding dimension. The purpose is
to allow researchers to pose and explore new kinds of questions related to elements
of distinctively urban spaces—e.g., institutional structures, cultural practices, physi-
cal constructions, and capital production. As Tate suggested, the first step is theory
building. The next step is challenge the “collective cognition” of those who would be
responsible for carrying out the work of urban mathematics education (p. 7).

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Chapter 4
Building on “Misconceptions”
and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced
Mathematics

Aditya P. Adiredja

Abstract  The goal of this chapter is to challenge deficit perspectives about students
and their knowledge. I argue that predominant reliance on formal procedural knowl-
edge in most undergraduate mathematics curricula and the oftentimes focus on stu-
dents’ misconceptions contribute to the racialized and gendered inequities in
mathematics education. I discuss my design of an instructional tool to learn the for-
mal limit definition in calculus called the Pancake Story. The story builds on a mis-
conception and student’s everyday intuitions. A successful sensemaking episode by
a Chicana student illustrates the utility of everyday intuitions leveraged in the story
and the inaccuracy and harm of the notion of “misconceptions.” Recognizing mis-
conceptions as students’ attempts to make sense of mathematics, solidifying such
knowledge by finding an appropriate context for it, and leveraging other knowledge
resources are explicit ways to challenge dominant power structures in our practice.

Introduction

Most instructional practices in undergraduate mathematics tend to primarily focus

on developing students’ formal mathematical knowledge. Learning is mainly seen
as the process of building formal mathematical knowledge on top of formal mathe-
matical knowledge (e.g., Cottrill et al., 1996). These perspectives reflect the general
values of the advanced mathematical community for pure abstraction and logic, effi-
ciency, and elegance (Harel & Sowder, 2005; Weber, Inglis, & Mejia-Ramos, 2014).
Scholars have, however, critiqued the implicit assumptions about the cultural
objectivity and neutrality of these values (Bishop, 1990; Frankenstein, 1983). The
dominant focus on formal knowledge plays a major role in demarcating and
­excluding students from learning opportunities. Those who do not have the requisite
formal knowledge are positioned as “not ready” or not “math students.” Students

A. P. Adiredja (*)
The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 59

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_4
60 A. P. Adiredja

who are labeled as having the requisite formal knowledge are seen as “belonging”
or “smart” and are given more opportunities to learn mathematics (Gutiérrez &
Dixon-­Roman, 2011; Herzig, 2004). This de-emphasizes the inequities that have
made the requisite knowledge more available to some groups than others (Oakes,
1990). The use of formal mathematical knowledge as a gatekeeper (e.g., Adelman,
2006) serves as an example of how those deemed as having formal mathematical
knowledge can exert power in society (Valero, 2004).
Deficit perspectives about students and their knowledge exacerbate the impact of
demarcating students based on their possession of formal requisite knowledge.
Students’ attempts to make sense of this formal knowledge, at times without the
support of the requisite formal knowledge, are often characterized as “misconcep-
tions” or deficient. Despite some scholars’ attempts to dispel the field’s fixation with
students’ misconceptions, and their attempts to replace misconceptions with other
terms (Smith, diSessa, & Roschelle, 1993), it is still used most prevalently in discus-
sions about mathematics education.1 This might reflect the utility of the phrase to
describe our attempts to consider students’ thinking in instruction.
In undergraduate mathematics education research, students’ informal knowledge
has been positioned as against or in competition with formal knowledge. Tall and
Vinner’s (1981) widely used framework, for example, of concept image and concept
definition, focuses on the distinction between formal mathematical knowledge (defini-
tion) and other non-formal knowledge and intuitions (image). Przenioslo (2004) also
provides an example of ways that the two types of knowledge have been discussed:
Students would not notice a contradiction between [the formal] definition and his or her
other, more “private” conceptions, and worse, would not try to confront the two parts of his
or her knowledge. More importantly still, for the majority of students the definition was not
the most significant element of the image … This could be a consequence of unsatisfactory
understanding and inability to interpret the very formulation of the definition. (emphasis
added, p. 129)

Davis and Vinner (1986) shared similar sentiments: “It was not possession of
correct ideas that was in question, so much as the possible presence of incorrect
naïve ideas, and the outcome of the competition between the two” (p. 294). These
quotes reflect general deficit narratives about student thinking as generally naïve,
unrefined, and full of misconceptions that are common narratives in undergraduate
mathematics education. Some contemporary researchers have focused their work on
building a formal mathematical understanding on students’ informal knowledge
(e.g., Wawro et al., 2012; Zandieh et al., 2008; Zandieh & Rasmussen, 2010). The
work in this chapter builds on these existing works.
Our tendencies to prioritize requisite formal knowledge lead to deficit perspec-
tives on student thinking which directly contribute to racialized, gendered, and
classed inequities in mathematics education. Martin, Gholson, and Leonard (2010)
similarly pointed out that research studies that focus on the mathematical content of
teaching and learning often ignore the sociopolitical contexts of learning. This

1
 A search for “students’ misconceptions in mathematics” on Google scholar resulted in 31,900
publications since 2000. Since 2016, there were about 13,100 results.
4  Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced Mathematics 61

chapter discusses the way that mathematics has been used to demarcate students’
intelligence. It recognizes that deficit perspectives about students intersect with
broader deficit narratives about the intellectual and academic inferiority of students
of color and/or women in mathematics (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).
Studies of cognition share the power to determine what counts as productive
knowledge, how learning is supposed to happen, and what kinds of students benefit
in the process (Apple, 1992; Gutiérrez, 2013; Nasir, Hand, & Taylor, 2008). Because
intellectual capacity in learning mathematics is the heart of deficit narratives about
students of color and/or women, cognitive studies play a critical role in challenging
this narrative. The goal of this chapter is to challenge dominant power structures in
mathematics education. First, it challenges our tendency to rely on formal knowl-
edge in teaching mathematics. Second, it challenges the fixation with misconcep-
tions and deficiencies and its implication in the positioning of students. This chapter
presents ways that knowledge from students’ everyday experiences can be produc-
tive in learning formal mathematics beyond serving as a cover story. Specifically,
this chapter uses an episode of successful sensemaking of the formal limit definition
from calculus by a Chicana undergraduate student to evidence this position.

Theoretical Frameworks

Two theoretical frameworks guide the work of this chapter: the sociopolitical per-
spective and Knowledge in Pieces. The sociopolitical perspective (Gutiérrez, 2013,
Valero, 2004) serves as the framework for equity and focuses the chapter on ways
that issues of power are related to learning. Knowledge in Pieces (KiP; diSessa,
1993) serves as the framework for cognition. It guided the design of the instruc-
tional tool discussed in this chapter. More importantly, it is a cognitive framework
that is explicit about its anti-deficit view on students’ knowledge.

Sociopolitical Perspective

The sociopolitical perspective assumes that knowledge, power, and identity are
interrelated and “arising from (and constituted within) social discourses” (Gutiérrez,
2013, p. 40). This perspective acknowledges mathematics as a human practice that
is “inherently political, rife with issues of domination and power” (p. 40), and fore-
grounds the political aspects of research and practice in mathematics education,
with particular attention to issues of power. Adopting such a perspective involves
“uncovering the taken-for-granted rules and ways of operating that privilege some
individuals and exclude others” (p. 40) and continuing to challenge threatening nar-
ratives (e.g., stereotypes) about students from particular backgrounds and their
experiences (Larnell, 2013). In this chapter, the sociopolitical perspective supports
my critique of mathematics instructors’ practices primarily relying on students’
62 A. P. Adiredja

formal requisite knowledge and their focus on misconceptions, which have implica-
tions for students’ identity development. To challenge the focus on “deficits” of
students from underrepresented groups in mathematics, I focus on understanding
resources students use that support their sensemaking of advanced mathematical
topics (Valencia, 2010). KiP guides this analysis.

Knowledge in Pieces (KiP)

KiP conceptualized knowledge as a system of diverse elements and complex con-

nections (diSessa, 1993). The analysis in this chapter focused on the nature of the
elements, their diversity, and connections. KiP viewed characterizing knowledge
using ideas with larger grain size like “concept” or the commonly used idea of “mis-
conceptions” as analytically uninformative and unproductive in teaching (Smith
et al., 1993). KiP has taken an anti-deficit approach to knowledge and focused on
the context sensitivity of knowledge to maintain the productivity of a particular
piece of knowledge (Smith et al., 1993). This means that the productivity of a piece
of knowledge is highly dependent on the context in which it is used. For example,
the knowledge that “multiplication makes a number bigger” is productive in the
context of multiplication with numbers larger than one. The knowledge is not pro-
ductive in the context of multiplication with all real numbers.
In contrast to studies that focus on identifying and replacing students’ miscon-
ceptions, KiP focuses on building new knowledge on students’ prior knowledge
(Smith et  al., 1993). Studies using KiP have shown that students have intuitive
knowledge that can be leveraged in instruction (Campbell, 2011; Pratt & Noss,
2002). KiP also paid particular attention to the continuity of knowledge, i.e., ways
that knowledge gets used or built upon in new contexts. It is common for studies
that have used this framework to have uncovered productive sensemaking behind
students’ use of nonnormative language to describe their reasoning (e.g., Campbell,
2011; diSessa, 2014). These theoretical assumptions are operationalized in the
analysis framework section.

Methods

The data used for the illustration in this chapter came from a larger study investigat-
ing the role of intuitive knowledge in learning the formal definition of a limit in
calculus (Adiredja, 2014). Twenty-four students at a large public research university
participated in individual interviews that lasted 2–3  hours. The larger study also
aimed to investigate the impact of an instructional tool, the Pancake Story, on stu-
dents’ understanding of the formal definition.
The analysis for this chapter focused on a sensemaking episode by one student,
Adriana. At the time of the interview, Adriana was a mathematics and Chicanx studies
4  Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced Mathematics 63

major. Adriana self-identified as Chicana on a background survey administered at the

end of the interview. Adriana was selected because she is representative of the major-
ity of the students in the larger study whose understanding improved after engaging
with the instructional intervention. She was also articulate about the way her under-
standing changed during the interview. I selected Adriana as the case in this chapter
to centralize the sensemaking of a woman of color (Bell, Orbe, Drummon, & Camara,
2000). It is important to note that the goal was not to essentialize all Chicana students
nor to uncover some commonality of “cultural ways of reasoning” (Gutiérrez &
Rogoff, 2003) by Chicana students. Rather, the selection supports two broader goals.
First, it maintains the connections between cognition and the sociopolitical contexts
(e.g., experiences related to race and gender) associated with the student (Martin
et al., 2010), even when such contexts might not be the focus of the analysis. Second,
it allows for this study to draw implications about learning from the experience and
behavior of a woman of color. The lack of reporting of students’ backgrounds in
much mathematics education research maintains the implicit assumption that findings
are taken from studying White and male students and implications are drawn from the
experiences and behaviors of students from this population (Martin, 2013; Nasir,
2013). The selection of Adriana’s successful case thus challenged broader deficit nar-
ratives about women of color in mathematics (Adiredja, in press).

Mathematical Context and Brief Literature Review

The formal definition of a limit of a function at a point (hereafter “formal definition”)

has been an essential topic in mathematics majors’ development. Students are often
first introduced to the formal definition in calculus. The formal definition states that
the limit of a function f (x) as x approaches a is L (see Fig. 4.1), if and only if, for
every positive number ε, there exists a positive number δ, such that all numbers x that
are within δ of a (but not equal to a) yield f (x) values that are within ε of the limit L.2
Informally, one might say, “If L is the limit, then for however close one wants f (x)
to be to L, one can constrain the x-values so that f (x) would satisfy the given con-
straint.” We return to this intuitive idea shortly.
Students’ difficulty in understanding the formal definition has been widely docu-
mented in research and practice (e.g., Fernández, 2004; Tall & Vinner, 1981; Williams,
1991). Studies that have discussed students’ difficulties with the formal definition
have focused on broader misconceptions about limit that prevent students from
understanding the formal definition (Davis & Vinner, 1986; Parameswaran, 2007;

Fig. 4.1  Limit of a function

lim f(x)= L
xÆa

2
 This defining property is usually written as for every number ε > 0, there exists a number δ > 0
such that if 0 < | x – a |< δ then | f (x) – L |< ε.
64 A. P. Adiredja

Przenioslo, 2004; Tall & Vinner, 1981; Williams, 1991). A few studies that have taken
an anti-deficit perspective of students’ existing conceptions have uncovered impor-
tant aspects of understanding the logical structure of the formal definition (Boester,
2008; Swinyard, 2011). These studies found that one of the more challenging yet
important conceptual ideas was the relationship between epsilon and delta. The “tem-
poral order” (Davis & Vinner, 1986, p. 295) of delta and epsilon (hereafter “temporal
order”) refers to the relationship between delta and epsilon, which reflects an impor-
tant logical structure behind the formal definition. Within the definition, “for every
number ε > 0, there exists a number δ > 0” expresses this relationship.
The temporal order of δ and ε in the definition can be intuitively described using
the idea of quality control in manufacturing an item. Given a permissible error in the
measurement of the output (ε), one determines a way to control the input to achieve
that result. One does so by determining the permissible error in the measurement of
the input (δ) based on the given parameter for the output (ε).The error bound for the
input is dependent on the given error bound for the output. Epsilon can be seen as
the error bound of the output, whereas delta is the error bound for the input.
Therefore, δ depends on ε.

Instructional Design: The Pancake Story

I designed the Pancake Story (see Fig. 4.2) to leverage students’ intuitive knowledge
about quality control in making sense of the formal limit definition. Boester’s (2008)
Bolt Problem and Oehrtman’s (2008) approximation metaphor inspired The Pancake
Story. The Bolt Problem leveraged intuitions about quality control of manufacturing

The Pancake Story

You work at a famous pancake house that's known to make pancakes with 5” diameter. To make the perfect 5”
pancake you would use exactly 1 cup of batter. On your first day of work your boss told you that it is practically
impossible for you to be able to use exactly one cup to make the perfect 5 inches given how many and how fast
you will be making these pancakes. So for now, since you’re new, as long as your pancakes are anywhere within
½” from the 5”, he won’t fire you. Your job is then to figure out the maximum you can be off from the 1 cup to still
make pancakes that meet your boss’ standard. Specifically, given that your boss gave you the ½ an inch error
bound for the size, you need to figure out the error bound for the batter so that your pancakes won’t be off more
than the given error bound.
According to the work manual, there are two steps to do this. Based on the error bound for the size, you first need
to guessan error bound for the amount of batter. Then, you have to check to see if using any amount of batter that
is within the error bound from the 1 cup would make pancakes that are within the given error bound from the 5”.
For example, suppose based on the ½ inch error bound, you guessed ⅙ of a cup error bound for the amount of
batter. Then you check to see if using any amount of batter that is within ⅙ of a cup from the 1 cup, so between
⅚ and 1⅙ of a cup would make pancakes with size somewhere between 4½” and 5½”, that is within the ½” error
bound from 5”.
Over time, your boss expects you to be even more precise. So instead of ½” error bound from 5”, he says he wants
you to make pancakes that are within some ridiculously small error bound from 5”, but you don’t know what it’s
going to be. This means while he started by asking you to be within ½,” later he might want ¼” or 1/1000” from 5”.
Your job then becomes for however close your boss wants the pancake to 5”, you need to figure out the maximum
you can be off from 1 cup of batter such that if you use any amount of batter that is within that error bound from the
1 cup then your actual pancakes will still be within whatever error bound your boss gives you from the 5”.
Now, you don’t want to spend time each morning to recalculate everything. So you will try to come up with a way to
calculate an error bound for the batter based on whatever the given error bound for the size.

Fig. 4.2  The pancake story

4  Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced Mathematics 65

bolts for different clients, like home improvement clients versus NASA.  The
Pancake Story illustrated the key elements in the formal definition in what I assume
to be a more familiar context of pancake making than bolt making. The Pancake
Story also incorporates language related to error and error bound as in the approxi-
mation metaphor.
I designed the story with two differing principles from the metaphor. First, the story
focuses on the single topic of limit definition of functions. The approximation meta-
phor prioritizes the goal of identifying a generalizable abstract structure that can be
used with other related concepts associated with limits (e.g., Taylor series). Guided by
KiP’s assumption that knowledge is context sensitive, the design included one particu-
lar topic, attending to the details of this definition (e.g., logical structure of the math-
ematical statements). Second, in addition to leveraging a “real-life” context, the story
explicitly incorporated common ways students made sense of the topic. To assist with
the design of the story, I interviewed students about different ways that they made
sense of the formal definition (Adiredja & James, 2013). This allowed me to recognize
dominant (intuitive) ideas in students’ attempts to understand the limit definition.
These interviews revealed two dominant ideas. First, a number of students under-
stood the logical structure of logical implication statements (If A, then B) but incor-
rectly applied it to the relationship between epsilon and delta. They read the
statement “if 0 <| x − a |< δ then | f (x) − L |< ε” to say if delta then epsilon, so
epsilon had to depend on delta. Second, many students used the functional depen-
dence between x and f (x) to make sense of the relationship between epsilon and
delta. They argued that since epsilon was associated with f (x) and delta was with x,
then knowing that f (x) always depended on x, epsilon must also depend on delta.
These dominant ideas could easily be dismissed as “misconceptions.” I instead
viewed them as misapplication of useful knowledge elements. So, instead of pre-
venting their use, I determined what the useful idea(s) behind their assertion were
and identified them as knowledge resources. I incorporated these resources into the
story by finding a context where they could be used productively. The next section
specifies the process of identifying knowledge resources.
The story specifically focuses on the logic behind the statement “for every num-
ber ε > 0, there exists a number δ > 0” and distinguishing it from the statement “if 0
<| x − a |< δ then | f (x) − L |< ε.” The story offers the language of error and error
bound to help students differentiate between ε and | f (x) − L | and δ and | x − a | and
their respective relationships. Error in the output does depend on the error in the
input, but the boss in the story gives or specifies the permissible error bound in the
size to determine the error bound in the amount of batter. In this way, the story gives
a productive context for the functional dependence resource while leveraging
­students’ familiarity with the resource quality control. The story emphasizes that
epsilon is given, highlighting the givenness resource.
The story treats the two statements “for every number ε > 0, there exists a number
δ > 0” and “if 0 <| x − a |< δ then | f (x) − L |< ε,” as two separate steps in the worker’s
manual. First, the employee is given the specification to find the error bound in the
input. Second, the employee is to check whether using any amount of batter within
the discovered bound would make pancakes within the boss’ specification. The story
66 A. P. Adiredja

also includes an example of the whole process with a particular error bound. The goal
was to assist students to recognize the appropriate relationship between delta and
epsilon as a structure underlying the formal definition.3

 nalytical Framework: Knowledge Resources

A
and Counter-Models

A knowledge resource is a unit of ideas consisting of a single or a small collection

of interrelated knowledge elements with utilities in multiple contexts. Table  4.1
includes some of the relevant knowledge resources that I have identified (Adiredja,
2014). As part of a person’s prior knowledge, a knowledge resource can be intuitive
in nature and stem from their physical experiences in the everyday world. Other
knowledge resources might be ideas with origin in a person’s prior learning experi-
ences. For example, the resource proportional variation might stem from people’s

Table 4.1  Glossary of some knowledge resources

Knowledge
resource Description
Functional In an input-output relationship, the input directly determines the output. The
dependence relationship has a clear direction that the input determines the output, but not
vice-versa
The resource is reinforced by students’ experiences learning about functions.
The y or f (x) is often treated as the dependent variable and x the independent
variable
Function slots These resources use the stipulation that a function is a relationship between x
and f (x) or y. This resource supposes that when two quantities share a
functional relationship, one quantity is the x and the other is the f (x) or the y
Givenness A characteristic of being specified in advanced. A given quantity is one whose
properties are previously stipulated, and therefore its determination is not
relevant for further examination
Any mention of a quantity being previously set is a version of this resource.
Students often assume that the variable x or the domain of any function is a
given
Proportional A small change in the input leads to a small change in the output. This may be
variation an application of the more physically intuitive Ohm’s p-prim (diSessa, 1993)
into input/output relationship. Ohm’s p-prim says bigger effort begets bigger
result, and consequently smaller effort begets smaller result
Quality The idea of controlling the input values of a function in order to meet a given
control specification (e.g., error bound) for the output values
This resource involves the resource givenness of the constraint for the desired
output, but it also emphasizes the modification of the input to satisfy the given
constraint

3
 The story is not to be solved mathematically because it lacks sufficient information (e.g., con-
straint on the thickness of the pancakes). The numbers were selected to connect with the limit of a
linear function, f (x)= 3x+2 at x= 1. I fully recognize that a function involved in the story is not
linear and that one cup of batter makes an extremely thick 5 inch pancake!
4  Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced Mathematics 67

physical experiences of more effort begets more result, whereas functional depen-
dence is also often discussed in mathematics classrooms as functional relationship.
The utility of knowledge resources comes from their small grain size. It allowed
my analysis to recognize the continuity of forms of Adriana’s knowledge. Thus
changes in claims were not treated as Adriana simply changing her mind. Instead,
knowledge resources were repurposed and applied in a new context.
Theoretical assumptions from KiP about knowledge and some methodological
orientations assisted in the identification of knowledge resources in the analysis:

Knowledge resources are context sensitive, and so they are neutral with
respect to correctness. Incorrectness is a result of misapplications of a knowledge
resource in a new context. The neutrality assumption also distinguishes knowledge
resources from larger and more complex ideas. Assertions or claims are not a
knowledge resource because they can be incorrect. For example, the assertion,
“epsilon depends on delta because epsilon is y and delta is x” is not a knowledge
resource because it is incorrect. However, the claim includes the use of the knowl-
edge resource functional dependence, which is neutral with respect to correctness.
Unpacking ideas behind assertions and their development directed the
analysis toward identifying knowledge resources. The analysis triangulated
the meaning of a student’s assertion with other instances during the interview
where the student made similar assertions. It also used similar expressions of
ideas by other students to triangulate the meaning of the student’s assertion.
The analysis did not assume that they reflect the same knowledge resource. In
fact, analyzing the degree of consistency can reveal the use of a knowledge
resource in the particular context.
The use and articulation of a knowledge resource might vary depending on the
contexts in which they are cued. The use of a resource is influenced by their cueing
priority and reliability priority (diSessa, 1993). High cueing priority means that an
element is more likely to be activated when other elements that are consistent with
it are already activated. For example, the idea of functional dependence might have
a high cueing priority when students are talking about functions and relationships
between variables x and y. When a knowledge resource is taken to be understood, its
need to be articulated can diminish. However, a knowledge resource does not get
“abandoned” from a student’s conceptual ecology.
Building a “best fit” model using competitive argumentation (Schoenfeld,
Smith, & Arcavi, 1993; VanLehn, Brown, & Greeno, 1984). The analysis con-
structed a model of the student’s argument, which included the role for each
knowledge resource in the particular context. Competitive argumentation is illus-
trated explicitly in this chapter with the use of counter-models. The counter-­
models serve as competing hypotheses for the way that the student put together
different knowledge resources.
Knowledge resource as a construct is larger in grain size compared to phenom-
enological primitives (p-prims) (diSessa, 1993). P-prims are small, self-explanatory
knowledge elements that describe and are established out of everyday experience.
As described in diSessa (1993), p-prims are phenomenological in that the explana-
68 A. P. Adiredja

tions are drawn from the behavior of things that people experience and observe.
They are primitives in that they are self-explanatory, and so they are, in that sense,
atomic level knowledge structures. In justifying the validity of a particular p-prim,
people often respond with, “That’s just the way it is.” Some knowledge resources
share the primitive nature of p-prims.
The analysis in the data illustration is technical and complex. This is because
Adriana’s way of making sense of the topic is complex. The theoretical tools and
level of details helped us understand the reasoning behind Adriana’s claim. In the
discussion section, I compare the analysis with how labels of “misconceptions”
would have misled our understanding of Adriana’s sensemaking and could actually
be harmful to our perception of Adriana as a student. The analysis illustrates the
way that Adriana needed to align her prior knowledge with the new resources that
the story leveraged. It was not until she was able to align her prior knowledge that
she took up the resources that the story leveraged.

The Case of Adriana

Adriana’s sensemaking about the temporal order after engaging with the Pancake
Story is split into four episodes. The excerpt below is episode 4 and occurred toward
the end of her discussion about the dependence between epsilon and delta. Adriana
took some time to reconcile the ideas from the story and her prior knowledge in the
first three episodes. This was her final explanation about the temporal order. Bolded
terms are phrases or claims that represent ideas from which the analysis inferred
knowledge resources. Italicized terms in the analysis are knowledge resources.

Interviewer: So, do they [epsilon and delta] depend on each other, is it just one
way now?
Adriana: Um, see cus I was looking at it like … the f of x [f (x)] depends on
the x and that’s how I was like saying that epsilon depends on delta
because epsilon is related to the f of x [f (x)]…. But that’s just say-
ing the error of the L and the f of x [f (x)] depends on the a and
x but that’s not to say that epsilon depends on delta.
Interviewer: Ok, so?
Adriana: So, I think that delta depends on epsilon now [laughs]. Just cus if
it’s given like this [reference unclear] and you’re trying to aim at
getting … within a certain error bound, then you’re gonna try to
manipulate your entries … to be within a certain error bound
[gestures a small horizontal interval with her palms]
4  Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced Mathematics 69

Interviewer: Ok. Alright, so and so you changed your mind it seems? Um, so
how did that happen? Why did you change your mind?
Adriana: Because I was given an epsilon [points at the inequality 4.5 < f(x)
− L < 5.54] and that’s kinda like the main goal. The main goal is to
get the pancake, … and they gave me a constraint … and … they
didn’t give me an error bound for the batter or for like the a or x,
they didn’t give me an error bound. But I know I want to make it
small so that it’s within the error bound, the epsilon. So then I
would kinda base my delta on what was epsilon.

Counter Model

Adriana realized and corrected her mistake in using functional dependence to deter-
mine the temporal order for epsilon and delta. She realized that she had loosely
associated epsilon with the function, f (x), and delta with x (function slots), and had
incorrectly concluded that epsilon depended on delta. With a new understanding of
epsilon and delta as error bounds, she replaced her incorrect use of functional
dependence to describe the temporal order with quality control. With resources
from the story prioritized, Adriana concluded that delta depended on epsilon.
The counter model would have been a nice success story. Adriana shared a very
common “misconception” among students in the study. She erroneously treated
epsilon as f (x) values and delta as x values and relied on functional dependence to
describe their relationship. However, she realized her mistake and changed her
mind. She ended with a correct understanding about the temporal order. The analy-
sis using the framework for this chapter revealed a different model that more accu-
rately represents her reasoning.
This is not a story about a student correcting a misconception but a process of a
student aligning ideas she gained from a story with her prior knowledge. The analy-
sis identified the actual conflict. By going to the knowledge resource level, the anal-
ysis revealed that the fact that epsilon was given in the story conflicted with the
purpose of epsilon in providing a range of acceptable output values. A range of
acceptable output values was given (because epsilon was given), but such range of
values was also influenced by what input values one used. Adriana understood that
outputs depended on inputs and that she could not use that idea to describe the rela-
tionship between epsilon and delta. She ultimately resolved the conflict only after
she found a way to use the functional dependence relationship productively.

4
 This inequality is incorrect. The inequality should have been 4.5 < f (x) <5.5, but Adriana arrived
at this inequality in using the | f (x) − L |< ε from the statement of the definition.
70 A. P. Adiredja

Adriana had a particular conceptualization of epsilon as an error bound. In prior

episodes, Adriana never once loosely related epsilon to f (x) and delta to x as a result
of using function slots resource as was suggested by the counter model. Adriana
consistently inferred the error bound, epsilon, from the inequality 4.5 < f (x)–L < 5.5
without explicitly stating that epsilon was 0.5. To Adriana, the inequality repre-
sented both a range of acceptable f (x) values and the existence of an error bound.
Adriana focused on what epsilon was for rather than what it was. To Adriana, epsi-
lon’s main purpose as an error bound was to constrain acceptable output values.
Excerpts from this episode suggested that this was the conception she continued
to use until the end. Her use of “within a certain error bound” suggested the use of
a range of values in conceptualizing epsilon. Adriana said, “You aim at getting
within a certain error bound,” instead of getting the errors to be less than the error
bound. She also said, “manipulating your entries to be within a certain error bound,”
instead of manipulating your entries to be within a range of acceptable values.
Epsilon was an error bound that was conceptualized through a range of acceptable f
(x) values it provided.
It is important to note that while there might have been other ways to accurately
infer error bounds, Adriana’s way of inferring error bounds from the range of values
was also accurate. Aside from the incorrect simplification of | f (x) − 5 | < 0.5 to
4.5 < f (x) − L < 5.5 instead of 4.5 < f (x) <5.5, she was able to correctly and con-
sistently infer the appropriate error bound from the range of acceptable values. This
conceptualization influenced the way Adriana interacted with some of the ideas
presented in the story.
The error (f (x) − L), a range of acceptable f (x) values, and the error bound
(ε=0.5) were all encoded in the same inequality, 4.5 < f (x)-L < 5.5. This fact priori-
tized epsilon’s connection with f (x) values and the dependence of f (x) values on the
x values. This conflicted with the fact that epsilon was given in the story. Adriana
consistently noted that epsilon was given in the story in all three episodes leading up
to episode 4, and this fact did not settle well with her. Back in episode 1, she said,
“But, … if epsilon’s already set then you’ll manipulate your … delta so it’s within
an error bound and/…/then continue to manipu- wait [long pause] wait, so you’re
… hm.” In episode 3, Adriana specifically mentioned her confusion with the fact
that epsilon was given. She said, “I’m confused because they gave me an epsilon
and it’s already set.” She pointed at the inequality, 4.5 < f (x) − L < 5.5, when she
stated that epsilon was set. The fact that epsilon was already given conflicted with
the idea that f (x) values depended on the x values. The range of acceptable f (x)
values was already given, yet it was also dependent on the x values used.
This conflict was noticeably absent in the fourth episode. Adriana did not men-
tion any confusion. One possible explanation might be that she successfully distin-
guished error from error bound by episode 4. Adriana did spend some time earlier
in the interview distinguishing between error and error bound. It was not deemed
sufficient, however, to resolve the issue. In episode two, she made that distinction
but was still unsettled about the givenness of epsilon. She said, “I thought that the
epsilon and the delta were the errors but they’re the error bounds. … I guess if your
4  Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced Mathematics 71

epsilon is already set then your delta would depend on epsilon [silence].” She ended
that episode saying that she was confused.
Tracking the use of knowledge resources across the four episodes revealed that
while the givenness of epsilon was present and caused conflict in all previous epi-
sodes leading up to episode 4, functional dependence coincidentally was only
brought up in episode 1 and 4. In episode 1 the functional dependence resource actu-
ally drove her claim about the temporal order despite her mention of the givenness of
epsilon. She said, “Mostly whatever you’re putting in to your x is gonna determine
what you get for f (x) … Epsilon depends on delta.” The only new ­information
Adriana mentioned in episode 4 was “the error of the L and the f of x [f (x)] depends
on the a and x.” So Adriana’s use of functional dependence to describe the relation-
ship between the errors (f (x)-L and x-a) somehow allowed her to resolve the conflict
with the givenness of epsilon. We turn to KiP to explain how the conflict was resolved.
KiP posits that functional dependence was a knowledge resource that had high reli-
ability priority and high cueing priority in Adriana’s discussion of the temporal order.
It had high reliability because it was a piece of knowledge that Adriana likely had used
in high frequency as a mathematics major. More importantly, it had been productive
in different learning contexts. It also had high cueing priority because she encoded
epsilon through the inequality that involved f (x). That is, the “f (x)” in the inequality
4.5 < f (x)-L < 5.5 likely cued knowledge about function, which included the func-
tional dependence relationship. In non-theoretical terms, Adriana knew that this was
productive knowledge and that it was relevant in this context. She did not have a con-
text where she could use functional dependence productively in episodes 2 and 3.
Adriana, in considering the givenness of epsilon, recognized that the application
of functional dependence to epsilon and delta was incorrect. This was because if
epsilon was given, then delta would have to depend on epsilon. So Adriana needed
a context where this generally productive and relevant resource could be used pro-
ductively in this discussion. She found it with the errors. This effectively aligned her
prior knowledge with productive resources from the story and leveraged givenness
of epsilon and quality control to describe the temporal order.
It is worth noting that Adriana had already understood those resources from the
story. She had been able to articulate them since episode 2: “If I said epsilon was an
error bound and if they already give me an error bound, I want … my result to be
within this error bound here [circles the inequality 4.5<f (x)-L<5.5] then … I would
try to manipulate my errors here [points to a small range on the x axis on the graph]
to be within a smaller error bound [points at delta in the delta inequality in the defi-
nition].” She stated something similar in episode 3.
She also noticeably switched her language when explaining the reason for the
change in her thinking. When I first asked the temporal order question, she did not
mention pancakes or batter in her explanation. She did use the terms “error” and
“error bound,” which were terms introduced in the story. In explaining the change
in her thinking, however, she used parts of the story more explicitly. For example,
she referred to satisfying epsilon as the goal of making pancakes within a specified
constraint.
72 A. P. Adiredja

Final Model

In a final model, Adriana repurposed functional dependence to describe the relation-

ship between the errors. This move helped Adriana resolve a critical conflict that she
had in previous episodes about the givenness of epsilon. Adriana understood the
implication of both givenness of epsilon and quality control on the temporal order
since previous episodes. Having addressed her conflict, she prioritized those
resources and determined the relationship between ε and δ. Adriana also made a
productive observation that delta was not given, showing her use of the givenness
resource with delta. She used proportional variation in arguing that she wanted
delta to be small to accommodate a small epsilon. Adriana recognized that epsilon
and delta are error bounds, not errors, and she maintained her conceptualization of
the error bounds based on a range of function and input values.

Discussion and Implications

The Pancake Story was designed explicitly to incorporate common ways of reason-
ing and to use a context and language accessible to students. It sought to build on
and help reorganize students’ thinking about the topic. The story was, however, just
a tool for Adriana to use. The analysis illustrates the way Adriana successfully made
sense of the temporal order using the story. In addition to getting access to knowl-
edge resources in the story, like quality control and givenness of epsilon, Adriana
benefitted from the context and the language of the Pancake Story. The story and
Adriana’s interaction with it show an example of the utility of knowledge (resources)
from students’ everyday lives in learning advanced mathematics.
The framework offered in this chapter proved productive in understanding Adriana’s
sensemaking of the topic with the story. Staying at the knowledge resource level
allowed the analysis to recognize the versatility of knowledge resources and how they
interacted with the context and with one another. We observed how Adriana’s concep-
tualization of epsilon might have increased the priority of functional dependence for
the temporal order. We also observed how functional dependence conflicted with
givenness of epsilon from the story and the way Adriana repurposed that knowledge
resource to describe the relationship between the errors. An important takeaway from
Adriana’s case is the critical importance of attending to students’ ideas, especially
those that have high reliability priority like the functional dependence.
The analysis highlights that knowledge elements with high reliability cannot be
treated as “misconceptions” and simply replaced with the “correct” idea. Such
knowledge elements might demand a context in which they can be used produc-
tively. Adriana knew how to use quality control and givenness from the story to
make sense of the temporal order almost immediately after she engaged with the
story. She also knew that functional dependence was relevant in this context because
she was working with functions. It was not until she found a context in which she
4  Building on “Misconceptions” and Students’ Intuitions in Advanced Mathematics 73

could use functional dependence productively that she prioritized the use of the
productive resources from the story. This finding opens the discussion about the
inaccuracy and harm of focusing on students’ misconceptions.
There were a number of instances when Adriana’s reasoning could be classified
as involving misconceptions. Consider Adriana’s use of functional dependence to
determine the temporal order. Focusing on it as a misconception, we would look
for the source of the mistake. We might guess that the issue was with her under-
standing of epsilon and delta. We would then learn that Adriana used the inequality
4.5 < f (x)-L < 5.5 to infer epsilon. We first would notice that there was an error in
algebraic manipulation. Then we might focus on how such a conceptualization
might be the reason for her misconception. We might then try to fix those errors and
suggest an alternate way to approach the problem by clarifying that epsilon and
delta were error bounds. We might even reiterate the quality control idea from the
story or the fact that epsilon was given.
The analysis in this chapter shows that this approach would not work to help
Adriana make sense of the topic. What we identified as issues were not issues for
Adriana. She understood the story and what epsilon was. Aside from an error in
simplifying the expression, there was not really an issue in her understanding.
Focusing on misconceptions fixates us on students’ mistakes and positions us fur-
ther away from identifying the real issue that students might be grappling with.
Identifying mistakes and errors seems to be a quick way to attend to our students’
thinking. Attempting to do the analysis of this chapter in the classroom would also
take a lot of time and energy. In addition to not identifying the real issue, such an
approach also would not have recognized anything that Adriana was doing right.
The more time spent on identifying misconceptions, the less time we have to recog-
nize what students have understood.
Let us step back and consider the sociopolitical context and the interrelatedness
of power, knowledge, and identity in the interaction with Adriana. Adriana is a
Chicana student studying mathematics. I included Adriana’s gender and ethnicity as
a way to centralize the sensemaking of a woman of color in advanced mathematics
(Bell et al., 2000) and partly to construct counternarratives about women of color in
mathematics (Adiredja, in press). Including her background allowed for consider-
ation of the impact of a fixation on misconceptions of students whose knowledge
has historically been and continues to be marginalized. By focusing solely on their
misconceptions, we are highlighting what they do not understand, thus reinforcing
deficit narratives about students of color and/or women in mathematics. This is
partly why challenging deficit narratives about mathematical learning in the broader
field has been included as part of equitable teaching (Bartell et al., 2017) and in posi-
tion statements about social justice in mathematics education (e.g., National Council
of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) & TODOS: Mathematics for All, 2016).
Considering the interrelatedness of knowledge, power, and identity, it is also
worth noting that the Pancake Story privileges what I, as a teacher and researcher,
considered to be helpful for students. I designed the story to prioritize certain ideas
(e.g., quality control), but de-emphasized others (e.g., relationship between volume
and diameter). Although I incorporated information from student interviews in
74 A. P. Adiredja

designing the story, I still made assumptions about the degree of familiarity students
might have and ways that students might make sense of the story. The story did help
many students in the study to make sense of the temporal order (Adiredja, 2014),
but it likely did not resonate equally with all the students (Tate, 1994). Allowing
students to come up with similar stories could help support students’ positive math-
ematical identity development by incorporating students’ thinking in learning. In a
different study, a colleague and I explored such ideas with a group of women of
color STEM students. The women in the study constructed novel and useful stories
to explain the concept of basis in linear algebra using contexts from their everyday
experiences (Adiredja & Zandieh, 2017).
In closing, leveraging students’ intuitions from their everyday lives can be helpful
in learning advanced mathematics. At the same time, the analysis of Adriana’s sense-
making shows us that designing an instructional tool that incorporates those intuitions
is complex, and the design is only part of the work. The main work lies in helping
students engage with resources from instruction and attending carefully to their prior
knowledge. Students want and need to connect what they are learning to what they
have learned. Students likely use ideas that have been useful in the past, especially if
there is something in the learning context that specifically cues such knowledge. The
notion of misconception is convenient, but it does not help the students or the teachers
to make sense of how students are making sense of the topic. Recognizing students as
capable learners of mathematics, equipped with different kinds of knowledge, and
broadening what counts as productive mathematical knowledge are ways that we as
educators can engage in the politics of mathematics education.

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Weber, K., Inglis, M., & Mejia-Ramos, J.  P. (2014). How mathematicians obtain conviction:
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Zandieh, M., & Rasmussen, C. (2010). Defining as a mathematical activity: A framework for
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Mathematical Behavior, 29(2), 57–75.
Chapter 5
Promoting Equitable Systems
in Mathematics Education Starts with Us:
Linking Literature on Allywork to the Work
of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Carlos LópezLeiva, Beth Herbel-Eisemann, and Ayşe Yolcu

Abstract Mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) within mathematics education

systems have unearned assets that present strengths and challenges to the process of
developing relationships with mathematics teachers (MTs), students, and their
communities. Aware of such issues, we discuss in this chapter the concept and potential
applications of allywork for the promotion of equitable systems in mathematics
education. With this goal, we draw on literature from within and outside of mathematics
education to (1) understand sociohistorical reasons for why MTEs should consider an
ally stance in their work with MTs, (2) to consider who an ally is (and is not), and (3)
to detail what allywork entails. An analysis of the coercive and hierarchical relations
that the mathematics education field has inherited through the systemic feminization
of education in the classroom and the masculinization of research and teacher
education and the current diverse demographics of the US mathematics educational
system frames the need and relevance of allywork. Allywork is understood as MTEs
and MTs (as well as students and their community) working with each other in self,
others, and systems (SOS) spaces. Description of an interior as well as exterior
negotiation and disruption of issues of privilege and oppression highlight the personal
and yet systemic dimensions required in MTEs’ work and identities as allies. This
chapter further contrasts allywork with other stances, links these ideas to mathematics
education, and raises questions on how MTEs’ work and identities critically address
and intersect with the goals, needs, and actions of others in SOS spaces.

C. LópezLeiva (*)
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
B. Herbel-Eisemann
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
A. Yolcu
Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 77

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_5
78 C. LópezLeiva et al.

Introduction

We’re just never, ever, ever, ever, ever treated with autonomy,
Or to think that what we think would be best,
Or to think about what’s important and do it for a long time,
Or to be supported in what you think is best over a long time…
that structure was so foreign to me. (Teacher-Researcher Interview1)
This teacher’s comment depicts the sentiment of many teachers. Teachers are
often not treated as professionals—as if they do not know what is best for their
students—and are often degraded in the media and by policymakers (Adler, 1992;
Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1992; Felton & Koestler, 2015; Herbel-Eisenmann, 2015;
Herbel-Eisenmann & Cirillo, 2009). As mathematics teacher educators (MTEs),
we are aware of our being outsiders to K-12 classroom contexts, even if we have
prior teaching experience. We have a strong call, however, to work with and make
ourselves available to teachers and students, aiming to establish alliances with
mathematics teachers (MTs) to promote more equitable mathematics systems.
Equitable mathematics systems refer to levels of mathematics education that
­support fair distribution of opportunities to participate and learn. In this chapter,
we draw on literature from within and outside of mathematics education to
(a) understand sociohistorical reasons for why MTEs should consider an ally
stance in their work with MTs, (b) to consider who an ally is (and is not), and
(c) to detail what allywork entails.
We recognize that sociocultural and political “privilege doesn’t derive from who
we are or what we’ve done. It is … a [broader] social arrangement that depends on
which category we happen to be sorted into by other people and how they treat us
as a result” (Johnson, 2006, p. 15). Our positions as university faculty entitle us an
“epistemic privilege” (p. 22) that might easily lead us to remain oblivious to these
unearned assets and ignore the challenges that MTs and students face within the
system of mathematics education. Overcoming this obliviousness requires effort
and commitment. In the work toward equity and justice in mathematics education,
this ignorance must be named and overtly worked on. For example, a group of
teacher educators who identified themselves as allies and committed to anti-racist
teaching confronted whiteness in their own teaching practices by conducting focus
group interviews, self-study, and analysis of students’ (teacher candidates) reflec-
tions and comments about teacher educators (Galman, Pica-Smith, & Rosenberger,
2010). They found that prospective teacher reflections affirmed the nonparticipation
of white students in race-related topics and also silenced race talk.
Additionally, when we consider MTEs, the need for an ally approach becomes
explicit. For example, if we focus on demographics, most (three-quarters) teacher
educators are female and white; black and Hispanic MTEs make up only 13%
(Goldring, Taie, & Riddles, 2014). Similarly, in the K-12 teaching population, the
majority of teachers are female and white, and an even smaller percentage of
­mathematics teachers are black and Hispanic (about 7% and 8%, respectively).

 From Herbel-Eisenmann (2015, p. 7).

1
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 79

Secondary MTs are 57% female, but still over 75% are white with similar
representation for MTs who are black and Hispanic. Female and white are
­
predominant patterns in general education and mathematics education from
­
K-university levels. Teachers’ attrition rates over time follow a reverse pattern that
reduces the percentage of underrepresented groups of teachers even more. From
the K-12 teacher population, 15% of white teachers either left teaching definitively
or moved to a new school within or outside of the school district. Respectively, and
on the same variables, black and Hispanic teachers had higher attrition levels of
22% and 21% (Data USA, 2014; Goldring et al., 2014). Although statistics consis-
tently describe higher percentages of female MTEs and MTs, historically the
majority of people working in higher education have been white males, whereas
the majority of people teaching in K-12 have been white women (Martin, 2015).
These numbers partly depict the circumstances that MTs face, especially since one
out of five black and Hispanic MTs leave their schools. Further, these numbers
describe how students from minoritized groups are taught mathematics with
­limited access to teachers who look, act, and speak like them. Finally, these demo-
graphic patterns speak to a greater likelihood for white female MTEs to develop
alliances with white female MTs who work with students from diverse ­backgrounds.
Such a situation portrays the need to develop greater understandings, relationships,
and nurturing alliances across interracial groups.
In the following sections, to address the different culturing and valuing of these
various “spaces” (i.e., nature of institutions, work requirements of positions, what
we focus on, how we think about things), we use a gender lens to illustrate the ways
in which sexism sets up MTEs as more privileged participants in society by virtue
of being in higher education and MTs as second-class citizens2. We make use of the
gender divide not because we agree and support such a dichotomous divide but
because this divide served historically as a way to exert control and reinforce
­systemic values and hierarchies. We then draw on literature about allies in the
­context of racism, sexism, and classism to understand how to disrupt systemic
­patterns of oppression in mathematics education, in particular, focusing on who an
ally is (and is not) and what allywork involves. We use those ideas to propose ways
to disrupt a system in mathematics education that continually diminishes the work
of MTs. We argue that MTEs need to be allies for MTs, and at the same time, both
groups need to extend alliances with more racially, culturally, and linguistically
diverse MTs and communities to serve better together the diverse students that are
in current m
­ athematics systems. This approach seems especially relevant under the
current influences of neoliberal ideologies and interest convergence practices.

2
 We recognize the complicated fact pointed out by Labaree (2003) that, as academics, faculty who
prepare teachers are, within the systems of power at the university, considered second-class citi-
zens. He describes many reasons for this, for example, a long history of producing many teachers
at fairly low costs and with little attention to quality of programs and the link to preparing teachers,
who are seen as low status by many in the United States.
80 C. LópezLeiva et al.

 onsidering Higher Education and K-12 Teaching

C
Through a Gendered Lens

We first draw on work about gender to argue that as academics in higher education
(a space that was originally founded primarily by and for men), MTEs are in a space
that is highly male-oriented; we see many remnants of patriarchy in this space that
not only banned women for decades but also shaped many of the rankings and prac-
tices that currently exist3. In contrast to that space, we show that historically, ­teaching
in preK-12 (and especially preK-5) has been constructed as “women’s” work.

Higher Education as a “Male-Oriented” Hierarchical Space

Between 1636 and 1776, ten colleges in the United States were founded to offer
higher education in the “new world,” including Harvard, William and Mary, Yale,
and others. These colleges, however, were “beyond the reach of most men, for lack
of social status, and of all women, by virtue of their sex” (Solomon, 1985, p. 2). The
1890 signing of the second Morrill Land Grant Act affirmed the importance of
­public higher education by requiring “federal allocations to be ‘fairly divided
between Negroes and Whites’” (Solomon, 1985, p. 44). Women were not mentioned
in this act, but it allowed women in greater numbers to establish their right to attend
­universities across the United States. This part of the history of higher education is
included here mainly to make the point that colleges and universities were estab-
lished, run, and organized by and for white, upper middle-class men as an elite way
to develop and maintain their leadership in many domains of society. This history
relates to and impacts the practices and hierarchies that are ingrained in institutions
of higher education today.
Regardless of the progress being made toward including women in higher
­education, there were still fewer than 10% of doctorates granted to women across the
1960s (Harris, 1974). By 1970, reports on women in higher education, as reviewed
by Peterson (1974), highlighted how women were still contending with differential
judgment of their work (based on stereotypes rather than on the quality of the work
they produced). They needed to argue for equivalent pay and experienced differential
treatment, such as if they chose to have a family—a sign that patriarchy still reigned
highly in the structures and systems of bias. The College and University Faculty: A
Statistical Description (Bayer, 1970; as reported in Kreps, 1974) indicates that less
than 10% of all colleges and universities had women serving in high-, senior-level
positions. In fact, Fox (2001) mentions that even though the number of women
obtaining doctorate degrees increased from 12% to 18% between 1960 and 1970, the

3
 We also recognize that people of color did not have access to higher education for many years. To
keep our argument concise and to keep it aligned with the argument about the feminization of K-12
teaching, we limit our discussion to drawing on gender-related work.
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 81

numbers in science fields were disproportionately lower. “In 1973, women were
4 percent of professors across all science fields; in 1987, that proportion was
7 ­percent; in 1993, 10 percent; and in 1997, still just 11 percent” (p. 657). Solomon
(1985) corroborates this trend arguing that by 1980, the percentage of women with
doctorates was 30%, with only 26% of faculty being women in nonprofessional
­programs at that time (p. 133). As Harris (1974) pointed out: “Because more men
than women are encouraged to attend graduate school, present papers at meetings,
and publish them, the standard of competence has been e­ stablished by male perfor-
mance” (p. 11). She highlights the fact that the women’s liberation movement began
outside of academia, stating that the university community was “unable to perceive
the enormity of the problem … [in society and of] the s­ ubjugation of women in the
university community” (p.  12) and, in fact, was ­probably one of the “most sexist
institutions in this country” (p. 14). Women have been evaluated on sameness and
difference from men. In science, for example, some valued attributes include objec-
tivity, depersonalized thinking, analysis, and judgment, attributes that often were
associated with men, masculinity, and “thinking like a man” (Fox, 2001, p. 662).
Such perspectives othered women within scientific a­ cademic fields and reinforced
fixed “feminine” traits of being caring and subjective.
More recently, scholars have used constructs like patriarchy (Bagihole & Goode,
2001), hegemonic masculinity (Bagihole, 2002), and gender schemas (Valian, 2005)
to unearth the various ways in which this history of majority male participation in
higher education may impact women in academia. This literature shows that not
much has changed in the institution to support women, even when equal opportunity
policies have been put in place (Bagihole, 2002; Bagihole & Goode, 2001). These
authors suggest that academia perpetuates a myth of individualism and self-­
promotion, which can be problematic for women “in the pervasive culture where
they may find their academic achievements very differently valued and evaluated
from [their] male peers (Littin, 1983)” (Bagihole & Goode, 2001, p. 163). Although
some research has focused on women as the source of the problem, more recent
research has identified issues within the institution and academic practices instead:
As the present study demonstrates, the reality is very different. There is nothing wrong with
the women. They are in fact entering this competitive professional environment ‘from dif-
ferent starting points and with heavier burdens than their male peers’ (Aisenberg &
Harrington, 1988, p. 50). They face questions, usually unvoiced but still tangible, such as,
‘Do women have what it takes to do this job?’ For men, on the other hand, entry is perceived
as ‘natural.’ (Bagihole & Goode, 2001, p. 174)

These “male-dominated” practices exist, for example, in the ways academics

network and self-promote, whom they choose to cite, and through barely visible,
small disparities that accumulate over time to advantage men. As academia contin-
ues to perpetuate this male culture, it also benefits from it in terms of power systems
in comparison to K-12 teaching. For example, there is an assumption that all
­academics should experience an elite-based system that allows, for instance, profes-
sional autonomy, fairly flexible allocation of time, and relatively low levels of
administration. These kinds of assumptions are far from the reality for K-12 ­teachers
where all of these resources are being more and more managed and restricted.
82 C. LópezLeiva et al.

The Feminization of K-12 Teaching

In contrast, K-12 teaching has been regarded as a feminized profession as compared

to other university-educated career choices. The continuous decline of males in the
teaching workforce, however, is not a recent phenomenon. The feminization of
­public school teaching can be traced back to the end of the nineteenth century,
which is a particular moment in the history of American public education. As
Richardson and Hatcher (1983) argue, starting from the 1870s, public school
­teaching was transformed from predominantly male work to one identified as a
female occupation due to two larger social forces: “the processes of state school
system formation” and “the persistence of cultural constraints on women’s work
participation” (p.  82). The economic and demographic expansion in the United
States during this time period facilitated the spread of compulsory common schools.
The concern was to provide supply for the workforce while reducing the increased
school costs. The industrial urbanization brought the shortage of teaching workforce
as men were hired in factories, managerial positions, or various businesses. Female
teachers, then, turned out to be a low-cost labor supply for the teaching and educating
of children as the dominant culture necessitated. Nonetheless, according to Lather
(1987), the history of a gendered workforce cannot be read by only the changes in
the mode of production (i.e., from agriculture to industrialization). What is at stake
is to consider the tenets of patriarchy and capitalism together that reproduce the
power relations at the societal level. As Lather (1987) argues, “there is an interactive
reciprocity and interweaving of the needs of patriarchy and capital which must be
taken into account in understanding the work lives of teachers. How has gender
shaped the nature of teacher work?” (p. 29).
The industrial revolution not only changed the nature of work but also ­transformed
the US culture toward consumption of factory products from the domestic women-
made ones. As a result, the social responsibility to educate citizens for this emerging
society of consumption switched to women. Although women were getting out into
the public sphere and participated in the workforce, the patriarchal authority did not
shift because teaching still maintained women’s moral obligations as mothers to
raise a child as a productive member of the society (Grumet, 1981). This paradoxi-
cal situation resonates with Apple’s (1983) positioning of teachers into a “contradic-
tory class location” (p. 612). According to Apple, it is reasonable to think teachers
are located in two classes simultaneously: Although they share the interests of the
petty bourgeoisie (the particular culture that is imposed through the official curricu-
lum), they are also part of the working class due to fiscal crisis where many teachers
had to face poor working conditions, layoffs, unpaid hours, or a loss of control and
voice for themselves. Nonetheless, Apple (1983) cautions us, similarly to Lather
(1987), not to read teachers’ working conditions only from a perspective of ­economic
structures since teachers are gendered actors as well due to historically ­experienced
sexist practices of recruitment and promotion in patriarchal societies where ­women’s
labor is colonized.
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 83

The relations of power and authority in K-12 schools have historically been
formed as patriarchal, in which the school system is organized around primarily
male educational leadership and a female teaching body (Apple, 1983). This means
that teaching is considered both a feminine occupation and a kind of domestic
­service conducted by women that male leadership has to control. More specifically,
policymakers and academics in the male-oriented hierarchical space of higher edu-
cation intervened in school curricula and textbooks as part of the educational reforms
(Apple, 1983). The manipulation and control of textbooks and curricular materials,
however, yielded to the prescriptions for teacher practice, a feminine workforce, by
the male-dominated academy. That is to say, the academicians were perceived as
“experts” who were defining, controlling, and managing teaching, which was
already a feminized profession. Academics were regarded as “experts” who
­corrected the “wrongs” of teaching in K-12 settings. Male-dominated expert control
of the feminized teaching workforce in K-12 schools entered as another layer to the
gendered power relations and contributed to the hierarchical structures.
In this section, we have used gender-related work to argue that higher education
has been structured under the hegemony of men, while K-12 teaching was feminized
as a result of economic and gendered expectations of women (who make up the
majority of the teaching population, especially at the K-6 level). Thus, we see the
historical aspects of these spaces as creating a hierarchical system whereby academ-
ics who work in higher education are seen as intellectual contributors who exist in a
mythical “ivory tower” and “above” the primarily “women’s work” of K-12 teachers
who work with children and youth (Tate, 1994). Although we reiterate that we do not
see this particular system hierarchy as being on the same level as systems that
­perpetuate racism, classism, heterosexism, etc., we recognize the impact of the
­history of these spaces as setting up a hierarchy that is important to the ways in
which ­faculty (in our case MTEs) interact with teachers (in our case, MTs). In the
following sections, we examine literature related to these other systems of privilege
and oppression to explain what an ally is and what allywork involves. We use this
literature to extrapolate some key characteristics of allywork when MTEs work with
MTs. In an era of Waiting for Superman (Swalwell & Apple, 2011) and other societal
and policy moves to further deprofessionalize teachers (e.g., Cochran-­Smith, 2005;
Emery & Ohanian, 2004; Sleeter, 2007), we see MTEs as important allies for MTs.

 inkages Between MTEs’ Work and Definitions of Ally

L
and Allywork

The work of MTEs as allies is complex because they need to support the equitable
negotiation of the spaces between MTs (mostly white) and their students and com-
munities (i.e., representing diverse communities, with significant percentages of
minoritized groups). This work demands a process of finding a fair, balanced,
84 C. LópezLeiva et al.

equitable point between teaching and learning efforts and needs. A laden system of
values can immediately oppress and limit any of the participants in a mathematics
system. As allies, MTEs work not only for the MTs and students but also with them.
Below, we present literature focused on the conceptualization of ally identity and
allywork and make links to what we envision as equitable MTE allywork. We have
organized this section into three subsections. We raise reflective questions related to
MTEs’ work as allies to nurture discussion. By acknowledging their historically
privileged academic positions, MTEs have the possibility and responsibility of
addressing the laden dynamics of their privilege when working with MTs. As allies,
we envision the possibility of the MTEs disrupting issues of power, as related to
race, class, and gender, during their interpersonal and professional work relations
with MTs and the diverse student communities with whom they might work. With
this purpose, and to develop deeper understandings of who an ally is, we consulted
literature outside of mathematics education which we discuss in relation to self, oth-
ers, and systems (SOS) spaces and present as follows: (a) Who is and is not an ally?
(b) What are some processes involved in becoming an ally? and (c) What are some
considerations for working as an ally?

Who Is and Who Is Not an Ally?

Initially introduced in the literature in relation to heterosexual people working in

support of lesbian, gay, and bisexual issues (Broido, 2000; Washington & Evans,
1991) and white students addressing issues of racism (Bourassa, 1991), the term
ally refers to “a member of the ‘dominant’ or ‘majority’ group [e.g., men, Whites,
heterosexuals, able people, language dominant speakers], who works to end oppres-
sion in [their] personal and professional life through support of, and as an advocate
for, the oppressed population” (Washington & Evans, 1991, p. 195). As such, allies
aim to be a positive force to minoritized communities by providing external support
and force against forms of oppression (Alimo, 2012; Bishop, 2015; Broido, 2000;
Clark, 2010; Goldstein & Davis, 2010; Jenkins, 2009; Myers, Lindburg Jenkins, &
Nied, 2014; Patton & Bondi, 2015; Washington & Evans, 1991). Being an ally,
however, does not necessarily mean “help victims of racism, but rather … speak up
[and act] against systems of oppression and … challenge other Whites to do the
same” (Tatum, 1998, p.  109). In the different contexts of systemic oppressions,
allies invite others to join, fight against, and end the “isms” that disempower
­minoritized communities (Schniedewind & Cathers, 2003).
From this perspective, we understand an ally as a person, or entity, who has
gained awareness of issues in relation to SOS and who actively works across these
spaces to promote social justice. Below, we describe how “being an ally is about
attitude, awareness, and behavior” (Myers et al., 2014, p. 69) across SOS spaces.
Awareness of spaces of privileges for self (SOS) and oppression of others (SOS)
is fundamental for an ally position. This knowledge is acquired through immersion
in a community (within one’s own community and outside communities) and the
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 85

noticing of how differences affect the distribution of privilege and oppression

(Clark, 2010; Jenkins, 2009; Myers et  al., 2014). This awareness can turn into a
source of discomfort through realization of self-privileges. An ally stance needs to
reach beyond guilt and resist biased socialization behavior to embrace one’s respon-
sibility toward the community (Myers et  al., 2014) by negotiating, creating, and
promoting social change (Cochran-Smith, 1995; Patton & Bondi, 2015).
Alongside the relation between awareness and action, Bishop (2015) directs our
attention to issues beyond an ally’s episodic work and personal stances:
It is ridiculous to claim you are not sexist if you are a man or not racist if you are white and
so on. No matter how much work you have done on that area of yourself, there is more to
be done; the oppressive messages that surround us, unconsciously absorbed, constantly
undo some of our efforts … It is an ongoing task, like keeping the dishes clean … A white
person never becomes non-racist but is always a ‘recovering racist,’ more often referred to
as ‘anti-racist.’ … members of an oppressor group are always oppressors, no matter how
much individual learning we have done: until we change the politics and economics of
oppression, we are still ‘living off the avails.’ […] So, until we succeed in making a more
humane world, yes, we are racist (or ageist, or classist, or heterosexist and so forth).
Understanding this is part of learning to think structurally rather than individually. It is part
of avoiding overpersonalization of the issues. (pp. 94–95)

Bishop highlights the relevance of a laden systemic space (SOS) as a source of

­hierarchical oppression and privilege. Systemic spaces of laden power nurture the
privilege of nontarget (i.e., privileged; e.g., white, male, heterosexual, fit) members
and the oppression of target (i.e., oppressed) members in our communities.
Privilege results from systemic, acting paradigms that are set as norms and expec-
tations that benefit those who have traits that align with such paradigms (e.g., a
societal space with a dominant heterosexual paradigm or English-only paradigm);
in turn, these dominant paradigms limit, oppress, or stigmatize others who engage
in actions or have traits different from those of the dominant paradigms (e.g., being
bisexual; speaking other languages than English). For that reason, episodic actions
or personalization of these issues by nontarget (privileged) group members fall
short toward effecting social change. Rather, a position for social change aims at
disrupting s­ystemic spaces that sustain and perpetuate coercive relations
(Bell, 1997; Munin & Speight, 2010). Mindful of these dynamics of power, espe-
cially between researchers and teachers, some educational initiatives have
addressed these issues by ­developing collaborative approaches, such as action
research in the classroom, where teachers and researchers work as colleagues
(Elliot, 1991). This approach to research in education has opened spaces of fruitful,
collaborative, and equitable relations between MTs and MTEs (Adler, 1992; Felton
& Koestler, 2015; Herbel-Eisenmann & Cirillo, 2009; Parks & Wager, 2015). Here
is where we located SOS spaces for allywork in mathematics.
Therefore, we understand allywork between MTEs and MTs as working with
each other. Our review of literature on allywork has led us to identify four different
stances that one can take in SOS spaces; we portray them in Fig. 5.1.
Essentially, we understand allywork as working with others in SOS spaces.
Allywork implies an awareness about others’ (members from target groups’) situa-
tion and oppression, as pointed out by them (others). This awareness is nurtured
86 C. LópezLeiva et al.

Fig. 5.1  Stances (only, for, about, and with) in systems of privilege and oppression

through interactions with them (others). At the same time, allywork implies ­engaging
in actions with them (others) to disrupt systemic issues of oppression and privilege.
Thus, the identification of the systemic issues as well as the development of plans to
disrupt the systemic issues results from a collaborative work with others.
The Indigenous Action Media (IAM) (n.d.) goes even further naming allywork as
insufficient to address systemic issues of oppression. IAM argues that having an anti-
oppression stance requires counteracting current systems of oppression to the point
that these liberatory actions might be condemned by the system as criminal. IAM, in
fact, suggests an accomplice stance as a person who helps or works with another to
commit a crime. We highlight the relevance of the work with as essential in allywork
and that of an accomplice when the needed work reaches beyond official SOS spaces.
The remaining stances portrayed on the quadrant of Fig. 5.1 describe how, on the
continua of awareness and actions, one can take a stance in the SOS spaces in relation
to systems of privilege and oppression. The right lower quadrant on developing work
about others depicts a stance of someone who is aware of issues of power in a com-
munity and who aligns with the needs of the oppressed community. Such a stance,
however, is mainly rhetorical without explicit actions that lead to systemic change,
for example, “the mere silencing of hate-talk” or “anti-work” (p. 712). Clark (2010)
names this stance as an advocate, who partly interrupts oppression against m
­ inoritized
communities by becoming a defender that pleads for a cause (Jenkins, 2009).
The left upper quadrant describes a stance in SOS spaces of work for others. This
position involves engaging in actions that promote changes but not necessarily with
enough awareness about the needs and goals of others or of the community. Clark
(2010) names this stance “agents” who “work to create change within dimensions
of society in which they may or may not have power” (p. 28). Finally, the lower left
quadrant depicts a stance that we understand as centered only on awareness of self
needs and issues and actions that only benefit the self. This stance remains impartial
to or oblivious about issues of power affecting others in the community and
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 87

i­mplements no actions toward others. Through this passive stance, one becomes
complicit with the perpetuation and systemic structure of oppression for others. An
example related to this stance could be laughing at racist jokes without challenging
these oppressive practices, as well as omitting the history of oppressed people or
people of color in everyday life or the curriculum at school (Tatum, 1998). In our
description of interactions in SOS spaces regarding awareness about and actions of
self and others, we made use of prepositions (i.e., only, for, about, and with), because
a preposition is a word that links other words, such as nouns or pronouns.
SOS spaces are relational in nature, and an analysis on how we relate to and work
with others and to the system is necessary especially when we aim at supporting
equitable mathematics systems.
Considering allywork between MTEs and MTs, we—as MTEs—understand the
need for a collaborative working process in which awareness about the circum-
stances and actions to be developed as part of this alliance needs to evolve through
the interaction of MTEs with the MTs. MTEs are “[o]ppressors [in this system,] are
always oppressors, no matter how much individual learning we have done: until we
change the politics and economics of oppression, we are still ‘living off the avails’
[of MTs]” (Bishop, 2015, p.  94). Therefore, we are responsible for addressing
­consciously and responsively the power dynamics within our interactions with MTs.
During allywork with MTs, we are to cultivate a politicized trust with them. This
kind of trust refers to an “ongoing building and cultivation of mutual trust and racial
solidarity. It is thus a trust that actively acknowledges the racialized tensions and
power dynamics inherent in design partnerships” (Vakil, McKinney de Royston,
Nasir, & Kirshner, 2016, p.  199). An ongoing building of trust should support a
relational collaboration with MTs.
Allywork is not just about teaching, talking, and working with others but also on
promoting systemic change through our actions. Allywork calls for a disruption on
the use of deficit discourse and perspectives in work with MTs, schools, students,
and communities; the goal should be to nurture collaborative and transformative
relationships and to invite others in the mathematics education community to do the
same. As MTEs, we wonder about the following questions, which we see as impor-
tant to answer for the development of alliances with MTs: Do MTs need, see, or
want MTEs as allies? How would the field of mathematics education benefit from
having MTEs become allies to MTs and school communities? What would that look
like? How can MTEs develop deep awareness of the sociopolitical pressures that
MTs and students face at school? What disruptive actions with MTs could better
support minoritized students and the opportunities of their communities? How can
white MTEs and MTs promote alliances with other MTEs, MTs, or community mem-
bers from diverse racial, cultural, and linguistic groups that better resemble the
student communities? How can white MTEs and MTs learn with the community to
address issues that matter to them? Would the community be open to this r­ elationship?
How can MTEs disrupt systemic pressures that oppress or limit MTs’ actions?
While we are cognizant of MTEs’ positions of power, we also acknowledge the
plurality of their identities extending beyond mathematics education and
intersecting with other socioeconomic identities. This diversity of identities
­
88 C. LópezLeiva et al.

p­ rovides potential intersections between MTEs and MTs through their shared
identities. For example, most MTEs are former MTs, and this relation between
self and others might ease the development of alliances. What is more, though
“most allies tend to be those with privileged identities, and allies from the majority
are necessary for change, the discussion of allies within a community is funda-
mental as well” (Myers et al., 2014, p. 70). Thus, allies may also belong to minori-
tized communities (Clark, 2010; Jenkins, 2009). This means that MTs themselves
can also take up an ally role to other MTs or MTEs. Furthermore, some MTEs may
also share racial identities with MTs from minoritized communities, links which
can provide a set of shared lived experiences that may ease the development of
stronger relationships across groups. Yet, it is important not to over-generalize
since the sharing of or “the self-­identification with an identity does not equate to
automatic allyhood for the same community” (Myers et  al., 2014, p.  74).
Consequently, the fluidity of MTEs’ and MTs’ intersecting identities widens
­possibilities for building alliances. Ally relations across and within target and
­nontarget groups are diverse and not formed in expected patterns but on awareness
and actions built in SOS spaces with others.

What Are Some Processes Involved in Becoming an Ally?

This section addresses more specifically the self in SOS spaces. Ally positions are
not inherited. In fact, anyone can become an ally. Being an ally is not a title to be
claimed. Instead, being an ally encompasses a continuous renegotiation process of
“an identity that is achieved by acting on the moral imperatives of pursuing social
justice and validating differences” (DeTurk, 2011, p.  575). Ally positions are
­constructed and developed both through awareness of self and others’ situations
with others in a system and through actions with others against systemic issues of
power that privilege some and oppress others. This section describes some ­processes
and strategies that nurture the development of ally awareness and action. Lastly,
links to MTEs’ process of becoming allies are discussed.
The process of developing an ally identity and allywork encompasses a cycle of
awareness, healing, and action taking. For this, allies need to “travel the world” and
cross borders in order to realize others’ experiences. It starts through an inward ques-
tioning and internal transformation of personal dispositions, which often ­trigger
­discomfort for those of privilege when developing awareness (Reason, Scales, &
Roosa Millar, 2005). Awareness often starts through direct and indirect exposure to
issues of inequality and oppression that others face (Broido, 2000; Dillon et al., 2004;
Goldstein & Davis, 2010; Reason et al., 2005; Roades & Mio, 2000; Stotzer, 2009;
Zúñiga, Williams, & Berger, 2005). These exposures nurture awareness through
“hearing others’ perspectives, or being challenged by others with different views on
social justice issues, [and] could serve as a catalyst for self-reflection” (Broido, 2000,
p.  11). The perspective-taking process and self-reflection promote bidirectional,
intergroup communication and bias reduction (Broido, 2000), as well as intercultural
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 89

understanding (DeTurk, 2006), and genuine empathy. The levels of empathy lead to
taking action and affecting change for and with others (Clark, 2010). Then, the
­renovated perspective expands outwardly toward others in joint action with others to
­support change. Allywork, then, addresses a twofold change, first by engaging with
others in a “critical dialogue and discussion, interrogating perceived lines of differ-
ence and [then] inquiring into the possibilities for creating productive alliances across
these lines” (Clark, 2010, p. 705).
Participants in a study on developing awareness about others who developed ally
stances identified three areas that contributed to their deliberate commitment to
­disrupt oppressive systems: (1) increased information on social justice issues,
(2) engagement in meaning-making processes, and (3) self-confidence (Broido, 2000,
p. 7). The last area represents the most challenging task for allies from nontarget
groups because understanding and accepting that self can be an oppressor are harder
than accepting those situations in which one is the oppressed (Bishop, 2015).
“Learning about race, racism, and systems of whiteness may provide the necessary
information to be able to influence the behavioral choices in the future that contrib-
ute to racial justice in society” (Alimo, 2010, p.  38). It is through learning with
­others (especially target group members) that the variety of conditions in intergroup
relationships contributes to bias reduction. Intergroup cooperation activities and
dialogue, for example, create these conditions for interrace/ethnicity dialogues
(Alimo, 2010). This is due to the fact that when oppression is not part of your expe-
rience, you can understand it only through others’ experiences (Bishop, 2015). The
experience of oppression is “hidden” because one is cut off from the ability to “live”
and conceive the experiences of the oppressed. This lack of empathy makes oppres-
sion possible. Thus, a renewed perspective of self represents a struggle as it is linked
to the acceptance of an “internalized domination” and of one’s prejudices against
others (Bell, 1997; Goldstein & Davis, 2010; Myers et al., 2014).
Although individuals respond differently toward issues of privilege and
­oppression, common to target and nontarget groups are the wounds that dehuman-
izing relations have inflicted on them (Memmi, 1991). Thus, experiences related to
oppression require healing. If oppression is learned through unconscious pain, then
the learning of liberation needs a conscious healing (Bishop, 2015). For a c­ onscious,
liberatory process to happen, sharing experiences is a vital process for individual
and collective healing (Bishop, 2015; Philip, Martinez, Lopez, & Garcia, 2016).
Allies need to struggle for their own liberation, and others from the same nontarget
group could understand and support this process, so together they can unlearn
oppression. Speaking out nurtures the breaking out of secrecy and shame and
­contact with others suffering of similar pain. The collective and individual healing
­processes for allies, whether from the oppressors or the oppressed groups, would
require both an emotional expression shared with trusted people and action taking.
“Without individual healing, a person might destroy the groups they join; without
group healing, individual healing reinforces the private isolation that is the basis for
‘divide and conquer’” (Bishop, 2015, p. 79). When individuals recognize emotions
as a natural part of the developmental process, they more readily acknowledge,
work through, and move beyond negative emotions (Reason et al., 2005).
90 C. LópezLeiva et al.

Relatedly, MTEs’ intersecting social identities represent a resourceful context

that may nurture ally relationships. What about MTEs with little or no intersection-
ality with the communities with which they work? How would familiarity with and
awareness of the community’s oppression develop? What would encompass a
­healing process of an MTE? Being an ally is founded on the development of aware-
ness of oppressive forces that feed action toward systemic change. College students
and teachers developed awareness of oppressed sociopolitical identities by engaging
in closer relationships with these communities (Alimo, 2010; Broido, 2000; Philip
et al., 2016; Reason et al., 2005; Zúñiga et al., 2005). Perhaps the process of increas-
ing proximity of MTEs and MTs, collaboration with others, and reflection might
nurture insights and awareness not only on what issues need to be addressed to
­support others (e.g., MTs and students and student communities) but also on how
those issues should be addressed and by whom. So these points speak to the ­relevance
of allywork of becoming aware of issues and devising related action plans in coor-
dination with others in SOS spaces, by collaborating with members of the target
community. We hypothesize that MTEs’ active and collaborative participation with
MTs, students, and other members of the community might support MTEs’ deeper
understanding of the issues that these community members face on a regular basis.
In turn, this process might simultaneously facilitate community members’ under-
standing of MTEs’ identities and work. We believe that this mutual learning process
might nurture a healing process to the separation of MTs’ and MTEs’ work and
relationships. We need to heal our mutual trust and nurture a politicized trust (Vakil
et al., 2016) to be able to work together. Although this process requires changes in
the systemic work and relationships of allies with target group members, it also
requires changes in the emotions and trust that support such relationships. More
specifically to MTEs’ healing process alone, it might be that MTEs need to support
each other through an in-group liberation process to unlearn oppression, always
informed by the experiences of target group members and work with them. In addi-
tion to a mutual healing process and the development of critical responsibility, what
is it that allies are supposed to do? The following section elaborates on these ideas.

What Are Some Considerations for Working as an Ally?

This section provides recommendations to address some challenges in allywork,

more specifically, for the working with others within SOS spaces. Some of these
challenges include managing emotional and ethical loads in the process of address-
ing privilege, distributing responsibilities, and negotiating action goals as allies.
Links to MTEs’ work are discussed at the end of the section. Emotionally, allies
need to prepare for being vulnerable to self and others’ confrontations regarding
privilege and oppression and to the unknown journey as an ally, which is a dynamic,
multilayered, and constantly changing process (Myers et al., 2014). Allies must face
their emotions as they work with others toward social change. First, allies need to
develop self-comfort in understanding systemic power and its relation to their
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 91

privilege (Goodman, 2001; Katz, 2003). This point is critical because it relates to
their ability to articulate their stances and act on social justice (Broido, 2000).
Further, Bishop (2015) argues, “I don’t believe it is possible to … become an ally
without being involved in your own experience of liberation” (p. 92). So allies, as
mentioned above, need to participate in a healing process allowing them to notice
their privileges, keep a list, and help others see them to break the invisibility of
privilege (Bishop, 2015). This identification would be useful for self and others to
be mindful about the dynamics of power in the contexts they work in and how and
when these power dynamics might need to be disrupted to work with others in SOS
spaces. “Allies from dominant groups are essential to break the cycle of oppression,
as are allies within community, given the varying sub-identities in communities”
(Myers et al., 2014, p. 84). In support of oppressed groups and to work in action
with these groups, allies (both from target and nontarget groups) need to make
­strategic use of their social and cultural capital to understand the context, influence
others, and affect change. This means that social identities matter within their
­context of action (DeTurk, 2011) with others.
Second, allies also need to speak up when witnessing an act of oppression. Allies
should not wait for the oppressed to point it out (Bishop, 2015). Here is where allies
need to deal with the tension of risk (i.e., personal safety, relationships, or status)
because, at times, allies can have their personal well-being threatened (DeTurk,
2011). As allies inhabit in-between spaces—which include others’ spaces—embed-
ded in a SOS space that is simultaneously an oppressive and a privileged system,
tensions and not knowing always how to proceed next are common situations to be
faced. Allies’ successful efforts to confront racism and sexism depend “on how
much power they had in a given situation” (DeTurk, 2011, p. 578) and how aware or
familiar they are with those issues. The nature of power, however, is contextual and
fluid since it is socially constructed, situated, multifaceted, and contingent (Myers
et  al., 2014). The arbitrariness of power dynamics becomes evident through the
juxtaposition of privilege and oppression across systems. For example, an African
American person “could act as [an] all[y] to Whites by interrupting anti-White
­prejudice” (DeTurk, 2011, p. 584); also an ally self-identified as a gay man could
promote closer connection as an ally to other gay men. Consequently, membership
to a social and cultural group does not determine an absolute power or lack thereof.
Allies aware of these dynamics need to develop tactics and alliances with others that
crisscross different groups to support one another and strategically work in
SOS spaces to disrupt oppressive actions.
A greater ethical tension relates to speaking for others. Such action might
­disempower those to be empowered (DeTurk, 2011). Allies, as mentioned above,
become aware of issues and take actions with others (members of target groups). As
such, allies must build up some trust and equality through identity interactions and
getting to know the community they work with in order to prevent falling into the
trap of “knowing what is good for them” (Bishop, 2015, p. 96, italics added). It is
fundamental that allies learn about the community with which they work. Bishop
(2015) suggests that allies find members of the community to learn more about the
­community from an insider’s perspective, as the ignorance of privilege about the
92 C. LópezLeiva et al.

conditions of the oppressed is a source of oppression. This speaks about developing

a relationship of mutual learning. Only people from oppressed groups can figure out
what is “good for them,” and the development of their own leadership strengthens
them (Bishop, 2015). In this context, an ally should only add thoughts or resources
to the process in response to the target group members. Allies always need to listen
and reflect, to be better allies: “sit down, shut up, and listen” (Bishop, 2015, p. 102)
and seek to identify and acknowledge the community’s skills and strengths (Russell,
Hynes, Kane, & Bradeen, 2005). Allywork is then characterized by work that is
guided by awareness gained with others (target group members) and actions with
others (target group members). If in-group target members’ perspectives are not at
the center of allywork, we might be at the threshold of engaging in an interest
­convergence issue (Martin, 2015), in which “allies” work mostly toward their own
goals and needs rather than to those of the targeted community, therefore, under-
mining the basis of an alliance. Nevertheless, the collective nature of an alliance
nurtures the process of problematizing and solving together, with each other, issues
that affect the target groups, so that both parties contribute to the development of
transformative processes and equitable change. Here both parties become like one
through the sharing of goals, problems, opinions, strategies, and solutions.
Thus, allies must understand the motives of their work specifically: that being an
ally is NOT about “being one of the good ones.” Rather, it is about acting for critical
positive social change (Myers et  al., 2014). But, what is positive social change?
Martin (2015) describes mathematics education controlled by a dominant group that
implements colonizing approaches. Such approaches are not liberating because the
ideas of improving mathematics education “for all” are not necessarily addressing
the needs of all, rather the interpretations and understandings of the needs of “all”
were defined by a narrow group of people. Civil (2006), for example, describes how
often educational innovations implement norms that vary from the norms of the
school and of the teachers. MTs referred to in Civil’s work thought that students
resisted their new approaches, such as engaging in mathematical discussions,
because students did not see discussions as mathematics work. Civil argues that
even attempts at a liberatory curriculum can be oppressive. She states: “I often find
myself wondering about innovations that try to contextualize the mathematics in
situations that claim to be more relevant to the reality of the working-class Latino
students with whom we work. Who decides what is relevant?” (p. 39; italics added).
Furthermore, Civil also asserts that professional development (PD) content is often
disconnected from what MTs know and do, so that the time invested in these PD
meetings result pointless. Consequently, she questions: “efforts aimed at helping
teachers teach using a ‘reform-approach’ leave me wondering whether teaching
mathematics was becoming a smorgasbord of activities with no apparent road map”
(p. 43). Related to Civil’s points and Martin’s argument, benevolent approaches to
“education for all” are at times just a form of interest convergence. It is because
MTs and students receive support only on those points that those at the top of the
system decided as pivotal. Martin challenges us to think that no matter how good
our intentions are, if we only acknowledge our own perspectives and goals, we are
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 93

under a colonizing approach: “gains for minority groups coincide with White
­self-­interests” (p. 20). Therefore, we believe that MTEs’ work should involve more
collaborative processes and perspectives inclusive of the input from MTs, students,
and the communities with whom they work.
Having target and nontarget groups (e.g., researchers and teachers; researchers
and community members) engaged in collaborative problem posing and inquiry-­
based approaches that are inclusive provide a promising and fruitful SOS space for
allywork. For example, participatory action research (PAR) supports a group
situation in which members communicate with one another, engaging in a
­
­“meta-­dialogue” about their goals, actions, and distribution of work. These ­processes
lead to insights for all participants and empower them as co-researchers, which they
combine with collective reflection and action (Cammarota & Romero, 2009; Fals
Borda, 2001; Vakil et al., 2016). Although we see the feasibility in such an approach
that brings together MTs and MTEs (and perhaps students and community as well),
we wonder how a PAR approach in mathematics education between MTEs and MTs
would support allywork. It is especially relevant in the overarching demographic
trend in the US society in which the majority of MTEs and MTs are white and
female. When these groups come together in SOS spaces and if their work goal
includes to work together to support students from minoritized groups, perhaps a
way to move toward this goal could be through the development of intergroup
­relationships/alliances with MTEs, MTs, and community (in-group) members from
diverse cultural, socio-economic, gender, racial, and linguistic backgrounds, who
may support the process and nurture the development of close relationships with
members of target/minoritized groups to collaborate together with greater personal
and academic links. With this said, we also acknowledge that belonging to a group
does not guarantee understanding of the issues from an emic perspective; not that
belonging to a ­nontarget group makes one less sensitive or critical of oppressive situ-
ations but that new alliances and possibilities can emerge when an ally team itself
includes diverse (target and nontarget groups) perspectives and together work to sup-
port the target groups. Some reflective questions, within this context of MTEs’ ally-
work, include: How can they (MTEs and MTs) prevent interest convergence in their
allywork? Whose voices, interests, and feelings should matter? How can awareness
and action on the related issues emerge in coordination with the target groups in the
­community and the schools? When issues of power and injustices have been normal-
ized in a community, how can outsiders (MTEs) intervene while working as allies
respecting the insiders’ (MTs’) work and perspectives? What should matter in such
situations? How would MTs and MTEs need to respond to all: the community, the
students, and the mathematics standards? How would this responsiveness be priori-
tized? Why? How would the educational system support sustainable relationships
under this framework? Who is to lead? What would be the responsibilities for each
member in this dynamic? Though some answers to these questions might have some
evident theoretical answers, in praxis they might not be as clear, why? How might
systemic forces in SOS spaces filter down into the collaboration between allies,
MTEs, and MTs, and their work with students from minoritized groups?
94 C. LópezLeiva et al.

Discussion

Through these theoretical links across fields, we have explored how MTEs’ identity
and work as allies include their awareness, negotiation, and actions within SOS
spaces. This means that awareness, negotiation, and actions extend across, within,
and with self, others, and the system. We think that MTEs’ work and identities as
allies can only emerge within the power dynamics of this threefold space.
­Self-­privileges and the oppression of others revealed in relationship to systemic
oppressive structures can serve as a catalyst for MTEs’ promotion of equitable
mathematics systems. Awareness, empathy, and disruptive work coexist at the core
of the development of an active and relational with-stance of MTEs’ allywork in
SOS spaces. Moreover, allywork and ally identities are fluid and never fulfilled until
equitable systemic changes are achieved. Accordingly, we have discussed how
MTEs—from an ally stance—may strategically coordinate actions with others
depending on the contexts and the level of engagement of their work with MTs,
students, schools, and systems in mathematics education.
Additionally, we have learned, raised questions, and provided suggestions on
how MTEs’ identities as allies may intersect with MTs’ social identities. This
­intersection might nurture greater opportunities for alliances to evolve. Regardless
of this intersection, MTEs need to learn about the community with which they
work and develop relationships and familiarity with MTs, students, schools,
school d­ istricts, and local communities. Through the development of awareness,
familiarity, and a relation with target members of the community, consecutive
actions of allywork with them will develop. From this point of view, we can also
state that allies belong not only to dominant groups, but they also belong to target
and oppressed groups. It is in this multiplicity of relations that allywork is
strengthened. The strength of the relationship of MTEs with the community is not
solely built on their awareness with the community about what matters to the
community but also on how much MTEs’ work, as allies, addresses and intersects
with the goals and needs of MTs and those of the community. MTEs working
under an interest convergence approach are not allies. Such approaches stifle rela-
tions with others, with MTs and especially the community of target groups, and
favor oppressive systems. MTEs’ relational work with MTs and the community in
SOS spaces might be n­urtured through participatory approaches as these
approaches address the ­completeness of a with-stance on the awareness of the
community goals and needs as well as in the collaborative disruptive action for
equitable change.
Given MTEs’ multiple actions and relations as allies, we view this work as an
evolving third space (Whitchurch, 2010). As MTEs work within SOS spaces, they
need to contest the laden power dynamics of the system, heal self and heal and
­reconcile relationships between self and with others, and then collaboratively recon-
struct structures that would support new equitable relations within those SOS
spaces. The relevance of third spaces in allywork resides in the promotion of
­collaborative and equitable relationships in SOS spaces. Because each SOS space
5  Promoting Equitable Systems in Mathematics Education Starts with Us: Linking… 95

requires a negotiation linked to the other two spaces, allywork must support
­connections of each SOS space with the other SOS spaces. Ideally, such an approach
would weaken and dismantle the coercive and hierarchical relations that the
mathematics education field inherited through the systemic feminization of
­
­education in the classroom and the masculinization of research and teacher ­education
efforts. As MTEs, we recognize that the steady and collective work of the ­participants
of SOS spaces in mathematics education would nurture relations that would rein-
force the equitable facing of new challenges and tensions in the mathematics ­system.
Thus, the with us in the title includes several stakeholders (allies) participating in a
system (insiders and outsiders). And acknowledging our privilege as MTEs in
­mathematics education, we embrace our responsibility for renovating the SOS
spaces for equitable mathematics education and conclude our discussion by using
Bishop’s (2015) statement related to the oppressors’ role: “No matter how much
work you have done on that area of yourself, there is more to be done” (p. 94).

Acknowledgment  We thank the National Science Foundation (NSF) for its support (DRL-­1417672
entitled, Access, Agency, and Allies in Mathematical Systems (A3IMS)) and the collaboration and
support of our team. During the writing of this chapter, our team included Joel Amidon, Tonya
Bartell, Sunghwan Byun, Michael Eiland, Mary Q. Foote, Victoria Hand, Beth Herbel-­Eisenmann,
Durrell Jones, Courtney Koestler, Gregory Larnell, Carlos A. LopezLeiva, Ashley Scroggins, Anita
Wager, and Ayse Yolcu. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in
this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.

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Chapter 6
A Commentary on Theoretical
and Political Perspectives Toward Equity
and Justice in Mathematics Education

David W. Stinson

Abstract  This chapter presents a commentary on chapters in the section focused

on theoretical and political perspectives toward equity and justice in mathematics
education.

In July 2015, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book Between the World and Me was released. The
book experienced a whirlwind of both positive and negative reviews, spanning from
CNN to Fox News and The New York Times to The Washington Post. The book went
on to top The New  York Times best-seller list for nonfiction for several weeks in
2015 and then again for 1 week in 2016; it won the coveted 2015 National Book
Award for Nonfiction and was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist. The dustcover of the
Spiegel & Grau imprint reads:
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals
to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new
framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built
an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on
the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation,
and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to
inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon
with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? … Between the World and Me
is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.

I use two essays on Coates’s (2015) book, written by two public intellectuals,
David Brooks and Michelle Alexander, who hail from somewhat polarized theoreti-
cal and political perspectives—conservative and liberal, respectively—to frame
this brief commentary of the five chapters contained in the first section of this
edited volume. The ideas and arguments the authors put forth in each of the chap-
ters, individually and collectively, similar to Coates’s book, displace too often

D. W. Stinson (*)
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 99

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_6
100 D. W. Stinson

taken-for-­granted ways of thinking and knowing. In that, the author(s) of each

chapter provide different possibilities to think and rethink mathematics and math-
ematics teaching, learning, and policy.
For instance, Berry (Chap. 1) presents a critical race theoretical rethinking of
mathematics education policy and reform, illustrating that too often policy and
reform efforts do not address the needs of marginalized learners but rather reinforce
the economic, technological, and social interests of the powerful. Battey and Leyva
(Chap. 2) provide a rethinking of how the ideology of racialized hierarchy of math-
ematics ability might be disrupted, suggesting an explicit focus on deconstructing
implicit racial attitudes as a means of moving toward equitable opportunities to
learn. Larnell and Bullock (Chap. 3) offer a new socio-spatial turn to “urban” math-
ematics education research, rethinking urban within a framework that includes three
axes: temporal, social, and geographic. Adiredja (Chap. 4) explores the politics of
undergraduate mathematics education research, connecting the cognitive to the
sociopolitical by rethinking intuitive knowledge in advanced mathematics. And
LópezLeiva, Herbel-Eisenmann, and Yolcu (Chap. 5) provide a critical feminist
reading on K–12 education and teacher education, rethinking the relationship—or
better yet “allyship”—between the mathematics classroom teacher and the mathe-
matics teacher educator.
Not only do the aforementioned chapter authors ask the reader to rethink taken-­
for-­granted ways of thinking and knowing, but also, similar to Coates (2015), the
intellectual engagement that the authors ask of readers can be both discomforting
and comforting depending on where the reader positions herself or himself on the
theoretical and political ideological spectrum: conservative or liberal or somewhere
in between. It is important to note, however, that in naming the polar ends of an
ideological spectrum that I am not suggesting some rigid binary, such a binary is a
fiction, as most people are consistently shifting from end to end depending on both
the issues and the contexts at hand. That is to say, theoretical and political ideologies
are best understood as existing in the tensions of sliding signifiers in contexts. In
short, theoretical and political ideologies are complex; the error in much of the cur-
rent public discourse is that this inherent tension and complexity is often erased.
Nevertheless, for argument sake, I use Brooks’s (2015) The New  York Times
Op-Ed essay “Listening to Ta-Nehisi Coates While White” and Alexander’s (2015)
The New York Times Sunday Book Review essay “Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘Between the
World and Me’” as polarized ends to provide a model, if you will, which illustrates
the benefits of opposing intellectual engagement. My aim is to seduce mathematics
educators who position themselves on either end of the spectrum, or somewhere in
between, to engage with the authors of the chapters contained herein, inviting read-
ers from both ends and those somewhere in between into a thoughtful, intellectual
discourse around crucial issues in mathematics education that are inherently filled
with tensions and complexities.
Brooks (2015) begins his op-ed on Coates’s (2015) book, writing: “The last year
has been an education for white people. There has been a depth, power and richness
to the African-American conversation about Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston and the
other killings that has been humbling and instructive” (para. 1). Recall, this is 2015.
6  A Commentary on Theoretical and Political Perspectives Toward Equity and Justice… 101

Brooks’s concern throughout the op-ed, however, appears to be what he considers to

be Coates’s rejection of the “American dream.” The American dream, according to
Brooks, provides for equal opportunity, social mobility, and an ever more perfect
democracy that cherishes the future more than the past. Brooks is also taken aback
(i.e., made to feel uncomfortable) by Coates’s definition of White America: “a syndi-
cate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control [Black] bodies.
Sometimes this power is direct (lynching), and sometimes it is insidious (redlining)”
(Coates, as cited in Brooks, 2015, para. 9). In summation, Brooks writes:
I read [Between the World and Me] like a slap and a revelation. I suppose the first obligation
is to sit with it, to make sure the testimony is respected and sinks in. But I have to ask, am
I displaying my privilege if I disagree? Is my job just to respect your experience and accept
your conclusions? Does a white person have standing to respond? (para. 11) … This
[American] dream is a secular faith that has unified people across every known divide. It
has unleashed ennobling energies and mobilized heroic social reform movements. By dis-
solving the dream under the acid of an excessive realism, you trap generations in the past
and destroy the guiding star that points to a better future. Maybe you will find my reactions
irksome. Maybe the right white response is just silence for a change. In any case, you’ve
filled my ears unforgettably. (para. 15–16)

Alexander (2015) begins her book review of Between the World and Me (Coates
2015), stating that as an African American, Coates’s essays and blog posts for The
Atlantic (where he is a national correspondent) over the years has made her proud:
“There is no other way to put it. I do not always agree with him, but it hardly mat-
ters” (para. 1). Throughout her review, Alexander shows enthusiasm for Coates’s
prose, noting that she read the book twice before she was able to decide whether
Coates actually did what she expected and hoped he would: “He did not. Maybe
that’s a good thing” (para. 4).
During her first reading, Alexander (2015) confesses that she was disappointed.
She had hoped that Coates would carefully define the American dream and clearly
show the difference between the universal dream that parents have for their chil-
dren—good heath, security, quality education, and so on—and the “insidious Dream
that is destroying the lives of [Black] children in Baltimore [Coates’s childhood
home] and threatening human existence on the planet itself” (para. 16). She also had
hoped that Coates would reveal exactly what it might mean to choose “the Struggle
over the Dream, and why so many black people…find themselves lost in the Dream”
(para. 16). During her second reading, however, Alexander states, “I held no such
expectation that the big questions would be answered” (para.16). But rather what
she understood the second time around was that Coates was intentionally offering
no answers but instead was critically challenging the reader to wrestle with probable
questions and answers on her or his own: “Maybe this is the time for questioning,
searching and struggling without really believing the struggle can be won” (para.
17). Nonetheless, in summation, Alexander writes:
I tend to think we must not ask whether it is possible for a human being or society to
become just or moral; we must believe it is possible. Believing in this possibility—no mat-
ter how slim—and dedicating oneself to playing a meaningful role in the struggle to make
it a reality focuses one’s energy and attention in an unusual way. (para. 18)
102 D. W. Stinson

Hopefully, using excerpts from Brooks’s (2015) and Alexander’s (2015) essays
as a model for productive opposing public intellectual engagement will provoke
similar productive engagement from mathematics educators around the crucial
issues discussed in these first five chapters of this edited volume. Neither Brooks
nor Alexander agreed or disagreed “hook, line, and sinker,” so to speak, with
Coates (2015). The selected excerpts from the two essays illustrate how both
Brooks and Alexander, during their respective readings of Between the World and
Me, at times leaned in and at other times leaned back. Maybe that is what a “good”
intellectual does; she or he gets readers to oscillate between intellectually leaning
in and leaning back.
So no matter what the theoretical and political perspective(s) of the reader, the
authors of each of the chapters in this section, as well as those throughout the edited
volume, are asking the reader to intellectually engage with them while considering
different possibilities for mathematics and mathematics teaching, learning, and pol-
icy. In the end, intellectual engagement, at times, might mean, “to sit with [the differ-
ent possibility], to make sure the testimony is respected and sinks in,” or “just silence
for a change,” while at other times, intellectual engagement might mean questioning,
searching, and struggling while believing simultaneously in the possibilities and
impossibilities of the struggle, “focus[ing] one’s energy and attention in an unusual
way.” Intellectual engagement also means holding virtual conversations with the
chapter authors, posing additional questions to the authors from whatever ideological
perspective(s) the reader hails, shaking up habitual ways of working and thinking,
dissipating conventional familiarities, and reevaluating rules and institutions (cf.
Foucault 1984/1996). After all, that is the role of the public intellectual, isn’t it?

References

Alexander, M. (2015, August 17). Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘between the world and me.’ The New York
Times, Sunday Book Review. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/books/
review/ta-nehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me.html
Brooks, D. (2015, July 17). Listening to Ta-Nehisi Coates while white. The New  York Times.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/opinion/listening-to-ta-nehisi-coates-
while-white.html
Coates, T. (2015). Between the world and me. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
Foucault, M. (1996). The concern for truth. In S. Lotringer (Ed.), Foucault live: Interviews, 1961–
1984 (pp. 455–464). New York: Semiotext(e). (Original work published 1984).
 Part II
Identifying and Connecting to Family
and Community Funds of Knowledge
Chapter 7
Connecting Algonquin Loomwork
and Western Mathematics in a Grade
6 Math Class

Ruth Beatty

Abstract  In this project we explored the connections between Algonquin ways of

knowing and the Western mathematics that is represented in the current Ontario pro-
vincial mathematics curriculum. Using an ethnomathematics framework, we worked
with community members from the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation to
co-design and co-teach a Grade 6 lesson sequence based on Algonquin loom bead-
ing. As a research team made up of Algonquin and non-Native educators, we docu-
mented the mathematical thinking and cultural connections that emerged. Results
indicate that the activity was both mathematically rigorous and culturally responsive.
Creating and analyzing looming patterns supported students’ algebraic, proportional,
and spatial reasoning. Community members made connections between the environ-
ment created in the classroom, which was based on trust, humor, and proximity to
available experts, and the safe learning contexts they had experienced as children.
They also indicated that this type of experience supported students’ pride in the
Algonquin identity and strengthened their relationships with non-Native peers. This
project illustrates the potential of co-designing and co-­teaching mathematics instruc-
tion as a first step to creating meaningful community and classroom interactions.

Introduction

Ministries of Education across Canada have recognized the need to explicitly incor-
porate Indigenous content to support identity building and appreciation of
Indigenous perspectives and values. There is a need in contemporary education to
understand how to provide Indigenous students with meaningful connections to
their learning. In recent years, work has been undertaken to incorporate First
Nations, Metis, and Inuit perspectives in curriculum subjects such as social studies,
but it is our belief that connections to Indigenous content should permeate all

R. Beatty (*)
Lakehead University, Orillia, ON, Canada
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 105

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_7
106 R. Beatty

curriculum content, including mathematics. This project explored connections

between the mathematical content knowledge required of the Ontario curriculum
expectations and the mathematics inherent in Indigenous cultural practices.
The work outlined here was conducted in a Grade 6 classroom at a small public
school near Pembroke, Ontario. The school population comprises approximately
20% Algonquin students from the nearby Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation
and 80% non-Native students. In this work, we brought together community and
school in support of mathematics learning, with a long-term goal of transforming
school-based education from a colonial past into a form that respects both Western
and Indigenous traditions.

Theoretical Framework

We drew upon ideas from ethnomathematics research and culturally responsive edu-
cation. In our education system, the dominant Eurocentric culture is manifest in the
content of educational curricula, including mathematics curricula (Battiste &
Henderson, 2000; Lipka, Mohatt, & the Ciulistet Group, 1998). Mathematics instruc-
tion, as reflected in the Ontario provincial curriculum, goes back to a Western
European tradition of mathematical knowing (Bishop, 2002). Mathematics was, and
still is to some degree, taught with the intention of scaffolding learners from elemen-
tary to more complex levels of mathematical thinking, through secondary school to
university level. This comes from an historical tradition of educating the elite and
using mathematics as a gatekeeper to higher education (D’Ambrosio, 1985). An elit-
ist vision of mathematics education contributes to feelings of alienation that many
students, particularly Indigenous students, feel toward mathematics (Barta, Jette, &
Wiseman, 2003). This view does not allow students who may not wish to pursue
higher-level mathematics to experience the beauty of mathematics for its own sake,
nor does it allow them to develop a positive personal relationship with mathematics.
Ethnomathematics research includes a growing area of research about how
Western mathematics curricula can and should connect to local culture (D’Ambrosio,
2006; Knijnik, 2002). Ethnomathematics has been thought of as reclaiming mathe-
matics as part of Indigenous culture; however, previous researchers have had differ-
ent interpretations about what mathematical reclamation entails (Barton, 1996).
One interpretation of ethnomathematics has been that school mathematics is one of
many diverse mathematical practices and is no more or less important than mathe-
matical practices that have originated in other cultures and societies (Mukhopadhyay,
Powell, & Frankenstein, 2009). Another interpretation was based on generating
mathematical thinking from combining traditional Indigenous sources and conven-
tional mathematical thinking, what Gerdes (1988) termed “unfreezing” the mathe-
matics from cultural artifacts or activities. The idea of unfreezing the mathematics
referred to those who analyze an activity or artifact and identified the “hidden”
mathematics. Barton (1996) defined ethnomathematics as creating a bridge between
mathematical thinking and the practices of other cultures, with the aim of both
reconceptualizing cultural activities through a lens of mathematical interpretation
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 107

and highlighting new ways of conceiving mathematical concepts. What these inter-
pretations had in common was that the mathematical thinking identified in different
cultural contexts, or in various cultural artifacts, was deemed to be mathematical
because of its alignment with Western mathematical thinking.
Mathematical thinking is not, however, simply about participating in an activity.
Also needed is a context within which students can reflect on the mathematical
relationships embedded within the activity. Mathematizing is a way of articulating
or highlighting the mathematical aspects of an activity by translating the material
into mathematical terminology or relating it to existing mathematical concepts
(Ascher, 1991). The mathematics inherent in the activity can be identified and
extended to a creative, mathematical investigation. Looming is an activity that can
be undertaken without consciously or explicitly focusing on mathematics. We were
interested to explore, however, the consequences of having community members,
teachers, and students explicitly mathematize an activity in order to explore the con-
nections between Algonquin looming and mathematics and to create an opportunity
for Algonquin students to see their culture reflected in mathematics instruction.
Culturally responsive mathematics education refers to efforts to make mathemat-
ics education more meaningful by aligning instruction with the cultural paradigms
and lived experience of students (Castagno & Brayboy, 2008). Making connections
between math instruction and Indigenous culture has had beneficial effects on stu-
dents’ abilities to learn mathematics (Cajete, 1994; Lipka, 1994; Lipka, Sharp, Adams,
& Sharp, 2007). Long-term studies by Lipka (2002), Brenner (1998) and Doherty,
Hilbert, Epaloose, and Thar (2002) found that culturally responsive education in
mathematics had statistically significant results in terms of student achievement.
Recent researchers have also explored the insights Indigenous epistemologies and
practices provide for understanding ways of teaching mathematics (Barta & Barkley,
2001; Barta et al., 2003; Battiste, 2002, 2004; Hampton, 1995; Leavitt, 1995; Nielson,
Nicol, & Owuor, 2008). While these studies suggested that Indigenous pedagogical
approaches benefitted both Indigenous and non-Native students’ mathematics learn-
ing, few studies have focused specifically on connecting Anishinaabe and Western
mathematical perspectives. This is an important connection to make because
Anishinaabe communities comprise one of the largest Indigenous groups in Canada.
Cultural knowledge can be defined as knowledge derived from settings outside
of school, such as in the home or in the community. As outlined below, practices
such as looming were (and are still) taught informally in students’ homes, along
with some of the historical significance and importance of these practices. In the
Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, activities like looming were part of com-
munity teachings passed down from elders and were retained by some community
members even during the time that other aspects of culture, such as language and
ceremonies, were forbidden. The culture of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First
Nation, as it pertains to this study, encompasses the community’s emphasis on
rediscovering and revitalizing cultural practices and language.
Most ethnomathematics studies have focused on the mathematical thinking of
diverse cultures to make connections between Indigenous cultural activities and
Western mathematics in contexts where local cultures are less influenced by
108 R. Beatty

Westernized mathematics textbooks and pedagogy. We were interested in investi-

gating the potential of cultural activities to support mathematical instruction for
Indigenous students who live in an Algonquin community, who are educated in a
publicly funded provincial school and are familiar with Western mathematics, but
whose culture is not incorporated in their classroom experience.

Methods

One concern working as non-Native researchers within Indigenous cultures is the

risk of appropriating culture. Cultural appropriation is the taking of Indigenous
knowledge to use within a different cultural context, without truly understanding the
cultural significance of the knowledge. Our core research team for this project,
therefore, included cultural insiders and outsiders. The team was made up of two
Algonquin teachers, including Jody Alexander, along with the operations manager
of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan Cultural Centre, Christina Ruddy, who is an
expert loomer. The team also included three non-Native teachers from the school,
including the Grade 6 teacher, Mike Fitzmaurice, in whose classroom the study took
place. We followed a cyclical approach (consult, plan, teach, reflect, share) in the
project to insure that we continually cycled back to members of the Algonquins of
Pikwakanagan community for guidance and feedback. The cycle included a consul-
tation phase during which we met with community leaders from Pikwakanagan,
who were invited to share their insights and provide guidance.
A key theme raised by community members was the importance of revitalizing
Algonquin culture. As one community member stated, “From the outside it’s per-
ceived that we have all the culture. We don’t. Culture was taken from us. We are
actually in the process of learning our culture again.” Like most Indigenous com-
munities in Canada, the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan were forced to abandon
many cultural practices, which they are now in the process of reviving. One focus
of this cultural revitalization has been beadwork, including loomwork, which has
always had significance for this community. This focus on cultural revitalization in
the community was something the advisors believed should be reflected in stu-
dents’ experiences in the classroom. They also spoke about the importance of
engendering pride in identity by supporting students to navigate Algonquin and
Western cultural perspectives.
Another key message was the importance of making mathematics instruction
meaningful for the children, because mathematical understanding is important for
effectively participating in Canadian society. Community members articulated a
desire to afford their children the opportunity to find meaning in, and develop posi-
tive relationships with, mathematics by “seeing themselves in the math classroom,”
because these students had not had a chance to explore mathematical thinking in a
way that reflected priorities and experiences that are important in their community.
Community members also identified the difficulty many students have learning
mathematics, particularly those who struggle with pedagogical approaches that pri-
oritize memorization.
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 109

Fig. 7.1  Loom beading

Howard: Some kids still memorize times tables but there are other ways of attach-
ing meaning to it and kids will remember because there is meaning to it.
Rote memory is okay if your brain can do that but for some kids they
can’t. But if it is something that’s meaningful for them they will be able
to remember it, and it’s maybe a longer process but they will be able to
do it. So those are the kinds of things that we are looking at. How do we
reach those kids?
Shirley: I think its hands on! They need to see and do!

This aligns well with current approaches to mathematics teaching, which empha-
size the development of conceptual understanding in meaningful contexts rather
than rote memorization and symbol manipulation (National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics [NCTM], 2000).
For this study, we co-planned a unit of instruction based on Algonquin looming.
Looming is a type of beading that is done on a loom and involves stringing beads onto
vertical weft threads and weaving them through horizontal warp threads (see Fig. 7.1).
During the co-planning phase, Christina taught the rest of the research team how
to loom and shared her insights about some of the inherent mathematics of looming:
When you’re deciding the width of the loomwork you count your beads, how long and how
wide you want it. So, how long determines the number of columns and how wide deter-
mines the number of rows. There’s a lot of counting. When you take your design and put it
on the loom then you need one extra thread on the loom for every count of beads that you
do. For example, a bracelet that is 9 beads wide will need 10 warp threads on the loom.
Then you have to measure your wrist and decide how long your bracelet needs to be.

The team co-designed a sequence of lessons centered on looming. This study

focused on approaches to mathematics instruction based on Indigenous activities,
and the lesson designs prioritized exploration. Lessons were structured in terms of
the sequence of looming patterns Christina introduced to the students. However, the
processes to engage in mathematical thinking were generative; we had no predeter-
mined paths of investigation for students to follow. Instead, teachers and students
co-constructed avenues of inquiry, delving into mathematical ideas as they naturally
arose during the activities.
The team also arranged for Albert Owl, a fluent speaker of The Language, to
teach some Algonquin Language during the lessons. Ten to twenty minutes at the
beginning of every lesson was devoted to teaching students Algonquin words and
phrases related to the activity of beading. As Mr. Owl taught students words, he also
explained some of the meaning behind the words. The word for bead, manidomi-
nens, comes from the word Manido, Creator or spirit, and minens, meaning small
110 R. Beatty

piece, so a bead is a small piece of the Creator, or a small spirit. Mr. Owl decon-
structed The Language so students learned, for example, the suffix “tig” means that
an object is made out of wood. The word for loom, mazinàbido-iganàtig, and pencil,
ojibìhiganàtig, both end with this suffix. Mr. Owl also shared stories and some
teachings about beading, including the teaching that if you drop a bead, it is impor-
tant to pick it up because by doing this you show respect for the bead and the activ-
ity of beading. Introducing Algonquin Language through the activity of looming
helped students develop a meaningful connection to The Language.

Data Collection

Mike and Christina co-taught the lessons over 2 weeks in a Grade 6 classroom. One-­
third of the 27 students in the class were from the community of Pikwakanagan and
two-thirds were non-Native. All lessons were videotaped and field notes were com-
pleted each day by the author. These notes included an overview of the sequence of
activities and a summary of the mathematical thinking evidenced either through
students’ verbal answers or their written work. All student work, including patterns
drawn on paper and beadwork, was photographed. We videotaped Christina’s and
Jody’s reflections at the end of each of the 2 weeks to capture the cultural connec-
tions they perceived. Given that both are members of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan
First Nation, we wanted to ensure we honored their voices during the project.
Lessons were shared with community members at community meetings during
which we showed compilation videotapes to give community members an overview
of the activities in which we had engaged and examples of students’ mathematical
thinking. Attendees spoke about the fact that, from watching the mathematical
thinking of students, “everyone can learn math, really complicated math” and that
“everyone has a mathematical voice.” One of the attendees, a band councilor whose
grandchildren attend the school, stated that what she saw was “an awakening of a
spirit of mathematics” and was proud that this awakening had come through the
process of Algonquin looming.

Data Analysis

Lesson video was edited into segments that related to a specific learning episode
generated from the looming activity, and those segments were transcribed. For
example, when one student in the class posed the question, “What would the col-
umn before column 1 look like in a chevron pattern?” the ensuing discussion was
edited into a segment that was then transcribed and analyzed for mathematical
thinking. The video segments evidencing mathematical thinking, transcripts of
those segments, field notes, and student artifacts were analyzed by the research team
using a framework to identify mathematical thinking. The framework for identify-
ing mathematical thinking consisted of the following areas:
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 111

Unitizing
• Working with a unit simultaneously as one unit and the number of elements
that make up the unit
• Identifying and working with different sizes of units including the pattern
core (unit of repeat), the pattern core made up of n columns, the pattern core
made up of n beads, the template made up of n pattern cores, a bracelet made
up of n templates
Algebraic Reasoning
• Identifying the unit of repeat in a two-dimensional pattern
• Identifying the covariation between the numbered columns and the beads
within each column and the relationship of the numbered columns to the unit
of repeat in a repeating pattern, to make predictions further down the sequence
(e.g., the 64th column)
• Creating generalizations
Proportional Reasoning
• Using multiplicative relationships to compare quantities and to predict the
value of one quantity based on the values of another. For example, compar-
ing the number of columns in a pattern to predict the number of centimeters
in beadwork
Spatial Reasoning
• Understanding relationships within and between spatial structures
• Understanding the relationship between visual and numeric representations of
quantity
• Decomposing, for example, decomposing a pattern into identifiable units of
repeat
• Mental rotation and transformation
Coding was carried out by the author. Each learning episode could receive more
than one code, particularly since the concepts are intertwined. The author then
developed brief case accounts describing each learning episode. The team then
reviewed video segments and written case accounts and discussed each to reach
consensus about the students’ demonstrated mathematical thinking.

Results

Results focus on the mathematical thinking documented from week 1 of the lesson
sequence, which focused on pattern design. In addition, some of the reflections from
the Algonquin members of the research team are presented in which they identify
aspects of the project that they found culturally relevant. We begin by providing an
overview of the context in which this learning occurred.
112 R. Beatty

Designing Patterns in the Classroom

During co-teaching, Christina taught the art of looming to the students and intro-
duced them to the design process. Mike facilitated class discussions about the math-
ematical content of the work by asking students, for example, to identify the unit of
repeat of different patterns. Inevitably, although the Indigenous members of the
research team identified the need for authenticity in teaching the activity, the result-
ing experiences were both culturally authentic and inauthentic. We strove to create
the kinds of learning experiences community members remembered from their own
childhoods, when they learned beading techniques from community elders around
kitchen tables. Our goal was also, however, to bring out mathematical thinking, and
to this end we facilitated the exploration of mathematical ideas as they arose. For
example, the template we created for students to use as they designed their patterns
was based on the kinds of drawings Christina and others in the community created
prior to looming. Some of the inquiries students engaged in, for example, calculat-
ing the numbers of beads needed for different designs, were questions that students
asked during the course of the investigation but are not areas on which traditional
loomers would necessarily focus. Christina told us that most beaders estimate the
numbers of beads they require and that this focus on exact numbers seemed to her
more of a Western idea.
Christina explained to the students that looming is a traditional Algonquin activ-
ity that pre-dates the arrival of Europeans to North America. Historically, sinew and
porcupine quills and shells would have been used, but currently looming is done
with nylon thread and plastic or glass beads. The pattern for each looming project is
created on graph paper (see Fig. 7.2). The first step in creating a design is to define
the space to be used. Based on Christina’s work, we created a design template of 20
columns and 7 rows. The columns represent the weft threads, on which beads are
threaded and woven onto the warp threads. The number of columns corresponds to
the horizontal length of the beadwork. The rows represent the spaces between the
warp threads, where the beads sit when they are woven into the work. The number
of rows corresponds to the width of the beadwork.

Fig. 7.2  Diagonal loom pattern

7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 113

The rows and columns of the design space are numbered. Below each column, the
number of each color of bead is entered (with the number representing the color of
the beads, in this case blue numbers for blue beads and red numbers for red beads).
This helps the beader know the order for stringing beads for each column, or line of
beads on the weft thread. Each column should add to the total number of beads on
each weft thread (so in the example in Fig. 7.2, each column should add up to 7).
Students were taught to copy and extend two patterns, the “diagonal” and the
“chevron,” which reflect the geometric nature of early Algonquin designs. Students
explored these and other patterns through a series of investigations outlined below.
Finally, students were invited to design their own pattern, which was then used to
create their beadwork.
Diagonal Pattern  Christina introduced the diagonal pattern using an interactive
whiteboard as a way of orientating students to the columns and rows of the grid and to
demonstrate the conventions of planning a pattern using a template. Christina filled in
the template up to the 10th column, and students were asked to copy and extend the
pattern to the 20th column. They were then asked to identify the section of the pattern
that repeats (which was termed the “core” of the pattern). Identifying the unit of repeat
in this pattern required students to analyze the visual and numeric structure of the pat-
tern. The students identified the first four columns as the unit of repeat and had various
ways of justifying their thinking. Some students looked at the numeric patterns and
identified that number pattern for columns 1–4 repeated every four columns (see
Fig. 7.2). Other students looked at the visual pattern of the first four columns and pre-
dicted that this four-column structure, when rotated 180 degrees, would be congruent.
The first four columns represented the fewest number of columns for which this was
true and so were identified as the core (e.g., the same is true if you rotate a core made
up of columns 1–8, but this can be broken into two groups of four columns). Students
tested their theory by copying the four-column structure on the interactive whiteboard
and rotating the core. Still other students used “occluders” (strips of paper) to isolate
different parts of the pattern to determine the unit of repeat and through visual trial and
error identified the first four columns as the core of the pattern (see Fig. 7.3).
Christina then introduced students to a pattern of chevrons that were two beads
wide and created using two alternating colors: a two-color two-bead chevron pattern

Fig. 7.3 Using
“occluders” to find the unit
of repeat exploring
chevron patterns
114 R. Beatty

Fig. 7.4  Two-color two-bead chevron loom pattern

Fig. 7.5  Three-color three-bead chevron with column 0

(see Fig.  7.4). Students were asked to find the core of the pattern. Some students
focused on the numeric pattern and noted that even though the numbers repeated
after the second column, the colors were different, so the first four columns made up
the core. Other students identified the visual pattern of the first four columns and
described the central blue chevron surrounded by parts of red chevrons on either side.
Next, students were taught to create a three-color three-bead chevron (see Fig. 7.5).
Students identified the core by finding the columns that were the same (either visually
or numerically). Students found that column 10 was identical to column 1 and rea-
soned that the core comprised columns 1–9. Students described imagining superim-
posing the first nine columns onto the next nine columns to see if they “matched.” They
then used the interactive white board to copy the core and overlay it onto columns 10
to 18. Noticing that the pattern seemed to begin with a partial chevron, a few students
wondered what would happen if they added a column “before” (to the left of) column
1 on the pattern (which they referred to as “column 0”) and whether this would change
the pattern core. The rest of the class then explored this line of inquiry. They discovered
that if a column was added to the left of the core, and the new column was considered
the beginning of the core, then the whole core “shifted” to the left by one column and
comprised columns 0–8 (see Fig. 7.5). They continued to add columns to the left of
column 1 and noticed the core shifted by as many columns as were added. They also
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 115

Fig. 7.6  Flower pattern

noticed, however, that the number of columns in the core did not vary. For a three-color
three-bead chevron pattern, the core was always made up of nine columns.
The students identified that any nine consecutive columns in the pattern could be
considered the core and that identifying the first nine columns as the core was arbi-
trary since the pattern could extend to the left as well as the right of the initial given
element; the width of the core did not vary. This prompted a student-generated
inquiry about whether it would be possible to predict the width of the core for any
chevron pattern. Each student was asked to create a chevron pattern made up of any
size chevron and any number of colors. Students then analyzed different chevron pat-
terns to identify the core. They reviewed a two-color two-bead chevron with a core of
four columns and a three-color three-bead pattern with a core of nine columns. Next
they considered a two-bead four-color chevron and found the core was eight columns
and a two-bead five-color chevron with a core of ten columns. Based on these experi-
ences, the students generalized to predict the number of columns in the pattern core
of any chevron pattern. They found that the width of the core was determined by a
multiplicative relationship between the width of the chevron (the number of beads
that made up the chevron) and the number of colors. To test this theory, they created
a three-bead five-color chevron that they accurately predicted would have a core
comprised of 15 columns. Students also discovered that their theory worked for the
diagonal pattern as well, because when the top three rows of a seven-row diagonal
pattern are reflected vertically, the diagonal pattern becomes a chevron pattern.
Other Patterns  The students were then introduced to other patterns, like the flower
pattern (see Fig. 7.6).
As they worked to determine the unit of repeat, students initially identified the
core as column 1 to 5 and predicted that column 6 would be the same as column 1.
They also argued, however, that the core might be considered as extending from
column 1 to 4, and that column 6 would, therefore, look the same as column 2. Mike
added some beads to the pattern so students could judge which of their conjectures
were accurate (see Fig. 7.7). The students agreed the core was four columns.
They were then asked to make predictions about columns in the pattern further
down the sequence, for example, what the 64th column would look like. Students
had a few ways to solve this. Sylvie said, “I think it’s column 4 because you just need
to times 20 by 3 and that’s 60 and go 4.” Underlying this answer is Sylvie’s under-
standing that the 20th column would be the same as the 4th column, and three full
templates plus four more columns (or one pattern core) would be the 64th column.
116 R. Beatty

Fig. 7.7  Extended flower pattern

Adam stated, “It would be column 4 because 4 is a direct multiple of 64 and it would
come around to be a full pattern core.” This reasoning shows an integration of both
the numeric relationships and the visual aspects of the pattern, since Adam justified
his thinking both through stating a multiplication fact and an understanding that the
64th column would be the last column of a core. Mike then asked the students how
many repetitions of the core would be included up to column 64. Again, explanations
from students demonstrated an integration of numeric and visual reasoning. For
example, Jonah’s first explanation was grounded in multiplication facts. “It would
repeat 16 times because 10 times 4 is 40 and 6 times 4 is 24 and add them together,
it’s 64.” His response was challenged by Sam.
Sam: Sixty. You were thinking of 16 as 60. But there’s one extra one, so 64, that
would actually be 17.
Adam: One extra what?
Sam: One extra pattern core.
Jonah: No it’s not, because 5 times 4 equals 20, which would make it 60, so that’s
15. Then when you add one more it would be 16 to make it 64.
Sam: Oh, yea, ok.
Implicit in this argument is the understanding that the 20-column template will
contain 5 repetitions of the 4-column core. Sam argued 16 repeats of the core would
only reach column 60, and so one more core would be needed to get to column 64.
Jonah, however, responded that “5 times 4 equals 20,” meaning there will be 5 rep-
etitions of the core in one 20-column template, “so that’s 15” meaning for 3 full
templates, there would be 15 cores, and adding one more pattern core would add 4
columns to 60 to end at column 64.
Individual Bracelet Designs  At the end of the first week, the students designed
their own pattern to use as the basis of their bead creations. By measuring some
sample bracelets Christina had brought into the classroom, they discovered that five
columns on the pattern template equaled 1  cm of beadwork. Students measured
their wrists and then used the relationship of 5 columns = 1 cm to calculate how
many columns long their bracelets would need to be in order to fit. They also calcu-
lated how many beads in total they would need and how many beads of each color
they would require. Some students, like Ella, designed a pattern with a five-column
core and reasoned that the number of repeats of the core would equal the size of her
wrist in centimeters (see Fig. 7.8). Ella measured her wrist at 15 cm, so she would
need 15 repeats of her core. Since each core comprised 35 beads, she calculated that
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 117

Fig. 7.8  Ella’s five-column pattern core

Fig. 7.9  Three “sub-cores” in a nine-column pattern core

the total number of beads she would need would be 35 times 10 (350) plus 35 times
5 (175), for a total of 525 beads. She double-checked the total by calculating the
number of columns (75) and multiplying that by the number of rows (7).
Many students, though, designed patterns that were not based on a five-column
core. Julia, for example, measured her wrist at 15  cm and knew her final bracelet
would need to be 75 columns in length. She found a numeric pattern in her three-­color
three-bead chevron that repeated every three columns; however, she saw that visually
the core was nine columns wide, which could be broken down into three different
“sub-cores” (see Fig. 7.9). She calculated the number of sub-cores that would fit into
her 75 columns and determined that sub-core 1 would repeat nine times and sub-cores
2 and 3 would repeat eight times each. She then counted the number of different col-
ored beads in each sub-core and multiplied that by the number of times the sub-core
repeated. Sub-core 1 had 15 red, 4 blue, and 2 green, each of which was multiplied by
9. Sub-core 2 had 15 green, 4 red, and 2 blue, multiplied 8 times. Sub-core 3 had 15
blue, 4 green, and 2 red, multiplied 8 times. This resulted in a total of 525 beads.
Luke designed a patchwork design and found his pattern core was nine col-
umns (see Fig. 7.10). His wrist measured 18 cm, so his design needed to be 90
columns with ten repeats of the pattern core. The design consisted of an overall
9 × 9 array, made up of smaller 3 × 3 arrays. Since he used only three colors,
each color required 27 beads, so the total number for each color bead was 27
times 10 (units of repeat) for a sub-total of 270 beads. He then multiplied 270
118 R. Beatty

Fig. 7.10  9 × 9 Luke’s array pattern core

Fig. 7.11  Jack’s chevron

Fig. 7.12  Wyhatt’s four-column pattern core

times 3 to figure out that he would need a total of 810 beads. He confirmed this
by calculating the total number of beads in the 9 × 9 pattern core and multiplying
the answer, 81, by the ten repeats of the pattern core.
Jack also needed 90 columns for his 3-color 3-bead chevron (see Fig. 7.11). He
counted 14 beads in each chevron. He drew his pattern to the 90th column and found
there were 15 yellow, 14 black, and 14 red chevrons. He then realized that each
partial black and red chevron at the beginning and end of the pattern would, if put
together, create a full chevron, so there were 15 chevrons of each color. He multi-
plied the number of chevrons by the number of beads per chevron to get 210 beads
of each color, which multiplied by 3 meant 630 total beads.
Finally, Wyhatt’s pattern core had four columns (see Fig. 7.12). He calculated
that 5 pattern core units = 20 columns, or 4 cm; that 10 pattern core units = 40 col-
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 119

umns, or 8 cm; that 20 pattern core units = 80 columns, or 16 cm; and that he would
need one more core, plus a column, to reach 85 columns, or 17 cm.
The work of this project adheres to four components necessary for culturally
responsive math education: (1) focus on important mathematics, (2) relevant con-
tent, (3) incorporate student identities, and (4) shared power (Averill et al., 2009).
The mathematics the students explored was rigorous and complex. The content
was relevant for students, both for those from the community and also for non-
Native students who were equally interested and engaged in the activities and
mathematical discussions. The Algonquin students saw their culture reflected in
math instruction, and through our process of inquiry and discovery, all students
contributed to the mathematical knowledge building – every student’s ideas were
important and acknowledged.

Mathematical Thinking

This sequence of lessons contributed to students’ understanding of a number of key

mathematical concepts inherent in beading, including identifying complex patterns,
algebraic reasoning, proportional reasoning, and spatial thinking.
Patterning and Algebra  Research has suggested that an important part of devel-
oping algebraic reasoning is the ability to identify the mathematical structure of a
repeating pattern and to use that structure to make predictions about the pattern far
down the sequence, which is an early form of constructing a mathematical general-
ization (e.g., Mulligan & Mitchelmore, 2009; Mulligan, Prescott, & Mitchelmore,
2004). Most of the visual patterns students typically encounter in elementary class-
rooms are created horizontally, with an emphasis placed on finding the pattern core
and finding “what comes next” (i.e., to the right) of the given elements (McGarvey,
2013). In this project, students considered patterns that extended in two dimensions
and were far more complex than a series of shapes or numbers. Copying, designing,
and creating these patterns supported students to analyze this complex structure. We
found that students were able to shift their focus to consider four different levels of
the pattern: (1) the beads within each column, (2) the core of the pattern made up of
a specific number of columns, (3) the number of beads in a core, and (4) the overall
design of the pattern.
The idea of a “shifting” pattern core seemed to be a new idea for these students,
as they would likely have never been previously prompted to consider that a pattern
can extend to the left as well as the right of the given elements. This allowed them
to recognize that the core of a pattern is not necessarily defined by the first set of
elements and that what remains constant is the size of the core (in this case, the
number of columns). This discovery prompted the students to capture the relation-
ship between the size of the chevron and the number of colors to create a generaliza-
tion in order to predict the size of the pattern core (bead × color = core width).
The students were also able to make predictions far down the sequence of differ-
ent patterns, for example, predicting that the 64th column for a 4-column pattern
would look like the 4th column because 64 is a multiple of 4, and the 64th column
120 R. Beatty

represents the final column of the 16th repetition of the core. These predictions were
based on recognizing the covariation between the numbered columns and the ele-
ments in the unit of repeat (the beads in each column) and the number of columns
comprising the core. What was interesting was how students justified their predic-
tions using both their knowledge of multiplication (i.e., that 64 is a multiple of 4)
and the structure of the pattern and its relation to the template, that is, describing the
64th column in terms of 3 completed 20-column templates (or 15 pattern cores) plus
one more core.
Proportional Reasoning  In this study, students used proportional reasoning to
estimate the total length of their finished bracelets using a fixed ratio of 1 cm = 5
columns. Students whose pattern cores were also 5 columns were able to translate
the size of their wrist in centimeters directly into the number of pattern cores
required. Other students, however, used other units in their reasoning. For example,
Wyhatt’s reasoning used a composite unit: the 20-column template represented 5
pattern core units and 4  cm simultaneously. Students exhibited an ability to use
single or composite units as the basis for multiplicative thinking and could make
decisions about which unit to use for their calculations (e.g., using the unit of 5
columns for 1 cm, or using the unit of the pattern core of 4 columns related to an
understanding that 20 columns = 5 cores and 4 cm). Many proportional reasoning
activities found in elementary mathematics curricula are designed to encourage stu-
dents to apply a memorized rule or algorithm; however, the application of memo-
rized rules does not mean students are reasoning proportionally (Lamon, 1993). The
problems posed during this unit were practical and engaging because the teachers
needed to know how many beads to order and of what color. As one student put it,
“we needed to figure out the number of beads pretty accurately, because if we didn’t
order enough beads we wouldn’t be able to finish off our bracelets!” The students
had not been taught specific strategies for reasoning proportionally but were able to
do so because they understood the context of the problem.

Spatial Reasoning  Numerous studies have suggested that spatial reasoning

skills, including mental manipulation and spatial visualization, are linked to math-
ematical achievement (Gunderson, Ramirez, Beilock, & Levine, 2012; Mathewson,
1999). Here, we found that designing two-dimensional patterns on a grid, and
identifying components of the pattern (like the pattern core), provided an oppor-
tunity for students to engage in visuospatial thinking. As they worked to discern
the columns that made up the core of the pattern, the students were able to men-
tally visualize isolating the pattern core and rotating it, or superimposing one core
onto the next to determine whether it “matched.” These mental processes were
then checked using the interactive whiteboard. In addition, the planning of pat-
terns (and subsequent beading) required students to consider spatial relationships
on many different levels: the relationship of the beads within a column, the rela-
tionship of a column to surrounding columns, the relationship of the columns
representing the “core” to the bracelet as a whole, and the relationship of beads
and columns with respect to the overall design of the piece. All of these relation-
ships were considered within a two-­dimensional grid (the paper designs) or in
three dimensions on the loom.
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 121

Engagement and Mathematical Thinking

After reviewing transcripts of students’ experiences in these lessons, we found that

integrating a traditional cultural practice as the basis for mathematical instruction
seemed to suggest enjoyment and engagement for all students, as well as high levels
of mathematical thinking, which Christina believed were intertwined: “The thing
that impressed me most about the videos of student learning is that they were proud
of what they did. It wasn’t hard for them to talk about the math because they enjoyed
it so much.” Although the lessons supported students to engage with complex con-
cepts such as algebraic and proportional reasoning, the means of facilitating this
learning was through the process of designing and constructing beaded bracelets.
Students spent up to 3 hours at a time in the classroom not only working on designs
but also solving mathematical problems that emerged from the activities, reflecting
Howard and Shirley’s advice to make the content meaningful and hands on.
The method of instruction also played a role in student success. For some loom-
ing lessons, Christina used direct instruction to teach students how to use a grid
template to design their patterns and how to create certain designs. For a majority of
the time, though, the classroom was more informal. Students designed their own
bracelets and tackled the mathematical problems that arose naturally from the activ-
ity. They worked with Christina, or in small groups or individually, to find solutions.
Jody likened this to her experiences as a child growing up in Pikwakanagan and
learning how to bead from community members:
Christina was sitting at the front table that was set up for the students. She was working with
a group of girls, and it reminded me of when I was growing up. I must have been about 8,
and my cousins and I went to an elder’s house, and we did beading. I recall that there was a
big wooden kitchen table, and we had beadwork all over the table. Christina working with
the students just reminded me of that because we were just sitting, we were chatting, we
were laughing. There was no worry about making mistakes; there was just, we were all
learning together. And you were sitting in close proximity to someone who you trusted to
teach you whatever it was you were doing. You know, a lot of humor and laughing among
us, and it was a safe place, and I think that’s the part that reminded me of when Christina
created that environment in the classroom. Quite often we think of classrooms in schools as
institutional, but I think that the community feeling was created in that classroom.

This feeling of safety, humor, and community provided an opportunity for students
to begin to develop a positive, personal relationship with mathematics. Rather than
focusing on the acquisition of math concepts as stepping-stones to even more com-
plex mathematics, the students were able to explore the mathematical ideas inherent
in the process of design as interesting lines of inquiry, rather than as sequences of
memorized steps. Indigenous pedagogy is holistic, in that it emphasizes the need to
address the intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual development of the student
(Barnhardt & Kawagley, 2005; Cajete, 1994). We created an environment where stu-
dents learned complex math by being active participants in activities that they seemed
to care about and through which they made connections to Algonquin culture.
122 R. Beatty

I mportance of Indigenous Community Members

in the Mathematics Classroom

Another aspect of the experience highlighted by the team was the importance of all
students learning from community members who came into the classroom to teach
and seeing that the knowledge brought by those members was honored and
respected. Jody spoke about her excitement: “I’m excited to see more culture. The
students really wanted to hear what Christina said and they wanted her help and I
think that’s an important part too – the value of our own people bringing in their
understandings.” Christina also spoke about the impact of this experience for
Algonquin students and how this experience supported students’ pride in their iden-
tity and strengthened relationships with non-Native peers:
I think it’s important for a First Nations person to teach First Nations skills. What are we
doing this for if it’s not cultural? If it doesn’t have some kind of cultural significance then
what are we doing this for, is it just to teach math? No. Not when you see the changes in the
First Nations students. Seeing them more confident, and the pride in talking with their peers
about their lives, their regalia and stuff like that. And it’s nice to be able to share with your
best friend who might not be Native a little bit more about your life that they might not
know about because they only ever see you in a school setting.

Bringing community members into the classroom expanded the students’ con-
ceptions of “who does mathematics.” As Hatfield, Edwards, Bitter, and Morrow
(2007) state, “pride and a sense of hope, rather than learned helplessness, are educa-
tion’s goals for students who previously would never have considered mathematics
as a viable option in their lives.” (p. 70).

Revisiting Ethnomathematics

As previously stated, one aspect of an ethnomathematics approach to Indigenous

mathematics instruction has been the “extraction” of mathematics from Indigenous
cultural activities. And while this stance has, for our study, yielded rich mathemati-
cal thinking that aligned with community goals to have Algonquin students become
more proficient in “school math,” the fact is that this work is still framed by a
Western perspective of what it means to think mathematically. The Algonquin activ-
ity of looming was, in effect, dominated by Western mathematical perspectives.
Given that so much of the Indigenous mathematics teachings and language of the
community had been taken, we found it difficult to determine what genuine
“Algonquin mathematics” might look like. One of the goals of community members
was for their students to become proficient in “school math,” and this goal was met
within the context of a learning community that mirrored the childhood experiences
of community members.
This study is aligned with an understanding of ethnomathematics as “interpretive
mathematizing;” that is, identifying and developing the mathematics implied in the
activity (Ascher, 1991; Barton, 1996). This contextualization of mathematical ideas
7  Connecting Algonquin Loomwork and Western Mathematics in a Grade 6 Math Class 123

meant students could connect with school math ideas through the process of engag-
ing with a traditional Algonquin activity. Conversely, after instruction, Christina
explained how she began to view her looming through more of a mathematical lens:
“It’s easier to design patterns once you understand there are numbers there, not just
beads. I’ve started looking at it from a totally different perspective. Numbers, col-
ors, and shapes in space.”

Conclusion

Although this project represents an initial introduction of bringing together

Algonquin community members and non-Native educators, we have been able to
document the inclusion of mathematics content knowledge (informed by the
Western perspectives and the mathematics inherent in the cultural activities
explored), pedagogical knowledge (particularly the pedagogical practices brought
to the experience by Christina), and contextual knowledge (connecting the school to
the community of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation). Co-designing and
co-teaching units of math instruction are the first steps to creating classroom and
community interactions in the hopes that mathematical and pedagogical knowledge
will connect school and community contexts. Students learned techniques of loom-
ing and engaged in classroom discussions focused on selected ideas and concepts so
that the mathematics was revealed.
One way of framing the results of this study is to consider it a “third space”
(Gutiérrez, Rymes, & Larson, 1995; Haig-Brown, 2008). We attempted to create
this space by documenting the Western mathematical thinking that is inherent in a
traditional Algonquin activity and by explicitly privileging Algonquin content and
pedagogical approaches alongside Western pedagogy and mathematical content.
The resulting learning experiences were considered by the research team to repre-
sent a hybrid of Algonquin and Western cultural content and pedagogical approaches.
It was important that all students had an opportunity to learn from community
members who came into the classroom to teach and to see that the knowledge
brought by those members was honored and respected. Christina emphasized the
cultural importance of the activity, which provided an opportunity for students from
Pikwakanagan to connect to their own cultural heritage and to develop a sense of
their mathematical identity through culture. This project was also important for the
non-Native students who gained greater insights into the culture of their classmates
and who extended their own mathematical thinking.
The focus of this project was specifically on integrating Algonquin culture and
mathematics instruction, and it responds to the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation
Commission’s call to action to “develop culturally appropriate curricula” (Canadian
Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Calls to Action, 2015, p.  2). We believe,
however, that it also addresses the Commission’s call to action outlined as “building
student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect”
(p. 7). Highlighting the teachings of the community members in the classroom gave
124 R. Beatty

students an opportunity to participate in knowledge systems that were valued on the

same level as Western curricula. This experience can, we hope, form the foundation
for lifelong intercultural learning and respect.

Acknowledgements  This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council through an Insight Development Grant and by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
A preliminary version of this chapter was published in Bartell, T.G., Bieda, K.N., Putnam, R.T.,
Bradfield, K., & Dominguez, H. (Eds.). (2015) Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the
Psychology of Mathematics Education, North American Chapter (pp. 546–549) East Lansing, MI:
Michigan State University.

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Chapter 8
Conversions for Life: Transnational
Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge

Miwa Aoki Takeuchi

Abstract In this chapter, I highlight mathematical funds of knowledge unique to

transnational families by introducing a study conducted in an urban area of Japan,
which is becoming increasingly linguistically and ethnically diverse. This chapter
builds on sociocultural theory and the perspective of funds of knowledge (Moll et al.,
1992), while paying attention to power dynamics, which is critical to interrogate the
legitimacy of knowledge exchanged in school contexts. Based on the framework of
tool-and-result methodology (Newman & Holzman, 1993), this study was designed to
better understand the needs of Filipino transnational families and also to explore
potential actions to collectively address these needs. In the interviews, Filipina trans-
national mothers commonly undervalued their knowledge and their involvement in
school education for their children. Based on this finding, workshops with a group of
these mothers were organized. The interactions during the workshops revealed one of
the mathematical practices that they used daily: calculating international currency
conversions. Interviews with their school-aged children suggested how these children
were able to apply the knowledge of international currency conversion and ratios
learned through discussions with their mothers. I conclude this chapter by discussing
the possibilities of making explicit the lens of power to the study of funds of knowl-
edge and also by providing pedagogical implications for mathematical teaching and
learning in the context of globalization.

Introduction

How can we enrich mathematics teaching and learning at school by making a mean-
ingful bridge between schools, families, and communities? This chapter approaches
this question by highlighting mathematical funds of knowledge unique to some
transnational families, with a focus on Filipina mothers, immigrated to Japan, and

M. A. Takeuchi (*)
University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 127

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_8
128 M. A. Takeuchi

their children. Kitchen and Civil (2011) used the adjective transnational in depict-
ing mathematics learning and teaching across multiple communities which tran-
scend national borders. This descriptor, transnational, aptly captures the situation of
Filipina immigrant mothers and their children. As described in detail later, Filipina
women in this study were all born into lower socioeconomic status families and
came to Japan to financially support their families in the Philippines. Some of the
women were granted permanent residency; others remained in Japan on their work-
ing visas, and thus could not plan where they would be the following year. The
languages these women used at home and in their communities were Tagalog, Bikol,
Japanese, and English, and they purposefully switched back and forth among those
different languages (Takeuchi, 2016).
Internationally, global population mobility has contributed to a growth in the
number of transnational students and families. For example, in the United States,
21% of households reported using languages other than English (United States
Census Bureau, 2013). In Canada, 20% of the population reported speaking a lan-
guage other than the “official” Canadian languages at home (Statistics Canada,
2012). In Japan, where this study was conducted, some industrial areas are becom-
ing ethnically and linguistically diverse, as represented in the percentages of regis-
tered immigrants in the following cities: Oizumicho, Gunma (14.5%); Minokamo,
Gifu (7.7%); and Kikukawa, Shizuoka (5.4%) (Committee for Localities with a
Concentrated Foreigner Population, 2012). In addition to these cities, larger cities
such as Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka have relatively high percentages of registered
immigrants (Ministry of Justice, 2016).
The increase of translational families and students in Japan and elsewhere has
changed the picture of mathematics teaching and learning in schools. There is a
growing international interest in mathematics teaching and learning in linguistically
and ethnically diverse classrooms (e.g., Barwell, 2009; Bishop, Tan, & Barkatsas,
2015; Moschkovich, 2011). Supporting linguistically and culturally non-dominant
students in the current globalized mathematics classroom is a multilayered process
that addresses languages, ways of knowing, and cultural practices. One of the cen-
tral goals of mathematics education is to challenge prevailing deficit views toward
non-dominant students, including English language learners, in school contexts
(Gutiérrez, 2007, 2013; Moschkovich, 2007).
In challenging deficit views toward non-dominant families, previous studies have
recognized and affirmed immigrant parents’ mathematics knowledge and resources
that were embedded in their cultural practices (Civil, 2007; Willey, 2008). This line
of research has also underlined some of the conflicts and struggles that immigrant
parents experience (Abreu & Cline, 2005; Civil & Bernier, 2006; Crafter, 2012;
Gorgorió & Abreu, 2009). Considering that certain parental involvement at home
(such as engaging in conversations involving critical thinking) can positively influ-
ence students’ academic engagement at school (Galindo & Sonnenschein, 2015;
Lee & Bowen, 2006), it is important to foster a school context that can facilitate
such parental involvement at home. Investigating the connection, as well as the dis-
connection, between children’s out-of-school practices and their in-school learning
is especially significant for transnational students, whose practices can be different
from the norm assumed in school learning and whose competence can therefore be
8  Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge 129

hidden in school contexts. This chapter aims to promote equity in mathematics edu-
cation by addressing the power that shapes the (dis)connection between home and
school for transnational families. Toward overcoming deficit views of non-­dominant
students and families, this chapter adds to the discussion about the informal mathe-
matics knowledge that educators can learn from non-dominant family practices
(Aguirre et al., 2012; Civil, 2007; Gutiérrez, 2013).

Sociocultural Theory of Learning and Funds of Knowledge

Sociocultural theory maintains that learning and development are fundamentally

social and cannot be reduced to a phenomenon closed within an individual (Vygotsky,
1978). The human mind is perceived as being mediated by physical and psychologi-
cal tools (Vygotsky, 1986). As represented by the concept of the zone of proximal
development (ZPD), the distance between the level of learner’s independent prob-
lem-solving and the level determined through problem-solving in collaboration with
peers and under appropriate guidance, Vygotsky emphasized social relationships and
interactions with others as essential resources for human development. Sociocultural
theory, which stems from Vygotsky’s theory, challenged the perspective of learning
as being “a closed system” within individuals and as being measured merely by pre-
set objectives. Rather, it sheds light on the “buds” of development, namely, the pro-
spective development of a learner that can bloom through collaboration with others.
Because of this basic assumption, researchers drawing upon sociocultural theory
analyze learning in its contexts: “what is around to be learned, in what circum-
stances, and to what end” (McDermott, 1993, p. 277). Learning should be under-
stood in relation to its surrounding contexts, rather than separating the learner from
the particular context (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003). One of the central tenets of socio-
cultural theory is to highlight capabilities and competencies that people exhibit in
the cultural practices they engage in their everyday lives (Lave, 1988; Nunes,
Carraher, & Schliemann, 1985; Saxe, 1981, 2012; Scribner & Cole, 1981). For
example, by examining an indigenous body numerational system among Oksapmin
children and youth in Papua New Guinea, Saxe (1981) revealed the development of
culturally specific forms and functions. By offering rich descriptions of cultural
practices associated with mathematics, these studies together challenged the ethno-
centric perspective on the development of mathematical ideas and offered emic
accounts of intelligence linked to local historical practices.
One of the central concepts in recognizing the competencies and resources of
non-dominant students and families is funds of knowledge, which is defined as “his-
torically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills
essential for house-hold or individual functioning and well-being” (Moll, Amanti,
Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992, p.  133). These competencies and resources are often
neglected in school contexts, especially for non-dominant students and families
(e.g., Abreu & Cline, 2005; Civil, 2014; Takeuchi, 2018). The funds of knowledge
perspective challenged the deficit views toward non-dominant, working class
­families and demonstrated the possibility of transforming school practices and
130 M. A. Takeuchi

c­ urriculum, where teachers act as ethnographers and identify the bodies of knowl-
edge and skills that are embedded in family practices to support student learning.
The identification of mathematical funds of knowledge represents complexities
because of the contrast between academic mathematics and mathematics embedded
in everyday practices. Gonzalez, Andrade, Civil, and Moll (2001) described this ten-
sion as follows: “On the one hand, although the households we interviewed certainly
developed mathematical concepts, the academic transformation of those concepts was
elusive. On the other hand, academically validated school knowledge of mathematics
seemed to obscure nonacademic forms of mathematical practices” (p. 120). Amidst
this tension, Gonzalez and colleagues (2001) demonstrated the sophisticated geomet-
ric thinking observed among Latina women in the practice of sewing and the manu-
facture of clothing. Civil (2007) demonstrated ways in which Latino/a parents and
children’s mathematical knowledge used in their everyday practices (i.e., gardening)
could facilitate academic mathematic learning (i.e., exploring how area varies given a
fixed perimeter or graphing the growth of amaryllis, which includes the concept of
scale). The project described by Civil demonstrated a successful example of connect-
ing with parents as “intellectual resources” (p. 117) for students’ learning at school.
This chapter draws on sociocultural theory and the perspective of funds of knowl-
edge by focusing on the cultural practices that Filipina immigrant women engage in
their daily lives and by revealing the mathematics knowledge exhibited through their
practices. Careful attention was paid to the aspect of power dynamics, which is essen-
tial to interrogate the norm around legitimacy of knowledge exchanged in school
contexts (Nasir & Hand, 2006). Examining power and sociopolitical dimensions of
mathematics learning is also essential in rethinking relationships between school
knowledge and knowledge gained through non-dominant students’ family practices
(Gutiérrez, 2013). Power, as analyzed through Foucault (1980), is “something which
circulates, or rather as something which only functions in the form of a chain” (p. 98).
Power, from this perspective, is broader than a phenomenon of a certain group’s con-
solidated and homogenous domination over others. Power “reaches into the very
grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and atti-
tudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives” (p.  39). This lens
allows us to examine how power produces self-­monitoring and self-control, in the
negotiation of forms of knowledge. The analytic lens of power provides a perspective
on how non-dominant families value, or undervalue, their funds of knowledge.

Methodology

Tool-and-Result Methodology

The tool-and-result methodology introduced by Newman and Holzman (1993) is

used to frame this project. In defining the tool-and-result methodology, Newman and
Holzman built on Vygotsky’s (1978) thesis on methodology, which characterized
methodology as an activity of searching both the tool and results of research.
8  Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge 131

Traditional research methodology sets out a linear and instrumental process to apply
to the problem being investigated before initiating and implementing the research.
Newman and Holzman characterized this as a tool for result methodology.
Alternatively, based on Vygotsky’s perspective, Newman and Holzman brought
forth the tool-and-result methodology, where researchers continuously search the
tool and results simultaneously. From this framework of tool-and-result methodol-
ogy, a method is perceived as an activity that simultaneously explores and generates
tools and results that are “elements of a dialectical unity/totality/whole” (Holzman,
2009, p. 9). The scope of the tool-and-result methodology fits well with the overarch-
ing agenda of this current research. In this research, interviews served as an explor-
atory tool to gain a better understanding of the needs of Filipino/a families living in
urban areas of Japan and to search for the potential actions to collectively address
these needs. Based on the emerging themes coming out of the individual interviews,
workshops were organized to address some of the issues and needs identified by the
participants. In this sense, rather than imposing the preset research agenda, appropri-
ate tools and results are simultaneously generated through this research.

Context of Study and Participants

This project was conducted in an urban Japanese city that is becoming increas-
ingly linguistically and ethnically diverse. Parent participants in this study were
12 Filipina women who came to work in Japan, the majority of whom had stayed
in Japan after marrying Japanese men. Filipino/a constitute one of the largest and
fastest growing ethnic groups in Japan (Ministry of Justice, 2016). Since the late
1970s, Filipina women have come to Japan to fill the bride shortage in farm vil-
lage areas, to work as entertainers in urban cities, and, more recently, to work as
nurses and caregivers (Suzuki, 2003). Some Filipina women I interviewed have
been making the most of their English language proficiency and working as
English language teachers and tutors. During the interviews, ten parent partici-
pants answered that Tagalog was their first language, and two answered that Bikol
was their first language. All of the parent participants answered that they were
comfortable in English as their second language because they had received edu-
cation in subjects such as mathematics and science in English. Except for two
participants, they all answered that they felt comfortable communicating orally in
Japanese but were not comfortable in Japanese reading and writing; the majority
of the participants chose to conduct the interviews in English. Child participants
in this study were nine of the parent participants’ children in the elementary
grades. The majority of child participants had been born in Japan, but two chil-
dren had been born in the Philippines. For six of the child participants who had
one Japanese parent and one Filipina parent, the main home language was
Japanese. For the other three child participants, the main home language was
Tagalog.
132 M. A. Takeuchi

Data Sources: Interviews and Workshops

In this study, the analysis was drawn from three types of data: (1) semi-structured
individual interviews with Filipina women living and raising children in Japan, (2)
semi-structured individual interviews with their school-aged children, and (3) post-­
interview workshops with the parents and children who had participated in the inter-
views. Participants for the interviews were recruited by circulating informational
brochures at the child care center run by a local community church.
Each parent interview lasted approximately 90 minutes, and each child interview
lasted approximately 45  minutes. During the interviews, participants’ stories of
coming to and living in Japan, their practices related to mathematics and language
teaching at home, and their experiences with schools in the Philippines and in Japan
were discussed. Many interview questions were based on ethnographic observations
made in the participants’ communities, for example, an after-school academic sup-
port service for immigrant students and a local church. Some of the interview ques-
tions were adapted from a study conducted by Guberman (2004), wherein
semi-structured interviews were used to identify the everyday activities in which
Grade 1 to Grade 3 children were involved. The interview questions used by
Guberman were modified to reflect the situations and contexts that were relevant to
the participants in the current study. For example, through ethnographic investiga-
tion, it was understood that talking about international currencies and time differ-
ences were part of everyday activities for Filipina/o immigrant families in Japan. As
such, questions about these subjects were added to Guberman’s interview questions.
Participants were also asked who (e.g., teachers, parent participants, both, or none)
played the most significant role in teaching the following: (a) how to use money, (b)
how to tell time, (c) basic arithmetic (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing),
(d) how to calculate international currency values, and (e) how to calculate time dif-
ferences across countries. All of the interviews were audio-recorded.
Workshops were designed to address issues raised in the interviews, including
Filipina mothers’ undervaluing their role in their children’s school education. The
main participants in the workshops were those who participated in the interviews.
Other Filipino/a parents who wanted to join the workshops were also welcomed and
included. One of the main goals for the workshops was to foster a community of
immigrant parents to share their common concerns, experiences, and knowledge. This
chapter focuses on three workshops around one theme: parents’ knowledge of ratio
and currency conversion. Other themes that emerged have been discussed elsewhere
(Takeuchi, 2015, 2018). Each workshop lasted between 90 and 120 minutes and was
held during the evening in a community where the participants lived. The number of
participants increased with each workshop, and six to nine participants joined every
workshop. Interactions during the workshops were video-recorded; activity sheets
and collective reflection sheets used during the workshops were photographed. After
the workshops, I asked participants to complete anonymous surveys.
All of the parent participants were multilingual: they all spoke English fluently
and the majority spoke Japanese. Because the interviewer’s proficiency was limited
in Tagalog and Bikol (the parent participants’ native languages), interviews and
workshops were conducted in either English or Japanese. All quotes were translated
8  Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge 133

into English, and a bilingual person highly competent in Japanese and English con-
firmed the translations. Audio recordings of the interviews were fully transcribed,
and video recordings of the workshops were content-logged.

Data Analysis

Data analysis focused on the following research questions: (1) How does Filipina
immigrant mothers’ positioning influence their involvement in their children’s
school learning? (2) What are the mathematical funds of knowledge exhibited
through the practices of Filipina immigrant mothers? (3) How can the funds of
knowledge of Filipina mothers contribute to their children’s mathematics literacy?
Semi-structured interviews were coded for positioning or positional identities
defined as “the day-to-day and on-the-ground relations of power, deference and
entitlement, social affiliation and distance with the social-interactional, social-­
relational structures of the lived world” (Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte, & Cain,
1998, p.  127). I specifically looked for linguistic markers such as “Filipino/a,”
“Japanese,” and/or “foreigners.” Participants’ positioning was analyzed in relation
to their involvement in their children’s learning at school. Then, I analyzed parts of
the interviews where I elicited the ways in which the parent participants communi-
cated with their children about mathematics in everyday practices. The goal of this
analysis was to identify the areas in which parent participants were involved in their
children’s educational activities related to mathematics learning.
Similarly, the analysis of the workshops focused on the interactions of how par-
ticipants exhibited their informal mathematics knowledge through the conversation
(e.g., knowledge of ratio in relation to converting the currency). To understand
whether and how the children had appropriated informal mathematics knowledge
from their parents, I analyzed whether and how the children solved a word problem
that involved the topic of currency conversion. Analysis of commonalities and dif-
ferences among participants and coding based on the above themes were conducted
by using the qualitative analysis software, MAXQDA (Verbi GmbH, Berlin,
Germany).

Findings

Four main themes that emerged from this study are highlighted. First, drawing from
the interviews with parent participants, how Filipina immigrant mothers’ position-
ing as a “foreigner” or “outsider” in Japanese society limited their active participa-
tion in their child’s school learning is discussed. Next, I focus on the everyday
practices involving mathematics unique to the transnational families who partici-
pated in this study and demonstrate Filipina mothers’ sophisticated mathematics
reasoning embedded in those practices. Subsequently, I consider how the informal
mathematics funds of knowledge helped children’s mathematics literacy.
134 M. A. Takeuchi

Power and Parental Involvement

Interviews with parents revealed their decisions about their involvement in their
children’s school education. Here, I highlight two ways in which power and hierar-
chy manifested in parents’ interviews: (1) parents’ distancing themselves from the
mainstream and (2) parents’ discourse on what is considered to be legitimate in
school mathematics learning. Initially, when participants were asked about their
observations of Japanese school curriculum and pedagogy, the majority of parent
participants indicated a perceived hierarchy between Japan and the Philippines and/
or their marginalized identity as a “foreigner.” For example, in her interview, Janice,
one of the parent participants, repeatedly said Japanese mathematics teaching was
more advanced as represented in the following quote: “Japan is at a high level …
what to say, I think mathematics is also at a higher level. Filipino children learn
division at around Grade 5 and Grade 6, but Japanese children learn it earlier.”
Nicole, another parent participant, also said, “I think Japanese education is more
advanced,” and she explained that the curriculum her son was learning in elemen-
tary school was taught at the high school level in the Philippines.
The interview also revealed that parents’ positioning as a “foreigner” or “out-
sider” in Japanese society hindered them from playing an active role in their child’s
school learning, even when they desired to. Janice’s story resonates with other par-
ent participants’ stories and highlights immigrant parents’ struggles in Japan. Janice
told about when her son could not go to school because of bullying: “I was really
worried and really sad because I couldn’t teach him. I couldn’t read Japanese and it
was impossible to teach school subjects to him. I am Filipina, so I couldn’t even
read important letters and felt helpless.” Janice expressed a sense of powerlessness
in supporting her child’s school learning. Janice said she always taught the signifi-
cance of a school education to her son by emphasizing her struggles in Japan. She
said, “I always tell my kids, ‘Look at mom, I can’t read, it’s really tough.’ I’m
Filipina, but you are Japanese, so study hard.”
In an effort to maneuver their positional identities as an outsider, parent partici-
pants told their children to conform to the mainstream norms. For example, Michelle
said, “I’m Filipina and I can’t offer anything as a parent because I’m a foreigner. So,
I always tell my child, ‘You don’t have to be number one, two, or three, but you have
to follow what everyone else is doing.’” As these stories exemplify, parent partici-
pants adapted an assimilative discourse, where they tried to mold their children and
themselves to fit the mainstream.

Everyday Practices Involving Mathematics

Even though the interviews showed that parents undervalued their involvement in
their children’s school learning, they also revealed that many of these parents
engaged their children in conversations involving mathematics through everyday
practices. Both parents and children reported that parents, especially mothers,
8  Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge 135

played a major role in teaching children how to use money, tell time, calculate inter-
national currency values, and calculate time differences.
In particular, all of the parent participants reported that they played a major role
in teaching their children how to use money. Parent participants described how their
role was not limited to teaching how to calculate money but extended to the moral
aspects of money (i.e., the importance of saving money and developing a reasonable
habit of consumption). For example, Vanessa said, “My youngest always buys
snacks––so, I always tell her you can’t buy what you really need, if you keep doing
that. And sometimes I ask her how much it’d be if you always, always buy this.”
Similarly, Irene explained her role as “basically teaching them how to organize
money well because we don’t have much money (with laughter).” Parent partici-
pants also reported that they taught the calculative aspects of using money, such as
how to record children’s allowances. In daily practices such as shopping together,
these parents taught their children how to use money effectively. For instance, Fumi,
a child participant in Grade 5, explained what she had learned from her mother:
“When I make a payment and when the price is not even, my mom taught me how I
can get minimum number of coins for change.” This daily practice of shopping
taught child participants basic arithmetic.
Conversations about international currencies and time differences were unique to
the transnational families in this study and were embedded in the participants’ prac-
tices of calling families and friends or traveling to visit families and relatives in
other countries. Many child participants reported that they had learned about calcu-
lating international currency conversions and talking about time differences from
the time when they were young (as young as Grade 2). International currency
exchange was taught out of necessity. Irene taught about the currency exchange
between the Filipino peso and Japanese yen to her children when traveling to the
Philippines. She asked questions such as “If I have 100 pesos, then how much is it
in Japanese yen?” Nicole said that her son asked related questions when they trav-
eled in the Philippines or in the United States. She explained,
Because he is very good at managing money, he is interested. When he bought a toy, then
he looks at the price and then thinks how much it is in yen. He’d say something like, ‘How
much would that be in yen? 800 yen? Okay, that’s cheap.’

As evidenced here, parents played a significant role in these everyday practices

involving money and time, which were closely connected to the daily practices of
these transnational families.

 alculating International Currency Conversion: Findings

C
from the Workshops

As seen in the interview findings, power structures and immigrant parents’ position-
ing were limiting their involvement in their children’s school education. These
interview findings led to workshop design addressing a need for parent participants’
concerns regarding school education. As one of the discussion topics for the
136 M. A. Takeuchi

workshops, I asked participants about the mathematics they engage in their daily
lives. As highlighted below, this discussion revealed the mathematical knowledge
and reasoning that parents used in informal settings outside of school.
One commonly reported practice that involved mathematics was calculating
international currency conversions. Five Filipina mothers attended the first work-
shop, and all stated that they constantly engaged in calculating international cur-
rency conversions. All of the Filipina mothers that I interviewed said that they were
from a big family of lower socioeconomic status and that financially supporting
their family was their main motivation for coming to Japan. Also, many of them
were sending money back to family members in the Philippines. Because of this,
engaging in international currency conversion was a daily practice for them.
During the interviews, Filipina mothers undervalued and underestimated their
mathematical knowledge. During the process of the workshops, however, their
mathematical knowledge was revealed. For example, when we were talking about a
children’s picture book, we talked about how much a Filipino picture book would
cost in Japanese yen. As can be seen in the narratives from the workshops, partici-
pants had a strategy of doubling the Philippine pesos (to convert to yen) and halving
yen (to convert to Filipino pesos) to get an approximate value. If a picture book is
300 Filipino pesos, they then figured how much it would be in Japanese yen by dou-
bling the amount to make an approximate conversion. The following excerpts are
narrative descriptions of selected video-recorded interactions from the workshops.

Narrative Description 1

When asked the average price of a picture book in the Philippines, Michelle said,
“200 pesos.” Irene answered “About 300 pesos. They are cheaper.” They were
asked, “200 to 300 pesos? How much would that be in Japanese yen?” Irene said
“600 yen.” Evelyn and Michelle in unison said “double it.” Michelle said, “The
Filipino price is the double of Japanese yen.”
The subsequent conversation addressed the meaning of currency rate fluctuation.
Filipina immigrant women used their common sense reasoning, which is strongly
connected to their everyday experiences. Based on the conversation, the facilitator
summarized and wrote, “yen: peso = 1: 0.5.” One of the participants immediately
responded by saying that the ratio had changed.

Narrative Description 2

The facilitator said, “So, what you just did is … (while pointing at the written note “yen:
peso = 1: 0.5”) 1 Japanese yen equals to 0.5 Filipino pesos?” Janice and Evelyn imme-
diately responded, “That was before.” Evelyn then said, “That was before. Now 0.45.”
The conversation described in the following narrative depicts some of the ways
in which Filipina mothers explained the implications of fluctuation. Filipina moth-
ers not only understood the conversion between the two currencies but also demon-
strated their understanding of the implications of fluctuation.
8  Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge 137

Narrative Description 3

The participants were asked, “What does this change in conversion rate mean to
you?” Irene said, “For us, if the peso is 0.5, it’s good for us but also it’s good for
people in the Philippines, too.” Evelyn said, “In my case, I send 100,000 yen
(approximately $1,000 USD) but now I need to add one (10,000 yen), and 110,000
yen, just to fill the loss.” Other participants were nodding while listening to Evelyn.
Evelyn continued, “But the price is the same. I told my mom, ‘Mamma, the price is
still there’ but the currency change” (making a gesture of balancing the two with her
hands).
Filipina mothers understood the meanings of fluctuations in the conversion
rate (from yen: peso = 1: 0.5 to 1: 0.45) from their personal lives. They quickly
calculated the change in the amount of money they would have to send to the
Philippines. Participants presented the informal knowledge of doubling and halv-
ing to convert between the Philippine peso and the Japanese yen. They also dem-
onstrated an understanding of the concept of fluctuating currencies and the
consequences of this fluctuation.
The mathematical literacy presented here resembles what is tested in the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme
for International Student Assessment (PISA) test for 15-year-olds. For example, the
following problem was included in 2009 PISA test, and only 40.5% of students
answered it correctly (OECD, 2010). The problem requires that the students under-
stand currency value fluctuations and can communicate the meaning of this
fluctuation.
Mei-Ling from Singapore was preparing to go to South Africa for 3 months as an exchange
student. She needed to change some Singapore dollars (SGD) into South African rand
(ZAR). During these 3 months, the exchange rate had changed from 4.2 to 4.0 ZAR per
SGD. Was it in Mei-Ling’s favor that the exchange rate now was 4.0 ZAR instead of 4.2
ZAR, when she changed her South African rand back to Singapore dollars? Give an expla-
nation to support your answer (OECD, 2010, p.113).

In the above interactions, which were closely related to their daily practices,
Filipina mothers demonstrated understanding of the fluctuation of currency values
and discussed the impact of the fluctuation on their lives and on their Philippine
families’ lives.

 hildren’s Mathematical Literacy: International Currency

C
Conversion

In this section, I discuss how the children of these Filipina mothers understood the
concept of international currency conversion by examining how child participants
engaged in related word problems. For example, I included the following word prob-
lem, which was a modified version of one of the problems from the PISA for 15-year-
olds. This problem was presented in Japanese, the language of instruction at the school
138 M. A. Takeuchi

of the child participants, who were all elementary school students. The problem was
modified from the original PISA problem to reflect the contexts that were more famil-
iar to the participants. I also omitted the question about the implications of fluctuation,
given that students as young as Grade 2 also engaged in this problem.
Calvin from Japan was preparing to travel to the Philippines this summer. His grandmother
gave him ¥35,000 yen. The exchange rate between the Philippine peso and the Japanese yen
was 1 YEN = 0.52 PHP. If he exchanged the money he received from his grandmother, how
many Philippine pesos would Calvin get?

When given this word problem that requires understanding of international cur-
rencies, two child participants accurately solved the word problem. Four child par-
ticipants reported that they knew of the doubling and halving strategy to convert
Japanese yen to the Philippine peso from their parents but could not complete the
word problem. The child participants who solved the problem demonstrated an
understanding beyond their grade level; they were in Grade 6 and the original PISA
problem was targeted at Grade 9.
In the following section, it is demonstrated how May, one of the child partici-
pants, engaged in this problem. This example shows how having experience with
and conversations about international currency conversion can facilitate children’s
problem solving. May said she learned about international currencies from her par-
ents and often asked them how much a particular item in Japan would cost in the
Philippines. May fluently decoded the word problem, except for the Japanese word
for exchange rate. I thus explained to her what the exchange rate was, by using an
example of exchanging currencies between Japan and the Philippines. Her informal
knowledge of exchange rates, doubling, and halving to convert the two currencies
helped her to better understand the word problem. May initially mumbled, “I know
about the exchange rate, but I don’t know how to solve this.” The following narra-
tive captures how she engaged in the problem from there.

Narrative Description of Interview 1

She wrote down “35,000 yen =? 1 yen = 0.52” in two rows, vertically (see Fig. 8.1).
She said, “Should I use division? I don’t know.” Then she said, “Wait … got it.” She
then wrote “35,000 × 0.52=”. She calculated the equation and asked, “It’s 18,200, is
it? I’m not sure.”
Although her answer was correct, she was not confident in her identified
answer, saying “It’s 18,200, is it? I’m not sure.” She then said, “Usually, I would
divide by two, to get the estimation.” She continued, “But this is now 0.52.” When
asked what would be the approximate value, she identified that 17,500 peso would
be the answer.

Fig. 8.1 Notes by May (a child participant)

8  Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge 139

In May’s case, she used this knowledge for solving a new problem presented to
her. In contrast, those children who reported not having learned about international
currencies at home tended not to be able to interpret the meaning of the word prob-
lem, even when they were able to decode its texts. Interviews with Filipina mothers’
children revealed how having a conversation about international currencies can help
in solving a new mathematics word problem such as the one presented on the PISA.

Discussion

This chapter highlighted mathematical funds of knowledge unique to some Filipina

immigrant mothers living transnationally. I drew from sociocultural theory and the
perspective of funds of knowledge, while also carefully considering the repercussions
of power structures experienced by Filipino/a immigrant families in Japan. Considering
that all of the parent participants had sought employment opportunities in Japan in
order to financially support their families in the Philippines, it is reasonable to think
that the internalized hierarchical difference derived from the economic power between
Japan and the Philippines was reflected in the parents’ views toward mathematics
teaching and learning in these two countries. Based on the interviews and interactions
during the workshops, this chapter revealed how Filipina immigrant women engaged
in calculating international currency conversion daily, in order to financially support
their family members in the Philippines. The mathematical reasoning that the women
exhibited is well-aligned with mathematical literacy that is defined as the “capacity to
formulate, employ, and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts.” This includes
“reasoning mathematically and using mathematical concepts, procedures, facts, and
tools to describe, explain and predict phenomena” (OECD, 2010, p. 121). Interviews
with child participants revealed how some were able to apply the knowledge of inter-
national currency conversion and ratio, gained from their conversations with parents,
to mathematical problem-solving beyond their grade levels.
Despite its potential implications for facilitating children’s mathematical reason-
ing, parents’ funds of knowledge − in this case the knowledge about currency con-
versions − can be masked through school practices if only certain ways of knowing
are treated as legitimate and valued. In fact, as Foucault’s (1980) metaphor of power
illustrates, parent participants were carefully observing and self-censoring what is
considered to be legitimate and illegitimate in school mathematics learning. In this
process, most of the Filipina mothers internalized and normalized their social posi-
tioning and undervalued their knowledge and experience, as represented in one par-
ticipant’s quote: “I’m Filipina, and I can’t offer anything as a parent because I’m a
foreigner.” Filipina mothers’ positioning in the society and the perceived economic
and political hierarchy between their home country and host country led them to
feel powerless as parents and made them doubt their mathematical knowledge.
The mathematical funds of knowledge presented here were revealed in conversa-
tions between a group of Filipina mothers and the workshop facilitator. Foucault
(1980) named the process of “insurrection of subjugated knowledges” (p. 81) as a
140 M. A. Takeuchi

form of resistance. Subjugated knowledges are “a whole set of knowledges that

have been disqualified as inadequate to their task or insufficiently elaborated: native
knowledges, located low on the hierarchy, beneath the required level of cognition or
scientificity” (p. 82). By participating in the space where those subjugated knowl-
edges are manifested and affirmed, Filipino mothers in this study collectively
resisted the repercussion of the power imbalance.
Findings from this study contribute to the growing body of research on equity in
mathematics education (e.g., Aguirre et al., 2012; Bartell, 2013; Boaler, 2006; Civil,
2007; Esmonde & Caswell, 2010; Gutiérrez, 2013; Hand, 2012; Martin, 2013;
Moses & Cobb, 2002; Nasir, 2002) and ethnomathematics (e.g., D’Ambrósio, 2006;
Gilsdorf, 2015) by focusing explicit attention on power and identity in mathematics
learning. Nasir and Hand (2006) corroborated sociocultural theories of learning and
the theories and research on race and culture, and they maintained the significance
of attending to how the hierarchy of power and societal structures are reproduced or
challenged in the local activities of the classroom. Gutiérrez (2013) called for a
sociopolitical turn in mathematics education by bringing the analysis of power and
identity as a central agenda for mathematics learning and teaching. Students can
internalize the hierarchy of power and social stratification through mathematics
learning at home and at school. Analysis presented in this chapter responds to this
call; this study extends the analysis of funds of knowledge by considering the issue
of power and identity and by demonstrating possibilities for designing space, such
as workshops, where students and their families’ funds of knowledge and their iden-
tities are affirmed.

Limitations

This study also has some limitations. For example, the workshops were held out-
side of the school and did not involve school teachers. There have been successful
collaborations bringing students’ out-of-school funds of knowledge to the mathe-
matics classroom (Aguirre et al., 2012; Civil, 2007; Foote, 2009). The challenge
raised by these previous studies is how to leverage children’s mathematics thinking
by embracing community funds of knowledge, without reducing its richness and
complexity into simpler mathematics word problems. In this aspect, the current
study demonstrates the possible connection between mathematics reasoning elic-
ited in the OECD PISA tests and the mathematics reasoning that the particular
transnational families engaged in their daily practices. Validating the community
funds of knowledge in relation to school mathematics can help mitigate deficit
views toward non-dominant families and children in the school. The potential chal-
lenges and possibilities of collaborating with schools and teachers, in order to
incorporate the community funds of knowledge, should be addressed in future
studies.
8  Conversions for Life: Transnational Families’ Mathematical Funds of Knowledge 141

Pedagogical Implications

This work highlighted how Filipina mothers’ mathematical understanding connected

to their everyday lives. By drawing from children’s interviews, the possibility of con-
necting non-dominant students’ mathematical practices at home with their develop-
ment of mathematical literacy in school was explored. This finding is particularly
significant to the discussion on how to design educational practices which can mean-
ingfully bridge out-of-school resources and in-school learning by considering non-
dominant students’ and their parents’ positionality. As discussed briefly here, and
elsewhere (Takeuchi, 2015, 2018), these Filipina mothers who are raising children in
Japan perceived their mathematical resources to be less valuable, compared to the
school knowledge. Countering the deficit views toward non-dominant students and
identifying and noticing their intellectual resources through the workshops are ways
to mitigate a power imbalance affecting Filipina mothers and students’ identities in
relation to mathematics learning. This study sheds light on the mathematical under-
standings of non-dominant parents and students, focusing on everyday mathematical
practices that are familiar to them. As indicated through children’s interviews, there
is a potential that informal mathematical knowledge can facilitate broader mathemat-
ical literacy. Designing school lessons to affirm non-­dominant transnational families’
knowledge and experiences will contribute to embracing students’ identities holisti-
cally. Such lessons can eventually enhance mathematics learning experiences for all
the students.

Acknowledgements  I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all the participants who
taught me a lot. I would like to thank Dr. Beaumie Kim and anonymous reviewers for their con-
structive feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript. A portion of this manuscript was
­presented at the Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the
Psychology of Mathematics Education in 2015 at Michigan State University. This study was
funded by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Grant number: 12J02927).

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Chapter 9
A Commentary on Identifying
and Connecting to Family
and Community Funds of Knowledge

Marta Civil

Abstract  This chapter presents a commentary on the pieces in the section of the
book focused on identifying and connecting to family and community funds of
knowledge. It underscores the importance of listening to and learning from those
whose knowledge and experiences have often been unacknowledged (e.g.,
Indigenous communities; immigrant women). This commentary highlights poten-
tial tensions related to issues of valorization of knowledge and to the foreground-
ing of mathematics versus the foregrounding of the cultural knowledge.  At the
heart of these tensions is the concept of power captured in questions such as,
whose mathematics are being represented? What approaches to doing mathemat-
ics are being valued and why? How is teaching taking place? Whose voices are
being recognized?

While at some level one could think that the chapters by Ruth Beatty and by Miwa
Aoki Takeuchi are quite different, in fact they both center on the importance of
understanding and building on the mathematical knowledge of groups that have
traditionally been ignored or marginalized. The two chapters provide insights into
issues related to connecting in-school and out-of-school/community/home knowl-
edge. Both chapters, however, offer different perspectives, theoretical frameworks,
and methodologies. Beatty’s chapter draws heavily on ethnomathematics, while
Takeuchi draws on sociocultural theory, and in particular on the work around funds
of knowledge.
The chapter by Ruth Beatty provides a detailed example of the mathematical
learning opportunities in the practice of Algonquin loomwork. In so doing, this
chapter is a good resource for readers who want to see the mathematics in everyday
practices, such as in this case, looming, and in particular, the author provides a thor-
ough description of possible connections between school mathematics concepts and
the practice of looming. The chapter also touches on several potential tensions,

M. Civil (*)
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 145

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_9
146 M. Civil

including learning through apprenticeship by engaging in the practice instead of

through direct transmission, bringing in a Western view to interpret the mathematics
in Indigenous practices, and letting the ideas emerge organically versus imposing a
predetermined path. In what follows, I turn my attention to these tensions.
Reading this chapter reminded me of the teaching of Nancy Sharp, a Yup’ik
teacher, who engaged her young students in learning through apprenticeship. As
Lipka, Sharp, Brenner, Yanez, and Sharp (2005) write, “expert-apprentice modeling
and joint productive activity are one of the oldest forms of instruction: They have
rarely been part of Western schooling in indigenous contexts, although they are part
of the local culture” (p. 32). Similar to Beatty’s chapter, the case of Nancy Sharp is
also discussed as an example of “third space” (Gutiérrez, Baquedano-López, &
Tejeda, 1999). Rogoff (1994, 2012) has been studying the differences between
teaching and learning in middle-class communities of European origin in the USA
and in Mayan communities in Guatemala. Once again, we see the idea of learning
through some form of apprenticeship, through participation in a community of
learners in the Indigenous settings. In writing about her interviews with mothers in
a Mayan community, Rogoff (2012) would ask them, “How do you teach your
daughters to weave?” and she notes that she “was puzzled when they replied simply,
‘I don’t teach them to weave, they learn’” (p. 234).
Beatty’s chapter underscores the importance of a developing community feeling
when learning. As she writes, “There was no worry about making mistakes, there
was just, we were all learning together” (pp. 120–121). In Civil and Hunter (2015),
we emphasize the importance of family feeling, humor, and building relationships
as we describe the work in mathematics teaching and learning in two very different
contexts, with Pāsifika students in New Zealand and with Mexican-American stu-
dents in the USA.
The potential tension in our imposing a Western view of mathematics on
Indigenous practices is not unrelated to the tension between everyday/out-of-school
mathematics and academic/in-school mathematics. Whose knowledge is repre-
sented and valued? Several researchers have written about this topic (e.g., Civil,
2002, 2007, 2016; de Abreu, 1995; González, Andrade, Civil, & Moll, 2001; Nasir,
Rosebery, Warren, & Lee, 2006). For example, in Civil (2016), I allude to the case
of a teacher who was an experienced seamstress and dismissed the mathematics in
sewing as being “just measuring”; or in Civil (2002), as we engaged a class of fifth
graders in exploring the mathematics connected to games by drawing on their
knowledge, some students questioned if this was really mathematics since they
were used to filling out worksheets in mathematics classes.
The third tension in this chapter relates to the need to balance the authenticity of
the activity from a mathematics point of view as well as from the cultural point of
view. As Beatty writes:
Our goal was also, however, to bring out mathematical thinking, and to this end we facili-
tated the exploration of mathematical ideas as they arose … Some of the inquiries students
engaged in, for example calculating the numbers of beads needed for different designs,
were questions that students asked during the course of the investigation, but are not areas
on which traditional loomers would necessarily focus. (pp. 110–111)
9  A Commentary on Identifying and Connecting to Family and Community Funds… 147

This tension reminds me of what I have described as “preserving the purity of

funds of knowledge, perhaps at the expense of mathematics” (Civil, 2007, p. 107).
This observation was based on a year-long study in a second grade class where we
developed a construction module. The teacher, Patricia Sandoval-Taylor, had had
the students in first grade and had visited her students’ homes during that year.
Through her ethnographic home visits, she had uncovered a richness of funds of
knowledge on the topic of construction. As we planned for the module, very ani-
mated conversations took place, as I, as a mathematics educator, was trying to push
for mathematical activities, while the teacher (Patricia) wanted to make sure that the
learning was grounded in authentic experiences that the children (or their families)
encountered in construction. For example, I designed an activity that would involve
proportional reasoning in having the students build a chair for a doll. Sandoval-­
Taylor (2005) writes:
I was not sure that learning about proportion would emerge during the unit. From my expe-
rience in my students’ community, I thought that the unit focus would more likely be on
constructing buildings…. Students could be asked, for instance, how to build an additional
room on their homes. (pp. 159–160)

This tension is nicely captured by Christina, an Algonquin teacher and expert

loomer, in Beatty’s chapter:
If it doesn’t have some kind of cultural significance then what are we doing this for, is it just
to teach math? No. Not when you see the changes in the First Nations students. Seeing them
more confident, and the pride in talking with their peers about their lives, their regalia and
stuff like that. And it’s nice to be able to share with your best friend who might not be Native
a little bit more about your life that they might not know about because they only ever see
you in a school setting. (p. 121)

These words from Christina capture the power of building on students’ cultural
practices, as doing this allows for bridges to be built between students and between
in-school and out-of-school life. This idea is also central in Takeuchi’s chapter, as
she seeks to learn from the Filipina women about their uses of mathematics to build
connections between their experiences and school mathematics that their children
are learning.
Takeuchi’s chapter adds to the body of research on immigrant parents’ views of
and experiences with mathematics. I have been conducting research on this topic for
about 25 years. My work has focused on Mexican-American communities in the
USA; Takeuchi’s chapter focuses on Filipina women in Japan. It is important to note
that while the contexts are different, there are some similarities in our findings (e.g.,
in terms of language of instruction as a potential barrier) but also some differences.
In particular, the Filipina women in Takeuchi’s study seemed to position themselves
as outsiders to the Japanese system of education and viewed this system as superior
to the one in the Philippines. This is different from my findings, and those of other
researchers, where immigrant parents tended to view the system from their country
of origin as more advanced and demanding (Civil, 2012). As I have discussed else-
where (Civil & Planas, 2010), the point is not whether one system is more advanced
than the other, as this is  a complex question, but the point is that these parents’
perceptions are likely to color their interactions with their children’s schools and
148 M. Civil

their views of the mathematics they are currently learning. In any case, both in my
research with Mexican women in the USA and in Takeuchi’s research with Filipina
women in Japan, issues of marginalization due to not being familiar with the school
system, not knowing the language of schooling, and difficult economic situations
are very real.
The examples centered on the Filipina women (and their children’s) understand-
ing of currency exchange, based on their personal experiences going back and forth
between Philippine Pesos and Yens, reminds me of my first experience with the
Funds of Knowledge for Teaching project, where we devised a module around
money, inspired in part by the fact that children were used to working with Mexican
Pesos and US Dollars and that some of the parents had had a small grocery shop in
Mexico (Civil, 1992). Similarly, in Moll, Amanti, Neff, and González (1992), Cathy
Amanti describes how many of her students had experiences traveling across the
border and engaging in currency conversion (Mexico/USA). Yet, those experiences
are often not valued or recognized. This is addressed very explicitly in Takeuchi’s
chapter, as she looks at issues of power in her study of Filipina women in Japan. As
Takeuchi writes, “Despite its potential implications for facilitating children’s math-
ematical reasoning, parents’ funds of knowledge, in this case the knowledge about
currency conversions, can be masked through school practices if only certain ways
of knowing are treated as legitimate and valued” (p. 138). And earlier in the chapter,
Takeuchi writes, “During the interviews, Filipina mothers undervalued and under-
estimated their mathematical knowledge. During the process of the workshops,
however, their mathematical knowledge was revealed” (p. 134). Of particular note
is the fact that the workshops emerged from the themes in the interviews, thus
responding to the needs and interests expressed by the Filipina women and promot-
ing the concept of parents as intellectual resources (Civil & Andrade, 2003). The
workshops in Takeuchi’s study created spaces where the mothers could have their
knowledge and experiences recognized, thus perhaps questioning the power issues
they perceived based on their positioning in the host country.
The two chapters provide powerful images of what is possible if we focus on the
knowledge and experiences that diverse groups bring with them, whether it is the
cultural practices of Indigenous people or of immigrant women. In engaging with
these practices with a mathematical eye, we can challenge several aspects related to
the teaching and learning of school mathematics, such as: Whose mathematics is
being represented? What approaches to doing mathematics are being valued and
why? How is teaching taking place? Whose voices are being recognized?

References

Civil, M. (1992). Entering students’ households: Bridging the gap between out-of-school and in-­
school mathematics. In A. Weinzweig & A. Cirulis (Eds.), Proceedings of the 44th interna-
tional meeting of the international commission for the study and improvement of mathematics
teaching (ICSIMT) (pp. 90–109). Chicago: ICSIMT.
9  A Commentary on Identifying and Connecting to Family and Community Funds… 149

Civil, M. (2002). Everyday mathematics, mathematicians’ mathematics, and school mathematics:

Can we bring them together? In M. Brenner & J. Moschkovich (Eds.), Everyday and academic
mathematics in the classroom. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monograph
#11 (pp. 40–62). Reston, VA: NCTM.
Civil, M. (2007). Building on community knowledge: An avenue to equity in mathematics educa-
tion. In N. Nasir & P. Cobb (Eds.), Improving access to mathematics: Diversity and equity in
the classroom (pp. 105–117). New York: Teachers College Press.
Civil, M. (2012). Mathematics teaching and learning of immigrant students: An overview of the
research field across multiple settings. In O. Skovsmose & B. Greer (Eds.), Opening the cage:
Critique and politics of mathematics education (pp. 127–142). Rotterdam, The Netherlands:
Sense Publishers.
Civil, M. (2016). STEM learning research through a funds of knowledge lens. Cultural Studies of
Science Education, 11(1), 41–59.
Civil, M., & Andrade, R. (2003). Collaborative practice with parents: The role of the researcher
as mediator. In A. Peter-Koop, V. Santos-Wagner, C. Breen, & A. Begg (Eds.), Collaboration
in teacher education: Examples from the context of mathematics education (pp.  153–168).
Boston: Kluwer.
Civil, M., & Hunter, R. (2015). Participation of non-dominant students in argumentation in the
mathematics classroom. Intercultural Education, 26(4), 296–312.
Civil, M., & Planas, N. (2010). Latino/a immigrant parents’ voices in mathematics education. In
E.  Grigorenko & R.  Takanishi (Eds.), Immigration, diversity, and education (pp.  130–150).
New York: Routledge.
de Abreu, G. (1995). Understanding how children experience the relationship between home and
school mathematics. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 2, 119–142.
González, N., Andrade, R., Civil, M., & Moll, L. C. (2001). Bridging funds of distributed knowl-
edge: Creating zones of practices in mathematics. Journal of Education for Students Placed at
Risk, 6, 115–132.
Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano-López, P., & Tejeda, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and
hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity: An International
Journal, 6, 286–303.
Lipka, J., Sharp, N., Brenner, B., Yanez, E., & Sharp, F. (2005). The relevance of culturally based
curriculum and instruction: The case of Nancy Sharp. Journal of American Indian Education,
44(3), 31–54.
Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & González, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using
a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.
Nasir, N., Rosebery, A., Warren, A., & Lee, C. D. (2006). Learning as a cultural process: achieving
equity through diversity. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sci-
ences (pp. 489–504). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rogoff, B. (1994). Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners. Mind,
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Sandoval-Taylor, P. (2005). Home is where the heart is: A funds of knowledge-based curricu-
lum module. In N. González, L. Moll, & C. Amanti (Eds.), Funds of knowledge: Theorizing
practice in households, communities, and classrooms (pp. 153–165). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
 Part III
Student Learning and Engagement
in PreK–12 Mathematics Classrooms
Chapter 10
“So We Only Have One We Share
with More, and Then They Have Way
More and They Share with Less”:
Mathematics and Spatial Justice

Laurie H. Rubel, Vivian Y. Lim, and Maren Hall-Wieckert

Abstract  This chapter investigates student learning in the context of a module

about a city’s two-tiered financial system of banks and alternative financial institu-
tions (i.e., pawnshops), held in ten sessions in a high school advisory class led by a
mathematics teacher. The module exemplifies teaching mathematics for spatial jus-
tice, by extending teaching mathematics for social justice (Gutstein, 2006) with the
idea that place matters (Gruenewald, 2003) and that justice has a geography (Soja,
2010). In this module, students use the concepts of percent to mathematize the costs
of loans, and they analyze intensive variables to investigate spatial data about the
density of these categories of institutions across their city. Spatial data is presented
with GIS maps, layerable with demographic data and locations of financial institu-
tions. The spatial distribution of the financial institutions reflects the inequalities of
the spatial patterns in the city’s social demographics. Contextualized in the disparity
of interest rates across these financial institutions, the spatial pattern not only reflects
but reinforces those social inequalities. This chapter presents findings from one
round of piloting and pursues the question: How did the module’s spatial justice
orientation support the development of conceptual understanding of percent and
ratio? Analysis focuses on growth with respect to mathematical understanding of
percent and learning in class sessions organized around the use of ratios to under-
stand the distribution. Findings include student adoption of strategies indicative of
conceptual understandings of percent and development of critical opinions about
their city’s two-tiered personal lending system.

L. H. Rubel (*) · M. Hall-Wieckert

Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, USA
V. Y. Lim
Stella and Charles Guttman Community College, City University of New York,
New York, NY, USA

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 153

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_10
154 L. H. Rubel et al.

Introduction

Social justice concerns are known to motivate the learning of mathematics by pro-
viding connections for learners between mathematics and relevant issues (Root,
2009). This potential is seen to be especially important for students from marginal-
ized groups, for whom connections between mathematics and their everyday cir-
cumstances are typically not made by teachers or curriculum (Leonard, Brooks,
Barnes-Johnson, & Berry, 2010; Remillard et al., 2014). This paper examines learn-
ing of mathematical concepts of ratio and percent in the context of a social justice
investigation around the theme of a city’s system of personal finance institutions, in
which social justice is extended to spatial justice. In American cities, the main-
stream bank industry is supplemented by an array of alternative financial institu-
tions (AFIs), including pawnshops, wire transfer outlets, and check-cashing stores.
Banks offer credit-building opportunities and charge lower rates for comparable
services than their AFI counterparts. On the other hand, banks cater their services to
people who already hold strong financial credentials and more flexible income
(Servon, 2013). This chapter describes a ten-session curricular module (“Cash
City”) designed for high school students to pursue the complex theme of New York
City’s two-tiered personal finance system.
The foundation of “Cash City” was a mathematical analysis of interest rates to
compare costs of personal loans at banks and AFIs. Differences in interest rates then
contextualized a subsequent analysis of the spatial distribution of banks and AFIs
using mathematical concepts of ratio. Interactive digital maps presented visualiza-
tions of relative densities of personal finance institutions, viewable along with visu-
alizations of demographic data. Students conducted field research in the school
neighborhood to explore the theme from street perspectives through a process of
participatory mapping (Rubel, Lim, Hall-Wieckert, & Katz, 2016). The module cul-
minated with articulations and justifications of opinions about the two-tiered
system.
A hypothesis was that the spatial justice context of a city’s two-tiered personal
finance system would further students’ conceptual understandings of percent and
ratio. Aside from building financial awareness, perspectives about a city’s spatial
distribution of financial institutions speak to issues of access, equity, and spatial
justice. This project aimed to provide students with an opportunity to use math-
ematics as a tool toward a deeper understanding of power relations that underlie
this particular socio-spatial phenomenon. Together, the mathematical under-
standings of interest and of power relations are seen as pivotal in supporting
students’ sense of critical agency about systemic injustices (Gutstein, 2006). We
pursue this argument by investigating how this spatial justice context supported
(and complicated) students’ development of conceptual understanding of percent
and ratio.
10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 155

Related Literature

Our review begins with a survey of research about student learning of percent and
ratio. Next, we outline theoretical perspectives about teaching mathematics for spa-
tial justice, attending to the potential role of percent and ratio. We conclude with
questions from the research literature pertaining to the role of place in learning
mathematics.

Student Thinking with and About Percent and Ratio

Percent and proportional reasoning are prominent across an array of common mar-
ketplace transactions (Parker & Leinhardt, 1995). The Common Core State
Standards in Mathematics (National Governors Association Center for Best
Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) indicate that students
should be able to solve multistep percent problems and be proficient with using
percent to solve problems based on an array of marketplace scenarios by the end of
middle school. Percent continues with an underlying but pervasive role in mathe-
matics curriculum at the secondary level, essential for topics such as scaling, prob-
ability, statistics, and modeling. Proportional reasoning is so similarly significant to
the development of mathematical thinking that it has been called by Lesh, Post, and
Behr (1988), “a watershed concept, a cornerstone of higher mathematics, and the
capstone of elementary concepts” (Lamon, 1993, p. 41). Mathematical competen-
cies of proportional reasoning and reasoning with percent are essential for func-
tional literacy in the marketplace, but also for critical literacy, for citizens to be able
to evaluate information and analyze relationships as they relate to issues of power
(Apple, 1992).
Despite the centrality of these mathematics topics in school curriculum, difficul-
ties with problem solving related to proportional reasoning and percent are preva-
lent and persistent (Lamon, 1993; Lembke & Reys, 1994; Moss & Case, 1999;
Parker & Leinhardt, 1995; Tourniaire & Pulos, 1985). Common errors with percent
include ignoring the percent sign; difficulties translating between decimal, fraction,
and percent; and confusion between multiplicative and additive relationships (Moss
& Case, 1999; Parker & Leinhardt, 1995; Tourniaire & Pulos, 1985). Finding a
given percent of a specific amount has been shown to be more straightforward for
students than other problem types; however, even at age 17, most students have dif-
ficulty with, for instance, finding 4% of 75 (Parker & Leinhardt, 1995). Even among
adult learners, while most master basic benchmark values like 100% and 50%,
understandings of other values, even 25%, can be limited (Ginsburg, Gal, & Schuh,
1995). Since ratios are often expressed as fractions, the tendency to extend rules that
pertain to whole numbers to fractions are implied – for example, to argue that 4/7 is
bigger than 3/5 because 4 > 3 and 7 > 5 (Stavy & Tirosh, 2000).
156 L. H. Rubel et al.

An explanation for the persistence of these difficulties with percent and ratio
tasks is that these concept areas are typically taught with a focus on procedural
methods without accompanying understanding, without support of models, and
without being contextualized in meaningful contexts. Even when teachers are suc-
cessful at solving problems involving ratios and proportion or percent, they may
still have difficulty explaining why particular operations make sense (Lo & Ko,
2013; Streefland, 1985). Representations that link procedures for solving ratio and
percent problems to conceptual understanding of percent are area models (Haubner,
1992), halving or doubling models (Moss & Case, 1999), 100-board models (Wiebe,
1986), dual-scale number lines (Dole, 2000), or ratio tables (Middleton & Van den
Heuvel-Panhuizen, 1995).

Mathematics and Spatial Justice

We draw on social definitions of space as encompassing social, historical, and geo-

graphical dimensions to define teaching mathematics for spatial justice (Rubel,
Lim, Hall-Wieckert, & Sullivan, 2016; Rubel, Hall-Wieckert, & Lim, 2017).
Abstract space comes to be bounded by human experience, imbued with historical
meaning, and takes on character as place (Tuan, 1977). The associations that people
have with a particular place, or “sense of place,” can be personal or shared, and
color their perceptions of the world (Lim & Calabrese Barton, 2006). Spatial justice
is constituted by the extent to which the multidimensional relations that structure
space and place are fair or unfair (Soja, 2010). Teaching mathematics for spatial
justice entails reading and writing the world (Freire & Macedo, 1987) as in teaching
mathematics for social justice (Gutstein, 2006), but with an emphasis on place and
space: using mathematics for “reading” the political, social circumstances that
structure the spatial world and for “writing” with agency to reimagine and transform
such structures and spaces.
Spatial justice issues can be pursued with mathematical models and analysis.
Since geographic areas vary in size and other properties, any comparison of alloca-
tion of resources across spaces demands normalization, which involves the mathe-
matical construct of ratio (Slocum, 1998). Intensive variables compare two extensive
quantities (e.g., population, area, number of banks) in a ratio (e.g., banks per square
mile) (Lawvere, 1992). Some examples of intensive variables in the literature
include comparing the distribution of continental gross domestic product by com-
paring it to continental population (Gutstein, 2006); comparing the number of liquor
stores to the number of community centers as a way to contextualize the Rodney
King riots (Brantlinger, 2005); comparing the amount of space to the size of the
student body at two schools sharing a facility (Turner, 2012); or comparing the dis-
tribution of vacant lots and basketball courts in relation to area and population
across neighborhoods to illuminate disinvestment in low-income parts of a city
(Lim, 2016). Ratio and percent figure prominently across these examples. Although
learners have been shown to demonstrate proportional reasoning more often with
10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 157

Fig. 10.1  Locations of pawnshops (red dots) layered atop a map showing banks per AFI (City
Digits, 2013)

intensive variables (associated sets ratios) than other categories of ratios, these tasks
remain difficult, especially when one of the variables being compared is continuous
(Lamon, 1993; Tourniaire & Pulos, 1985).
With digital maps pinpointing the locations of financial institutions, extensive
variables that quantify a neighborhood’s numbers of banks or AFIs demand normal-
ization in relation to other properties like area (e.g., pawnshops per square mile) or
number of households (e.g., households per bank), or by comparing them against
each other (e.g., banks per AFI). These intensive variables can be represented on
maps using choropleth coloring techniques, which correspond color shades to
ranges in numerical data (Goodchild & Lam, 1980), as shown in Fig. 10.1.

Sense of Place to Learn Mathematics

Students are engaged by mathematics curriculum that makes clear connections to

their experiences, and issues of fairness can motivate the learning of mathematics
(Gutstein, 2003; Leonard et  al., 2010; Remillard et  al., 2014; Root, 2009; Rubel
et al., 2016). We speculate that spatial justice contexts draw productively on stu-
dents’ sense of place and can serve as a potential resource for engaging students, in
this case with concepts of percent and ratio. There is evidence, on the other hand,
that sense of place can complicate engagement with data pertaining to familiar
places about which students hold prior knowledge. For example, Enyedy and
Mukhopadhyay (2007) describe how some students’ privileging of their prior
knowledge precluded negotiation with disconfirming data. Similarly, Wilkerson-­
Jerde and Laina (2015) showed students conforming data about their city to their
158 L. H. Rubel et al.

prior knowledge instead of assimilating disconfirming data toward revision of those

pre-existing views. This chapter contributes to the critical mathematics literature by
pursuing the question of how a spatial justice context supports students’ develop-
ment of mathematical understanding – in this case, of percent and ratio.

Context and Methods

This module was piloted in a high school in a large city in the United States in
2014–2015. The school is located in one of the city’s lowest income neighborhoods
and provides free lunch to 100% of its students. Students at this school are identified
as “Hispanic” (75%) or “Black or African-American” (25%), with about 20% of the
students classified as English language learners. The school is characterized by the
district as “persistently dangerous,” which requires students to pass through metal
detectors to enter school. Incoming students’ test scores, on average, are “below
proficient” and below city averages. The school suffers from low attendance; about
half of its students are categorized as “chronically absent.” Despite this array of
statistics that portray the school and its students as struggling, the school consis-
tently receives positive feedback on district surveys in which parents and students
express enthusiasm and positivity about the school and its teachers.
We are part of a team of White and Asian educational researchers, urban plan-
ners, cartographers, and teachers, none local to the school’s immediate neighbor-
hood, which collaborated to design the module and its accompanying maps. The
classroom teacher was in her 8th year of teaching, all at this school, identifies as
White, and participated in a 4-day summer institute focused on this curricular mod-
ule. The teacher piloted the curricular module with her advisory class of 16 tenth-­
grade students. Fifteen students consented to participate in the pre- and post-written
assessments, 8 girls and 7 boys. Attendance throughout these sessions was reflective
of the attendance in the school; about half (8) of the students were absent for 2 or
more days over the course of the 10-day module. Four of these students (three boys)
were absent for as many as 4 or more days, resulting in greater participation from
the girls in the class. Only three students had reached the “college-ready” threshold
on the state’s entry-level algebra test the previous year, suggesting that nearly all of
these students struggled with school mathematics.
We observed and audiotaped all 10 class sessions (each about 45 minutes long)
and collected student written work. We wrote detailed field notes for each session
and used recordings to clarify and enrich field notes. We coordinated field notes
with corresponding audio to produce detailed, analytical memos. Table 10.1 con-
tains a brief description of each session and how it pertains to student learning about
percent and ratio. We selected sessions 2, 3, 5, and 7 for analysis because of the
prominence of percent and ratio in those sessions. We used audio and the corre-
sponding summary narratives to trace the development of students’ understanding
of percent and ratio in conjunction with opinions about the spatial distribution of
financial institutions.
10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 159

Table 10.1  Dates and description of class sessions

Session dates Description
Session 1: Elements of a transaction in a pawnshop through an improv skit. Concepts of
11/5/14 interest and collateral are clarified
Sessions 2–3: Calculations of interest using a ratio table tool (e.g., Middleton & Van den
11/6/14 and Heuvel-Panhuizen, 1995)
11/7/14
Session 4: Comparison of various types of personal loans, including their annual
11/12/14 percentage rate (APR)
Session 5: Embodied activity atop an oversized map of their city (e.g., Edelson, 2011) to
11/13/14 model their city’s distribution of pawnshops and banks by county
Session 6: Digital map exploration, focusing on layers showing the location of financial
11/14/14 institutions and demographics by neighborhood
Session 7: Ratio map exploration, which normalized the quantity of financial institutions
11/18/14 by various variables for each neighborhood
Session 8: Data collection (photographs and audio-recorded interviews) in the school’s
11/19/14 neighborhood using a participatory mapping tool
Sessions 9–10: Creation of digital storyboards using images from the digital map and data
11/20/14 and from the field to express their opinions about pawnshops
11/25/14

Transcripts of whole class discussions totaling 29.5 minutes from sessions 5 and

7 were further analyzed using Dedoose software. We identified student utterances
related to percent, ratio, or place, noting utterances in which students used a variable
to describe place. In addition, focal students’ work (three groups) with digital maps
during session 7 was captured using Camtasia (Techsmith, 2010), which video-­
records students’ screens, including the actions of their cursor, in sync with audio/
video of students at work through the computer’s camera. These recordings were
used to produce narrative descriptions of students’ actions with the digital maps
with corresponding transcription of spoken utterances. We coded uses of variable in
the whole-class discussions and during engagement with the digital maps in terms
of whether the named variable was an extensive or intensive measure. Second, we
identified statements in these whole-class discussions whereby students expressed
opinions in terms of implications for spatial justice.
Student participants completed a pre- and post-written, individual assessment
that included matched items on percent, ratio, and map reading. Fourteen of 15
participants completed the pre-assessment and 11 completed the post-assessment.
We compared written work on these assessments in terms of strategy and correct-
ness. Finally, a focus group session was conducted with five student volunteers
(four of whom identify as female) after the module’s implementation. The focus
group session engaged the students in reflecting about their learning and on further
probing their understandings of percent and ratio. Finally, we identified excerpts
from the focus group video that focused on themes of percent and ratio.
160 L. H. Rubel et al.

Results

Conceptual Understandings of Percent

Students demonstrated procedural fluency with percent prior to the module. Nine of
14 students computed 4% of 150 correctly on the written assessment, but were lim-
ited to decimal-based strategies, such as multiplying 150 by 1.04, mostly aided by
calculators. Students who computed 4% of 150 correctly on the pre-assessment
using a decimal-based strategy demonstrated difficulty during the module’s early
sessions articulating a conceptual understanding of 4%. For example, Lina – a stu-
dent who had used a decimal strategy and arrived at a correct answer on the pre-­
assessment – conjectured in class that 4% might mean one-fourth, or a quarter. On
the post-assessment, 6 of the 11 students correctly computed 6% of 800, 4 of whom
showed ratio table calculations. Nine students attempted to answer a second ques-
tion, which asked them to model a pawnshop loan, and five had the correct answer.
These results on the written assessments might seem underwhelming to readers but
should be considered in light of the context of this group of underserved students
who struggle with school mathematics. In what follows, we analyze the students’
development of conceptual understanding of percent.
During the second session, the teacher introduced a ratio table tool (Middleton &
Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, 1995) with which to conceptualize percent by demon-
strating finding the interest on a $150 loan with a 4% interest rate. To build an
understanding of the process of a pawnshop loan, 4% simple interest was organized
as a $4 amount for every $100 dollars borrowed in a ratio table (See Fig. 10.2). The
table has multiplicative properties (i.e., 4% of 700 is 7 times 4) as well as additive

Fig. 10.2  Ratio table used in the classroom (11/6/14)

10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 161

Fig. 10.3  Sample student work using ratio tables to find percent without a calculator (11/7/14)

properties (i.e., 4% of 150 is 4 + 2). A ratio table can be used to calculate any per-
cent of any quantity but is especially efficient for benchmark values.
Students readily took up the ratio table tool in responding to the teacher’s subse-
quent questions. For example, when the teacher introduced $50 as the amount bor-
rowed in the table (i.e., find 4% of 50), Sheeda offered two different strategies: (1)
taking half of 4 since 50 is half of 100 or (2) multiplying 4 by 5 then moving the
decimal point one place to the left. When the teacher asked students to use the table
to find 4% of 150, Lina, the student who had previously said that 4% was a quarter,
said that the answer must be 6 because it is in between 4 and 8 since 150 is in
between 100 and 200. In session #3, 8 of 12 students in attendance showed that they
could use ratio tables in their written work to compute a given percent of multiples
of 100 (i.e., 8% of 100, 8% of 200). Many students could use ratio tables using
doubling and halving to compute 8% of multiples of 50 (i.e., 8% of 50, 8% of 150),
but only a few students computed 8% of 75, a slightly more challenging example
(see Fig. 10.3).
By the end of the project, we observed more efficient and sophisticated use of
ratio table strategies to calculate percent. More specifically, during the focus group,
when asked to demonstrate how to compute 6% of 250, four of the five students
quickly arrived at a correct answer, in some cases without writing anything down.
When asked how to accommodate this strategy to a problem like 6% of 280, two
students in the focus group demonstrated strategies that extended beyond the halv-
ing, doubling, and combining that had been worked on in class with the teacher.
162 L. H. Rubel et al.

Fig. 10.4  Student work toward calculating 6% of 280 (11/25/14)

Lina scaled 100–280 by a factor of 2.8 and correspondingly scaled 6 by a factor of

2.8. Miguel first found 6% of 250 using doubling and halving and then used the
entry for 50 to scale to 5 by dividing by 10 and reasoned that “as the money increases
by five dollars, the interest also increases by 0.3.” He then used this rate to scale up
to 30 dollars toward finding the correct answer (see Fig. 10.4). In response to the
question, “Did you learn any math?”, all of the focal students quickly and emphati-
cally responded affirmatively. Isabel described how her participation impacted her
mental mathematics strategies and her confidence about those strategies; she elabo-
rated: “I learned a lot. Because, like, before, when I was finding percent, I would
only know how to find 50% like, oh -I’d be like- oh it’s half. But then like, now, I
know how to find, like for any number” (Focus group, 11/25/14).
The use of the ratio table to calculate percent was effective as a remediation tool.
At many points, various students pointed out that it is important for a consumer to
be knowledgeable about individual transactions, because “pawnshops get over on
you.” Students felt that understanding mathematics would help them to better navi-
gate this process. In other words, mathematics would empower students as consum-
ers. However, by virtue of the high rates of AFIs relative to other options, the quick
access they provides to services, and their prevalence in low-income neighborhoods,
AFIs can be considered as part of a predatory system. This is an argument with a
spatial dimension, and pursuing it demands the use of ratios.

Conceptual Understandings of Ratio

As part of the pre-assessment, students were asked to respond to the following item:
Neighborhood A has 300 families and 3 grocery stores. Neighborhood B has 600
families and 5 grocery stores. In which neighborhood do you think people have
better access to grocery stores? Explain your answer.
10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 163

Five of 13 responses did not relate to ratios and related instead to extensive vari-
ables, such as neighborhood B having more stores (2 responses, example: “the more
grocery stores the better”), or to neighborhood A having fewer families (4 responses,
example: “Neighborhood A has a better access to the grocery stores since
Neighborhood A has 300 families”). Among the eight students who demonstrated
ratio reasoning, only Lina provided a complete justification: “NA 300/3 = 100 peo-
ple per grocery stores; NB 600/5 = 120 people per grocery store. I think in neighbor-
hood A people have better access to grocery stores because there’s less people in
each grocery store.” The other seven responses were qualitative or less precise, such
as “Neighborhood A. Because neighbor B has more stores but it has too many peo-
ple for those stores” or “Neighborhood A because in Neighborhood B there are only
2 more stores and double the people so the first one is more accessible.”
After the module, only 11 students completed the post-assessments, and of those,
only 5 students answered the grocery store ratio item. The post-assessment took
place before Thanksgiving holiday, so we speculate that students may have felt dis-
tracted by the impending holiday vacation. Nevertheless, there was evidence of
progress in students’ responses. All five students who responded to the ratio item
demonstrated ratio reasoning and included calculations to illustrate their thinking
and justify their responses, in contrast with only one student who had done so prior
to the module. For example, prior to the module, Bo argued that neighborhood B is
more accessible because it has “more stores” than neighborhood A, but after the
module the student calculated the number of families per store for both neighbor-
hoods and stated, “Neighborhood A because A have about 100 people to a store and
B have about 120 people per store.” Another student, who previously had written a
vague and unjustified response, calculated the number of families per store for both
neighborhoods and compared those ratios in his response. In what follows, we ana-
lyze students’ development of conceptual understanding of ratios and, in particular,
how this was supported by a spatial context.
Motivating Ratios  The grocery store access task is limited to two extensive vari-
ables, the number of families and the number of grocery stores. If we consider the
spatial distribution of a resource like grocery stores, other variables could be deemed
salient, like the size of the neighborhood in area, in population, or relative to other,
related businesses. The module intended to support students toward a conceptual
understanding of data normalization and the coordination of such measures with
associated demographics, supported by a walking-scale, laminated, 140-square-foot
floor map of the city during the fifth session. Students were assigned to represent
respective counties by standing in them and received scaled props to demonstrate
relative numbers of pawnshops and banks in these spaces (Fig. 10.5). When a hypo-
thetical equal distribution of pawnshops by county was introduced, Sheeda almost
immediately refuted this as not making sense, drawing on an intensive measure of
resource per area. She explained that “some places are bigger than others, and some
places are poorer than others,” suggesting that normalizations should be produced
to compensate for these distinctions. The teacher highlighted the former part of
Sheeda’s observation to introduce the subsequent activity which modelled various,
164 L. H. Rubel et al.

Fig. 10.5  Students participate in embodied distribution activity on large map

hypothetically fair distributions of the institutions, such as by area or by households,

using scaled props. The actual distribution, which does not correspond to any of the
hypothetically fair arrangements, was then modelled with the scaled props.
Students confirmed the actual, skewed distribution using their senses of place.
For example, Sheeda explained the large number of banks in Manhattan by pointing
out, “He (Manhattan) got a bank on every corner though.” Her confirmation sug-
gests a normalization by area, using “corner” to represent the urban area measure of
block. In addition, her statement adds nuance to the uniformity of banks within a
specific county. Several students conjectured that places have more banks because
of a corresponding higher density of stores, especially expensive ones. In other
words, they sought to interpret the skewed distribution using their sense of place
about an intensive variable, namely, retail density. Unfortunately, measures of retail
density were not included on the predesigned digital maps, so this was not a rela-
tionship that students could further explore.
Another explanation of the distribution provided by students was in relation to
their sense of place about income and spatial inequalities. For example, Rebecca
ventured, “I think that the ones that have the most pawnshops is where people have
less money.” Rebecca’s desire to explore a relationship between these two extensive
variables, a neighborhood’s median household income and its amount of AFIs, fore-
grounded her later exploration with the digital maps. This particular hypothesis con-
formed to the maps’ design for students to seek patterns that relate locations and
densities of banks and AFIs to patterns in provided socioeconomic measures. Later
in that discussion, Rebecca responded to the unequal distribution of pawnshops and
10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 165

banks by pointedly asking the teacher, “Why they never fix that, Miss?” “Fixing”
suggests more equitable access to financial services and would involve a transfor-
mative “rewriting” of the world. With her use of “they,” it is unclear to whom
Rebecca is attributing the power to make changes, and Rebecca’s query was not
further picked up by the teacher. Bo, another student, responded to her question and
explained the skewed distribution with “‘cuz they need the pawnshops,” surfacing a
counter-suggestion that pawnshops or AFIs can be seen as community resources.
Rebecca revoiced her question, “Why they don’t do it the way it’s supposed to be?”
indicating the idea that the distribution could be fairer, in a way that it is “supposed
to be.” Her question was again not picked up by the teacher, and instead a discussion
among a small group of students ensued about pawnshops locating in parts of the
city where “business is good,” a reframing of the need to rewrite injustices in terms
of capitalistic perspectives.
Using Ratios  In the seventh session, students explored a set of predesigned maps
showing intensive variables that normalize the distribution of these institutions, a
set of maps referred to as “ratio maps.” These maps relate the quantity of banks or
AFIs to area, number of households, or relative to one another (i.e., banks per AFI,
see Fig. 10.1). The teacher launched the session by orienting students to the ratio
maps using an example of the distribution of McDonald’s fast-food restaurants by
sharing a city map colored according to McDonald’s per square mile. The notion of
a fair distribution of McDonald’s is not equivalent in significance to a fair distribu-
tion of financial services, and some might consider the presence of McDonald’s as
a disservice, but the example was intended to serve as a familiar variable for stu-
dents to situate their reasoning about distribution in relation to area and
households.
Where on the floor map students’ sense of place about locations in the city served
to prompt their association of variables toward normalizing the distribution, here,
two students recruited their senses of place as a way of interrogating the maps’
accuracy. For example, upon the presentation of the map on the classroom
SmartBoard, Lina immediately questioned the normalization by square miles and
wanted to know the conversion factor to convert the areal unit to square blocks,
reminiscent of Sheeda’s comment from session 5 about banks “on every corner.”
Lina’s and Sheeda’s understanding of units of measurement in city distance did not
conform to the traditional measure of square miles used in the maps. In this instance,
Lina recruited her sense of place about the city’s spatial arrangement to interrogate
the decision to normalize density with square miles. Lina’s skepticism of the map
layers and interrogation of the presented data marks a shift from her participation on
the 5th session when she had generated variables and conjectured relationships.
During the discussion about the distribution of McDonald’s, students largely
focused on the extensive variables included in the map rather than intensive vari-
ables. For example, when the teacher prompted students to consider how their
neighborhood compared to another in the city, Sheeda and Jonny responded with
(Sheeda): “there’s more” (i.e., the other neighborhood has more) and (Jonny): “ree-
aaallly small.” The teacher then had to push to get students to use the language of
166 L. H. Rubel et al.

“per square mile” in their responses, to which Sheeda responded, “No, Harwood got
less.” This fixation on the language of “more” and “less” seems to suggest that stu-
dents were noticing the absolute counts, or the extensive variables, rather than the
intensive variables and data normalizations. An exception was when Rebecca
expressed a conceptual understanding of the intensive measure of households per
McDonald’s, “So we only have one we share with more, and then they have way
more and they share with less.” Rebecca’s observation prompted Lina to reduce the
fraction 23,000 households/23 McDonald’s to its unit ratio and follow up by asking,
incredulously, “So a thousand people go to one McDonald’s?” These combined
observations fed into Rebecca’s earlier expressions about unfair distributions, and,
echoing that earlier question, she pointedly asked the teacher again, “So why doesn’t
anyone fix that?”
Rebecca’s question suggests that she was again questioning spatial justice, using
the ratios at work in the digital map. This time, the teacher pursued her idea, asking
if she meant that they should open more McDonald’s in that neighborhood, and
Rebecca elaborated that “McDonald’s is great” and “they have nothing over there”
and that the neighborhood is under-resourced. As in the previous instance, when
Rebecca had questioned how this injustice could be rectified, the teacher again did
not address the need for “fixing” inequities. Instead, the teacher redirected Rebecca’s
statement about the distribution needing to be fixed by highlighting that it is produc-
ing quantification with these ratios is what enables comparisons. She said to the
class, “Whether it’s good or bad, it’s something we can compare,” and guided the
students, working in pairs, to use the digital maps to choose one ratio map layer,
interpret the map’s data for Harwood, notice and examine patterns across the map,
and compare the data for any two neighborhoods. The three focal groups engaged
with the ratio maps in different ways, showing difficulties in interpreting and employ-
ing the intensive variables and a tendency to focus on the extensive variables instead.
Orange Pair  Sheeda and Miriam compared Harwood with Montgomery, a familiar,
adjacent neighborhood. They spent most of their time exploring the absolute num-
bers of financial institutions using various ratio maps. As a typical instance, upon
examining the pawnshops per square miles map, Sheeda clicked on Montgomery
and noted, “There’s 3 pawnshops,” by reading only the numerator from the fraction
shown in the pop-up box. She ignored the square miles in the denominator and the
resulting ratio of pawnshops per square mile. Using the ratio of AFIs per bank spe-
cifically for Harwood, Miriam again compared the quantities in the numerator to the
denominator additively: “We got more pawnshops than banks.” At no point did
Sheeda or Miriam demonstrate thinking about the intensive quantities, and they
persisted in engaging only with the extensive components. A researcher guided the
students to note that Harwood was smaller in area but had more AFIs than
Montgomery. When asked to explain the comparison of these ratios, Sheeda per-
sisted with a limited focus on the extensive variables instead and responded, “That
means Montgomery is bigger than Harwood.”

Green Pair  Miguel spent most of the session silently clicking through and across
all of the ratio maps as his partner Rafaela watched, and connections to their senses
10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 167

of place were not apparent. Miguel’s strategy was to click on each map’s darkest
shaded neighborhoods, that is, the neighborhoods with the highest ratios for each
intensive variable. This does not necessarily mean he was looking at the most-­
serviced neighborhoods. For example, darker shading in the households per bank
map layer signifies a lower rate of services. In his explanation for selecting the
banks per square mile intensive variable, Miguel stated, “Because we wanted to see
how many banks were in each square mile”; and he reported that in Harwood, “for
each 1.81 square miles, there’s only 3 banks.” The use of the word “each” indicates
an understanding of the multiplicative relationship between the extensive quantities,
but Miguel’s interpretation of the map shading referred only to the extensive vari-
able of the counts of banks. He wrote, “The darker the color becomes, the more
banks you will find in that location. And the more lighter the color becomes, the less
banks you will find.”

Purple Pair  Rebecca worked alongside an assistant teacher and focused on the
households per bank map. Rebecca wrote an analysis of Harwood’s data that went
beyond Miguel’s by not only interpreting the ratio terms but also how it related to the
unit ratio: “The data says that there are 35,521 households for each 3 banks. So
11,840 people share each bank. It says that Harwood shares each bank with a lot of
people.” After reading the number of households and institutions in her chosen
neighborhoods, she stated, “So this one [Portmore] has less households and it has
more banks. And this one [Easington] has more people and just one bank.” She con-
cluded, “They [Easington] should have put … had more [banks].” Rebecca did not
generalize her interpretation beyond making sense of specific data points. When
prompted to explain what a higher ratio meant for her variable, Rebecca said, “When
it says the ratios are higher, I think it means where the banks are more at.” She did
not recognize that in the case of households per bank, a higher unit ratio would indi-
cate a lower proportion of banks per household. In this case, Rebecca’s sense of place
confounded her analysis in that her hypothesis that the number of banks was related
to a neighborhood’s income level was a distraction from interpreting the given leg-
end. Rebecca stated that she “just wanted to know where was the more banks for
houses with less money” and she expected to be able to answer this question through
a single map layer. This expectation led her to try to inject income into her analysis
of the households per bank map and read the categories in the legend as referring to
ranges in household income rather than ranges in number of households.

Discussion

Findings include student interest in acquiring a conceptual approach for percent

calculations, widespread adoption of the ratio table model to calculate percent, and
evaluation of spatial justice by normalizing data and comparing ratios. The spatial
context, first at the scale of a transaction in an individual pawnshop, supported the
use of a new representational tool to further develop students’ conceptual under-
standing of percent. Although we cannot separate the use of the conceptually
168 L. H. Rubel et al.

oriented ratio table from the spatial justice framing, our interpretation is that stu-
dents were sufficiently interested in the context to be open to engaging with math-
ematics typically taught to younger students. Instead of positioning the ratio table
and the work with percent as remediation of skills not yet mastered, the approach
for a conceptual understanding of percent was encapsulated in a sophisticated and
engaging context. The teacher was able to rely on the context of calculating the
interest of a pawnshop loan to provide an accessible introduction of the ratio table
tool to conceptualize and calculate percent, and the genuine context also provided
motivation for students to perform the calculations. As a result, some students dem-
onstrated not only ability to calculate percent using a ratio table but also flexibility
in their approaches toward greater sophistication. Future research could focus on
relationships between conceptual understanding of percent as a function, propor-
tion, and statistic in mathematical investigations that draw on data that pertain to
demographics and place.
In response to a researcher’s follow-up question as to whether this mathematics
was new to her, Sheeda contrasted her experience with this module with typical
school mathematics learning:
Sheeda: Cuz basically we learned it, but basically we, didn’t, like pursue more
into it. Like, we just like, oh that’s something that we learned in school,
like, we-we like…
Lina: to learn it, just to learn it…
Sheeda: Yeah, it felt like, we felt like…
Lina: we did, applied learning.
Sheeda: Yeah, it felt like—exactly, that’s like what I was saying—like, it felt like
we really needed to, like, pursue it.
These students make the point here that the context was not only interesting to
them, but they felt learning this mathematics was pertinent to their lives beyond
school, supporting findings from the literature that suggest contextualizing mathe-
matics in social justice issues contributes to student engagement (Gutstein, 2003,
2006; Leonard et al., 2010).
In this project, data was normalized in various ways to produce intensive vari-
ables to support spatial analysis of a resource distribution. Students’ sense of place
supported and complicated their engagement with these ratios. The activity atop the
oversized floor map built on students’ sense of place to generate thinking about the
need for normalization as well as various intensive variables. Consideration of these
variables provided an entry point for the teacher to expand upon and formalize the
data normalization strategies used in the project’s digital maps. Concrete represen-
tations of intensive variables, such as modeling and unpacking households per insti-
tution as the number of people sharing one institution, supported students in
developing ratio-based arguments about fairness. However, with ratio data provided
on digital maps, students tended to compare extensive variables and not ratios,
echoing findings in the literature that identify challenges with proportional reason-
ing (e.g., Lamon, 1993).
10  “So We Only Have One We Share with More, and Then They Have Way More… 169

One explanation of this tendency is that some hypotheses stated atop the oversize
floor map were formalized in the digital maps but other variables suggested by stu-
dents, like the retail density, were not available as data layers. The map tool did not
allow students, therefore, to pursue their own conjectures about variables relating to
their own senses of place to be able to engage in more authentic data explorations.
Of course, a limitation produced by our analytic focus on whole class discussions is
that these findings reflect the contributions not of the whole class but only its vocal
participants. Nonetheless, these results suggest that further attention be paid toward
how to better support students in understanding and using intensive variables to
investigate spatial justice issues, especially abstract variables like AFIs per bank.
We have described three instances of a student (Rebecca) raising spatial justice
critiques related to intensive variables in class discussions, critiques that were not
addressed or followed up on by the teacher. We do not view this as a shortcoming of
this particular teacher and instead use the trend to draw attention to the complexities
involved in teaching mathematics for spatial justice (see Rubel, Hall-Wieckert, &
Lim, 2016 for a broader discussion of these complexities). Better supports for the
teacher to engage with this issue in terms of how the system could be transformed
to be fairer could have resulted in more meaningful discussions of reimagining
access to financial resources.

Conclusions

This module was organized for students to formulate a spatial justice analysis of their
city’s two-tiered system of financial institutions. The module began at the spatial scale
of a single transaction in a financial institution and proceeded outward to a broader
perspective about the spatial distribution at the city scale. Our findings have demon-
strated how this module engaged students’ sense of place. The successes demonstrated
here suggest that contextualizing mathematics learning in investigations of themes of
spatial justice is promising and we see potential across domains like access to health-
care, transportation, education, and more. Readers can find a heuristic for designing
such investigations in the work of Rubel and colleagues (2016).
The open-endedness of the floor map enabled students to understand the concep-
tual basis of intensive variables and suggest their own data normalizations. This
analog representation served as a building block toward making sense of the data
represented more abstractly in the digital maps, which were more elusive for stu-
dents since their closed nature did not as effectively engage students’ sense of place.
The learning atop this analog floor map is a reminder that, despite the ubiquity of
digital technologies, there are many ways to engage with place and that we should
not limit our curricular designs only to conventional, single screen-sized map pro-
jections that represent place from an aerial view. Instructional designs that combine
the open-endedness of the floor map activity with the abstraction and further math-
ematization of the digital maps seem needed. A future goal in this direction is the
170 L. H. Rubel et al.

design and implementation of mapping tools that enable students to generate their
own variables for visualization of intensive variables as ratio map layers. Not
enough attention was paid in the design of the curricular activities described here to
providing the students or teacher with supports for a critical reimagining of space.
Since opportunities to “read the world” must be balanced with opportunities to
“write the world,” a future goal is to better connect youth to existing social move-
ments that challenge the status quo related to the given spatial justice issue.

Acknowledgments  This material is based upon work supported by the National Science
Foundation [NSF] under Grant No. DRL-1222430. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the NSF. We acknowledge the significant contributions of MIT’s Civic Data Design
Lab in the design of the digital maps and mapping tools described in this manuscript. This research
would not have been possible without the generosity of time and spirit of teachers and students
from the New  York City Department of Education. This material extends findings presented in
conference papers presented at Psychology of Mathematics Education North America in 2015 and
2016.

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Chapter 11
Supporting the Development of Bilingual
Learners’ Mathematical Discourse
in a Multilingual, Technological Context

Oi-Lam Ng

Abstract  In this chapter, I explore the use of dynamic, touchscreen technology for
supporting the development of bilingual learners’ mathematical discourse during
pair-work exploratory activities in calculus. This study emerged from increasing
linguistic diversity in mathematics education and a new mathematics curriculum
movement which emphasizes fluency of mathematical communication and the con-
sistent use of technology for learning mathematics. In response to the changing
needs and curriculum, this study investigates bilingual high school students’ com-
munication when they interact with touchscreen dynamic geometry environments
(DGEs) during calculus discussion and exploration. Specifically, I address bilingual
learners’ linguistic and nonlinguistic means of communication in the activity with
touchscreen DGEs and the mathematical competence demonstrated by the students
in the activity. Using the theoretical framing of thinking-as-communicating, I pro-
vide a vignette with qualitative analyses of one pair of bilingual learners’ commu-
nication, focusing on the students’ language, gestures, and touchscreen-dragging
actions with touchscreen DGEs during the mathematical activity. Results suggest
that a multimodal lens for understanding bilingual learners’ mathematical thinking,
along with the touchscreen interface and dynamic features of the DGEs, facilitated
productive discussion and exploration about calculus for the students. This study
raises implications for achieving equity in today’s increasingly multilingual and
technological learning environments.

Introduction

My research interest in linguistic diversity in mathematics education emerged

through my life journey of becoming an English language learner (ELL) in my early
teens, and later a mathematics educator in one of the world’s most multilingual

O. -L. Ng (*)
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 173

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_11
174 O. -L. Ng

cities in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From 10 years of teaching mathe-

matics in a multilingual context and growing up as a multilingual learner, I learned
that besides facing everyday teaching tasks, the role of a mathematics teacher
demands grappling with multiple challenges in facilitating communication for
learners from different mathematical and linguistic backgrounds. By different lin-
guistic backgrounds, I mean the diversity of home languages spoken by students in
the mathematics classroom, which in my local context usually exceeds three and
ranges up to ten in a typical class of up to thirty students. The “2012 BC Education
Facts,” published by the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF, 2012),
sketches the context of teaching and learning mathematics in the province currently:
“In 2011–12, one in four (23.8%) of public school students spoke a primary lan-
guage at home other than English. Almost double this number of ELL students
(135,651) live in families where the primary language spoken at home is other than
English, an increase of 16,874 students since 2001–02 and 8,676 students since
2007–08.” In a global context, linguistic diversity in mathematics education has
steadily increased due to globalization and an ever-expanding intra- and interna-
tional movement (Morgan, 2007). From an equity standpoint, this gives rise to an
emerging tension between addressing learners’ lack of proficiency in the language
of instruction and emphasizing communication as an essential process for mathe-
matics learning: “They communicate to learn mathematics and they learn to com-
municate mathematically” (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM],
2000, p. 60). The value of communication is further emphasized by NCTM (2000)
as a process standard for mathematics learning, pointing to the value of rich conver-
sations about worthwhile mathematical tasks for students’ learning. It is suggested
that “support for students is vital” (p. 60) as they learn to participate in these con-
versations and that teachers need to build a community in which the exchange of
ideas can freely occur—a potentially challenging task in multilingual classrooms.
This raises questions about equitable teaching practices in classrooms where stu-
dents are encouraged to grapple with concepts by communicating in their own
words, yet the abilities to do so vary among students with different experiences and
language proficiencies. Currently, research focused on linguistic diversity in math-
ematics education has provided tremendous insights into the complexities of teach-
ing and learning mathematics in multilingual contexts: the language tensions in
multilingual classrooms (Barwell, 2014), the dilemmas of teaching in multilingual
contexts (Adler, 2001), the role of code switching in learning mathematics (Clarkson,
2007), as well as associating mathematics learning with socioeconomic and episte-
mological access (Setati, 2005). Yet, there is increasing need to examine and under-
stand how to support mathematics learning in a non-native language both locally
and globally.
While the complexities of teaching and learning in multilingual mathematics
classrooms have been more widely explored, studies which focus on examining and
supporting bilingual learners’ communication are limited. In particular, Moschkovich
(2010) called for studies to consider broader ways of using language as the basis for
11  Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’ Mathematical Discourse… 175

understanding and facilitating bilingual learners’1 communication, by calling atten-

tion to mathematics learning as a discursive, embodied (Gutiérrez, Sengupta-Irving,
& Dieckmann, 2010), and multi-semiotic (O’Halloran, 2000) activity that includes
the use of diagrams and gestures. Moschkovich’s premise of addressing the mathe-
matical competence of students from non-dominant communities without evaluat-
ing their language per se relates to access and identity, proposed by Gutiérrez (2009,
2012) as two dimensions reflecting research addressing equity. In Gutiérrez’s view,
access pertains to the tangible resources that students have available to them to
participate in mathematics, and identity attends to whose perspectives and practices
are valued, such as whether students have opportunities to draw upon their cultural
and linguistic resources in mathematics learning.
In this chapter, I examine how recent advances in touchscreen technology and
gestures as a form of communication may serve as access for bilingual learners to
engage meaningfully in mathematical activities and communication. I examine the
learning of high school calculus to highlight the potentials of my work to provide
access for students from non-dominant communities to “important mathematics” in
the sense of opportunities to participate science, technology, engineering, and math-
ematics (STEM) disciplines (American Educational Research Association, 2006).
My research questions are informed both by studies that have examined the effect
of technology-mediated learning of calculus concepts (Hong & Thomas, 2013;
Yerushalmy & Swidan, 2012; Yoon, Thomas, & Dreyfus, 2011) and research on
bilingual learners’ nonlinguistic forms of communication, such as gestures and dia-
grams (Gutiérrez et al., 2010; Moschkovich, 2007, 2009). As neither lines of work
have addressed the particular affordances of the touchscreen mode of interaction on
calculus learning or bilingual learners’ discourse, my study proposes to fill this gap.
Specifically, I hypothesize that a touchscreen environment may offer additional
affordances for learning by providing tactile and kinesthetic modes of interaction—
hence, further facilitating bilingual learners’ communication in calculus. My
research questions are threefold: (1) How do bilingual learners utilize linguistic and
nonlinguistic means to communicate calculus ideas during pair-work on mathemati-
cal activities within a touchscreen, technological learning environment? (2) What
are the significance of gestures and the touchscreen in this communication? (3) How
does this analysis identify bilingual learner’s mathematical competence in the activ-
ity and participation as members of the classroom community?
In the pages that follow, I discuss the role of communication in mathematics,
particularly the roles of gestures and dragging in mathematical thinking and learn-
ing. Next, I describe my methods in conducting the study and provide details about
the setting and participants. Then, I share a vignette about a mathematical d­ iscussion

1
 Moschkovich (2016) used the term “bilingual” or “multilingual” learners instead of “English
language learners” because it focused on what students know and can do (speak two or more lan-
guages) instead of what they do not know (English). In this research, I use the term “bilingual
learners” for the same reason, and I reserve the term “multilingual” to describe the classroom
contexts in which learners come from diverse language backgrounds and often do not share the
same home language.
176 O. -L. Ng

between two bilingual learners using touchscreen and dynamic technology, high-
lighting their mathematical competence through the use of language, gestures, and
the touchscreen, and I conclude with a discussion of the implications of the results.

Theoretical Framing

In this section, I discuss the theoretical framing of thinking-as-communicating for

studying bilingual learners’ mathematical discourse within a technological environ-
ment. Anticipating a multimodal discourse, I have chosen Sfard’s (2008, 2009)
commognitive framework to highlight the role of talking and gesturing in mathe-
matical thinking. I establish the notion of touchscreen dragging as a multimodal
feature in one’s mathematical discourse by drawing on what Sfard calls routine in
communication.

Mathematical Thinking as a Discourse

Sfard’s commognitive theory (2008) was based upon the social dimensions of learn-
ing and highlighted the communicative aspects of thinking and learning. In her
theory, Sfard redefines thinking as an “individualised version of (interpersonal)
communicating” (p.  81). The term commognition stressed the fact that cognition
(intrapersonal communication) and interpersonal communication are manifesta-
tions of the same phenomenon. This perspective suggested that mathematics learn-
ing could be evidenced through a change in one’s mathematical communication
(discourse). For example, in terms of the development from arithmetic thinking to
algebraic thinking, it is a case of engaging the discourse about arithmetic at the
object level so that it can be used in the discourse about algebra. Sfard (2008) pro-
posed four features (word use, visual mediator, routines, and narratives) of the
mathematical discourse which could be used to analyze mathematical thinking and
changes in thinking. For this paper, the first three features are used to examine one’s
language, gestures, and dragging—a multimodal mathematical discourse. Word use
is a main feature in mathematical discourse; it is “an-all important matter because
… it is what the user is able to say about (and thus to see in) the world” (p. 133). As
a student engages in a mathematical problem, her mathematical discourse is not
limited to the vocabulary she uses. For example, her hand-drawn diagram and ges-
tures can be taken as forms of visual mediator, a visual realization of the object of a
discourse. Routines are meta-rules defining a discursive pattern that repeats itself in
certain types of situations. In learning situations, teachers may use certain words or
gestures repeatedly to model a discursive pattern, such as looking for similarities
and what it means to be “the same.”
11  Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’ Mathematical Discourse… 177

Multimodality: Gestures and Touchscreen Dragging

Besides theorizing mathematical thinking as a discourse and characterizing its four

features, Sfard (2009) examined the relationship between talking and gesturing in
mathematical thinking. She explained that utterances and gestures are different
modalities that serve different functions in the commognitive process. Utterances
enable humans to engage in meta-level discourse, or talk about talking. On the other
hand, gestures ensure all interlocutors to “speak about the same mathematical
object” (p. 197) and are essential for effective mathematical communication: “Using
gestures to make interlocutors’ realizing procedures public is an effective way to
help all the participants to interpret mathematical signifiers in the same way and
thus to play with the same objects” (p. 198). In relation to my study, it is anticipated
that students would make use of gestures and touchscreen dragging while interact-
ing with dynamic geometry environments (DGEs). For example, a student may
repeatedly use her hand to signify certain slopes (horizontal, positive, negative)
routinely or to compare slopes of different line segments. This is an example of the
student using gestures as a routine to look for patterns and relationships. The same
can be said if a student uses touchscreen dragging to move the tangent along a curve
on the DGEs for comparing slopes of tangent. Hence, both gestures and touchscreen
dragging can be taken as a routine for defining a discursive pattern of the students’
mathematical communication. Besides identifying the general characteristics of
gestures, I also distinguish gestures that are of dynamic nature from those of static
nature, in order to understand when gestures are used to convey temporal relation-
ships (Núñez, 2006). For example, when a person makes a gesture to realize the
signifier, a linear function, it could be performed with the arm or hand enacting the
function (static), or with the hand or finger tracing the motion of the function’s path
(dynamic). More than conveying the shape of the linear function in a static sense,
the gesture in the latter case communicates temporal relationships and a sense of
change, which may be relevant for calculus communication. It is also important to
note that temporality and continuous change are both embedded in the act of touch-
screen dragging; elsewhere, I have drawn some interesting parallels between ges-
tures and touchscreen dragging in calculus communication (Ng, 2014).

Methods

During 2013–2014, I undertook a research study involving twelve participants who

were bilingual learners enrolled in two sections of a calculus course in a culturally
diverse high school in Western Canada. The participants, aged 16–18, were selected
for their bilingual background. They were born outside of Canada and had recently
moved to Canada from a non-English-speaking home country at the age of 10–16.
The class size for each section was 23 and 26, respectively, with roughly one-half of
the students enrolled in each section bilingual learners. The participants were paired
up with each other on the basis that they were comfortable working with each other
178 O. -L. Ng

during pair-work activities in the regular classroom. For this chapter, I focus on the
part of the study designed to address bilingual learners’ patterns of communication
while exploring a calculus idea that they had not yet learned in a touchscreen, dynamic
calculus environment. The target calculus concept, area-accumulating function,
a
was chosen for three reasons. First, the function A ( x ) = ∫ f ( t ) dt could be represented
x a
geometrically, and it was possible for one to explore the change in A ( x ) = ∫ f ( t ) dt
x
without knowing the corresponding symbols. This can be achieved by thinking of the
a
change of A ( x ) = ∫ f ( t ) dt as area accumulation. Second, the timing for introducing
x
the concept was appropriate because the students would have had some experience
with learning calculus in a dynamic, technological environment in their regular
classroom before the time of study. In particular, they would have used a similar
dynamic sketch for exploring derivative functions by interpreting derivative as the
slope of tangent to a curve geometrically. Third, the area-­accumulating function was
chosen as research suggests that the simultaneous change of the variables x, f(x),
and A(x) was difficult to grasp among calculus learners (Thomas, 1995; Thompson,
1994; Weber, Tallman, Byerley, & Thompson, 2012). The task used in the study
invited participants to explore and discuss any emerging mathematical relationship
while using an iPad-based DGE, SketchExplorer (Jackiw, 2011). For the purpose of
examining students’ routines during an exploratory activity with the touchscreen
DGEs, they were given a sketch containing four pages and a “Try” page, all related
to the concept of area-accumulating functions. Each page contains the same func-
tionalities of enabling the user to drag two values,
a
a and x, on the touchscreen and
observe the corresponding change in A ( x ) = ∫ f ( t ) dt numerically, geometrically
x
as a shaded region, and graphically in the form of (x, A(x)) which appeared in green.
For example, Fig.  11.1a shows that the area under the function “f(t)  =  1” is
“A = 4.70” when the bounds are set to “a = 0” and “x = 4.70,” and the traces in
green represent the corresponding area-accumulating function. Each page differs by
the particular function, f(t), shown; Page 1 shows the function f(t)  =  1 (see
Fig. 11.1a), Page 2 shows f(t) = t, Page 3 shows f(t) = t2, and Page 4 shows f(t) = sin(t)
(see Fig. 11.1b).
At the end of the task, the participants were asked to move onto the “Try” page
of the sketch where a problem related to sketching an area-accumulating function
was posed. They were asked to solve the problem on a dry-erase whiteboard with
their partners. A digital camera with video recording function was placed at an
angle in front of the students’ desks where they were discussing and interacting with
the iPads and which captured the tablet screen at an angle. Before the start of the
task, it was stressed to the participants that the activity was not about finding the
right answer but more about exploring the concept, looking for patterns, and com-
municating what they saw with each other. Adopting a discursive research method-
ology tradition (Sfard, 2012), I attended to the use of linguistic (oral and written
language) and nonlinguistic (gestures and touchscreen dragging) features in the stu-
dents’ communication. In order to investigate how they were utilized (research
question 1) as well as the significance of gestures and touchscreen dragging
11  Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’ Mathematical Discourse… 179

Fig. 11.1 (a) Page 1 of the sketch conveying the area under a constant function with a = 0 and x
dragged from zero to its current positions. (b) Page 4 of the sketch conveying the area under a sine
function

(research question 2), I needed to observe the way that multimodal communication
was used simultaneously and in succession. Therefore, I devised a special transcript
convention in order to keep a record of who spoke, gestured, and dragged, as well
as any overlapping speech. Specifically, I introduced three columns, “S-er”
(speaker), “G-er” (gesturer), and “D-er” (dragger), to track beyond “who spoke
what” in a conventional transcript, and I implemented underlining of the transcript
to record which words were spoken while a gesturing and dragging action was per-
formed simultaneously by one of the students. Upon transcribing, the data was ana-
lyzed in terms of (1) specific words, phrases, visual mediators, and routines used;
(2) turn-taking, instances of simultaneous speaking, gesturing, and dragging (either
by the same person or by different persons), and instances of dragging or gesturing
without accompanying speech; and (3) the mathematical ideas communicated and
mathematical practices demonstrated (exploring, conjecturing, verifying, etc.) in
the communication. It was intended that the analysis of (1) and (2) would address
the first two research questions, while the analysis of (3) would address the final
research question. According to Arzarello (2006), a synchronic analysis enables the
study of relationship among different semiotic sets activated simultaneously, while
a diachronic analysis studies the same phenomenon in successive moments.
Following Arzarello (2006), I used a synchronic lens to examine the interrelation-
ships between linguistic and nonlinguistic modes of communication and a dia-
chronic lens to investigate how this communication changed over time (see also
Chen & Herbst, 2012). By performing these analyses, my goal is to highlight the use
of touchscreen, dynamic technology for providing bilingual learners with access to
calculus, opportunities to engage in mathematical communication, and possibilities
to participate as members of the classroom community.

Vignette

In this vignette, I provide in-depth analyses of three different moments in the com-
munication between two participants, Jay and Katie, during the task. I have chosen
to share this vignette because Jay and Katie had the least experience with
180 O. -L. Ng

Table 11.1  Transcript of Jay and Katie’s discussion

Turn Timespan What was said S-er D-er G-er
16 1:20.8– What is this dot?a K K
1:25.8
17 1:24.0– [Area. Area.]b J
1:25.8
18 1:25.8– Are you sure it’s the area? K
1:28.5
19 1:28.5– Look… [Three, times three, equals nine right?] J J
1:35.7
20 1:35.7– It’s a triangle, so halve it. What is the area? It’s four J J
1:41.4 point five
21 1:41.4– Hm. K
1:42.4
22 1:42.4– Look. Two times two, area two. One, one, should be zero J J
1:52.0 point five
23 1:52.0– One, one, is zero point five. Oh ya it is K
1:55.2
a
The symbol (?) denotes a rising intonation at the end of a sentence
b
Since the participants spoke in English occasionally, it was necessary to differentiate the language
spoken after the translation. The actual English words spoken by the participants were written in
squared brackets “[ ]”

mathematics instruction in English out of all the participant pairs, having studied in
an English-speaking environment for only 2 years. Therefore, in addition to learn-
ing calculus, which was new to them, they also had to grapple with the English
language more so than their peers. In the regular classroom setting, they were
described by the classroom teacher as students who often used their home language
(Korean) for discussing calculus ideas and who seldom participated in whole class
discussions. Given their backgrounds and experience, it was not surprising to
observe that Jay and Katie communicated in their home language during the task.
Indeed, they spoke in Korean for the majority of the task and used English words
occasionally in their utterances, except when I approached to interact with them in
English. The video data underwent two rounds of translation/transcription to ensure
validity of the process. In each round, I asked a Korean-Canadian (one of whom was
a mathematics educator in the local community) to translate the Korean words spo-
ken in the video into English while I transcribed the data. The following transcript
(Table 11.1) was taken 1 minute and 21 seconds into Jay and Katie’s discussion,
which also marked the first time that the word “area” appeared in their discussion.
At this time, they had already turned to the second page of the sketch which showed
the function, f(t) = t. While they were on the first page, the word “area” did not
appear, but they talked about “multiplication” and “width,” which suggests that they
were noticing something about the rectangular region under f(t) = 1 from a to x.
In the above transcript, Jay and Katie used numerical values as shown on the
sketch to explore the relationship between x, f(x), and A(x). Their discussion could
be considered highly valued in the mathematics community because it resembled
11  Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’ Mathematical Discourse… 181

Fig. 11.2 (a–c) Jay combined dragging and speech when explaining to Katie the calculation of
area of three different triangles

two interlocutors actively engaging in developing mathematical thinking. It began

with Katie’s dragging of x and her questioning of “what is this dot” (Turn 16). The
question was likely facilitated by her interaction with the DGE after noticing that
her dragging had made the green point move in a parabolic path. Jay responded to
Katie’s question by the word “area,” spoken in English (Turn 17). Katie prompted
Jay to explain his reasoning at Turn 18, and so Jay took over the role of the dragger
and began explaining at Turns 19, 20, and 22. His dragging was purposeful, as he
dragged x to x = 3 to describe the product of x and f(x) in his English utterance,
“three times three equals nine right.” Then, he changed his mode from dragging to
gesturing while his discourse reflected a change from a numerical to geometrical
approach to area. Specifically, he used his left index finger to point toward the iPad
screen near x = 3 while he spoke of, “It’s a triangle, so halve it. What is the area?
It’s four point five” (Fig.  11.2a). In this utterance, Jay was formulating and
­computing the area of the triangle that was located under his finger. Katie acknowl-
edged the calculation, and Jay continued to reason that the green dot was related to
“area” by providing two more numerical verifications at Turn 22. His verification
made use of the touchscreen DGE, as he was dragging while uttering the area of the
triangle at that moment in time: at x = 2 (Fig. 11.2b), and then at x = 1 (Fig. 11.2c).
Katie responded by using a similar sentence structure to Jay’s at Turn 23 and later
at Turn 28: “When it’s five … when it’s five, yes, twelve point five.” This shows that
the two students had gained an understanding of the green point as “area” under the
function from a to x upon interacting with the DGE. They did so with a routine of
combining dragging and exploring the numerical values displayed on the DGE. It
can be said that the DGE supported their development of mathematical discourse by
offering multiple representations and dynamic interactions for the students to
explore change.
Jay and Katie struggled for a while with Page 3 of the sketch, at the beginning,
because they could not find a way to calculate area under a quadratic function by
182 O. -L. Ng

geometrical means, as well as Page 4 of the sketch when they encountered “negative
area.” They were able to resolve their conflicts, however, by observing consistency
among all pages of the sketch through dragging. After roughly 20 minutes of inter-
action, they completed the whiteboard task of drawing the area-accumulating func-
tion for the given function f(t) = cos(t) with a = 0. They completed the task by using
a strategy that no other pair of students had used. When I asked them to explain their
drawing, Jay uttered in English accompanied by gestures:
What we did was since the cosine graph is, like shifted to, left or right, half pi… we get the
same as cosine graph, we move ‘a’ … to half pi, pi over two. And we use the graph provided
to get the area. (20:36.0–21:02.9)

What Jay was referring to above was that they had used Page 4 of the sketch as a
reference for sketching their area-accumulating function. Specifically, they used
f(t) = sin(t), shifted a from a = 0 to a = π/2, and then used the green traces obtained
from dragging x as a guide for sketching the area-accumulating function on the
“Try” page. This was mathematically correct since the accumulation of area under
f(t) = sin(t) with a = π/2 is identical to the accumulation of area under f(t) = cos(t)
with a = 0. As I was interested in finding out more about the students’ realization
about area-accumulating functions, I prompted the students to “explain why,” upon
which Katie provided a 40-second explanation incorporating speech and eleven acts
of gestures, followed by another 20-second explanation incorporating speech and
six acts of gestures. The transcript below (Table 11.2) illustrates her communication
with me (named “R” for researcher) during this span.
At Turns 125 and 127 alone, Katie gestured 14 times while also speaking in
English. Of the fourteen gestures, nine were used as visual mediators or routines
that accompanied the word “this.” These gestures communicated significant math-
ematical ideas, such as positive and negative areas (Fig. 11.3a), the change of area

Table 11.2  Transcript of Katie’s explanation with researcher

Turn Timespan What was said S-er D-er G-er
24 21:14.9– Can you explain why does it goes up and down? R R
21:18.3
125 21:18.3– When the cosine graph is at pi, the area of these, area, K K
21:57.2 equals this area right? And they, somewhat cancel? Each
other? So the area becomes zero. The area of this graph…
kind of go like this right? And so it looks like this. And this
part, at the same rate, it goes down. So it looks like this.
Symmetrical. And it’s like this
126 21:57.2– You got this part, can you explain this part? R R
22:00.3
127 22:00.3– And, this. For this part, the area decreases right? At this K K
22:15.8 rate. So… And it keeps… increasing after
128 22:15.8– After what? After… R
22:17.0
129 22:17.0– After this point. So… K K
22:20.9
11  Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’ Mathematical Discourse… 183

Fig. 11.3 (a–n) Snapshots of Katie’s gestures during Turn 124–129

184 O. -L. Ng

(Fig. 11.3c, f) at different parts of f(t) = cos(t) (Fig. 11.3e), and the periodic behav-

ior of the area-accumulating function (Fig. 11.3i). Other gestures communicated the
“cancelling” of positive and negative area (Fig. 11.3b), the symmetrical nature of
sinusoidal functions (Fig. 11.3h), and the location of which the area changed from
increasing to decreasing (Fig. 11.3j). These gestures contained so much information
that it would be impossible to interpret what Katie was communicating without
looking at her gestures. By examining her speech and gestures synchronously, it
was possible to understand Katie’s reasoning of the shape of the area-accumulating
function in her discourse. First, she explained that the area “becomes” zero at x = π
because “these area … somewhat cancelled” (Fig. 11.3a, b). Then, she gestured that
the area in the interval (0, π/2) “go like this,” (Fig. 11.3c) and pointed to her drawing
with her whiteboard pen and said, “And so it looks like this” (Fig. 11.3d). Having
provided an explanation for the interval (0, π), she proceeded to the interval (π/2, π)
with a similar combination of speech and gesture, adding that “at the same rate, it
goes down” (Fig.  11.3e, f); Katie’s word use “becomes,” “go like this,” and “go
down” is accompanied by her hand gestures enacting the change of area, suggesting
a dynamic and temporal realization of the area-accumulating function. Upon my
request to continue explaining her drawing in the interval (π, 2π), at Turn 126, Katie
reasoned that the area would decrease, and then it would start increasing “after this
point” while pointing to the point (3π/2, 0) on the cosine graph (Fig. 11.3j). In sum-
mary, Katie was able to communicate the change of area-accumulation as x changes
from x = 0 to x = 2π. She also described the shape of the area-accumulating function
in terms of the “rate” of which area was increasing and decreasing. This suggests
that she was thinking about how area was changing, for example, that area was not
changing at a constant rate but at a varying rate, as shown in the movement of her
gestures (Fig. 11.3m).
It looked like the two students had finished the task, when Jay became excited
about a new discovery. Katie was already standing and talking on the phone after I
had thanked the two for their participation, but Jay kept his hands and eyes on the
iPad. He silently turned the pages from one page to the next upon dragging x back
and forth rapidly on each page. After 25 seconds of doing so, he snapped his fingers
three times which drew Katie’s attention.
The episode as shown in  Table 11.3 captures Jay and Katie’s new discovery
about the area-accumulating function and their excitement over it. At Turn 151, Jay
snapped his fingers as if he had noticed something significant. His rapid dragging of
x during this time suggests that he was no longer observing the discrete location of
the green traces, but he was likely attending to the final shape of the green traces.
Perhaps, dragging rapidly allowed him to see the shape sooner, and this dragging
routine suggests that Jay was thinking of the set of green traces as one—the graph
of the area-accumulating function. In other words, Jay’s “rapid dragging” routine
seems to suggest his encapsulation of the set of (x, A(x)) into a singular object, the
area-accumulating function. Using this “rapid dragging” routine, he identified the
relationship between f(x) and the area-accumulating function A(x), in that the for-
mer was the derivative of the latter. At Turns 152, 154, and 156, he verified this
11  Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’ Mathematical Discourse… 185

Table 11.3  Transcript of Jay and Katie’s new discovery

Turn Timespan What was said S-er D-er G-er
151 23:29.0– <Jay drags ‘x’ back and forth rapidly on different pages> J
23:55.0
152 23:55.0– <Jay snaps his fingers three times> Look. If this is degree J J J
24:07.5 one, then the [area] is degree two. <Jay turns to Page 3>
153 24:06.1– That’s true K
24:07.0
154 24:07.5– If you find the [derivative] of degree three, then you get J J
24:14.5 degree two. <Jay turns to Page 4>
155 24:14.5– [d]? K
24:19.2
156 24:15.5– If you take the [derivative] of something then you get J
24:23.4 [sine]
157 24:18.4– [Derivative] of something. Then if this graph is [negative K
24:31.6 cosine] then this is right
158 24:19.2– Derivative of something, it is [negative cosine] J J
24:30.0
159 24:31.6– It is [negative cosine], right! Right! K J
24:38.3
160 24:38.3– <Katie grabs the whiteboard> If you take the [derivative] K
24:49.5 of something, you get [cosine x], that is [negative sine x],
no no [sine x] it is. <Jay turns to the “Try” page>
161 24:49.5– Yes… <Katie drags ‘x’ rapidly> K K
24:51.5
162 24:51.5– Antiderivative. <Jay and Katie clapped each other’s K J/K
24:57.0 hands>

newly discovered relationship with Katie, using gestures to specify f(x) and “rapid
dragging” to trace the shape of A(x). It was observed that Katie was quick to react
to the relationship proposed by Jay. At Turn 157, she used the proposed relationship
between f(x) and A(x) to predict that A(x) needed to be “negative cosine x” for the
relationship to hold true. She said this before Jay dragged x rapidly to reveal the
final shape of the area-accumulating function, and she was quite excited to see that
her prediction was correct upon Jay’s dragging, exclaiming, “it is negative cosine,
right! Right!” Without saying the word antiderivative, she successfully communi-
cated the idea that the antiderivative of cosine was sine: “If you take the derivative
of something, you get cosine x” and “sine x it is” (Turn 160). In terms of mathemati-
cal processes demonstrated, Katie was actively predicting and verifying the rela-
tionship about the two graphs proposed by Jay. This shows that Katie had also
developed her discourse by encapsulating the set of (x, A(x)) into an object—the
area-accumulating function. The students gave each other “high fives” at the end of
the episode which, again, marked their excitement.
186 O. -L. Ng

Discussion and Reflection

With regard to the first and second research questions, my study concurs with Sfard
(2009) that linguistic and nonlinguistic communications serve complementary
functions in the commognitive process. As shown in the vignette, gestures took on
a prevalent role in the students’ communication both with each other and with me.
For example, gestures were used extensively as a dynamic visual mediator to com-
municate the temporal movement of the green traces, while deictic gestures accom-
panied pronouns (“this” or “it”) to ensure the interlocutors spoke about the same
mathematical object (Sfard, 2009). Significantly for bilingual learners, these ges-
tures could reduce the number of words or even replace the words to be spoken in a
sentence, simultaneously reducing the language demands on bilingual learners.
Equally important, touchscreen dragging emerged within the touchscreen interface
of the DGEs and fulfilled the dual function of dragging (moving objects onscreen)
and communicating (as a routine). It was repeatedly utilized by Jay and Katie for
developing routines of questioning, exploring, conjecturing, and verifying calculus
relationships. Initially, the students seemed unsure as to what to make of the sketch,
particularly about the green “dot;” dragging on the touchscreen DGE enabled them
to formulate questions and verify what it meant. Then, they began to explore and
conjecture the relationship of the two functions in both geometrical and algebraic
terms by exploiting the functionality of the DGE, particularly the dynamism and
multiple representations offered by the technology. As bilingual learners do not
have the luxury of a comprehensive English vocabulary, the touchscreen afforded
them a nonverbal form of communication, by enabling them to gesture what was on
the screen and drag objects dynamically. As shown in Katie’s explanation to me in
English, the DGE provided a visual means for Katie to communicate mathemati-
cally with limited English vocabulary. The DGE, along with her gestures, supported
Katie’s calculus communication about change and temporality (Núñez, 2006).
With regard to the third research question, Jay and Katie demonstrated important
mathematical processes while speaking in their home languages and with “broken”
English. For example, they were able to express the encapsulation of the set of all
(x, A(x)), predicted the shape of A(x), and conjectured that A(x) was the a­ ntiderivative
of f(x) by using a combination of gestures, rapid dragging, and speech. These find-
ings support Grosjean’s (1985) analogy, in the sense that bilingual learners com-
municate by blending speaking, dragging, and gesturing, like hurdlers who blend
jumping and sprinting competence. Given my own experience and background, I
find this analogy extremely applicable and helpful to understand the importance of
nonlinguistic communication for bilingual learners.
Returning to the issue of equity in mathematics education, the vignette illumi-
nates what it means to engage in mathematical communication in a multilingual and
technological context. In this context, there is a need to widen the view of language,
defined by Sfard (2009) as tools for communication, to include nonlinguistic tools.
Moreover, my study points to the use of touchscreen technology and pair-work activ-
ities for facilitating meaningful discussion of mathematical ideas and development in
one’s mathematical discourse in today’s increasingly multilingual classrooms. Thus,
11  Supporting the Development of Bilingual Learners’ Mathematical Discourse… 187

drawing on Gutiérrez (2009, 2012), it highlights several elements of providing access

to mathematics: touchscreen mode of interaction, DGE, and pair-­work exploratory
activity.
In terms of identity, the students were invited to draw upon their cultural and
linguistic tools in the form of gestures and their home language for exploring calcu-
lus. Methodologically, the organization of the transcript was helpful to illuminate
their participation in a multilingual and technological environment, by identifying
the “speaker,” “gesturer,” and “dragger,” and the utterances that were spoken in the
midst of a dragging or gesturing act. Through this analysis, it was shown that bilin-
gual learners may be participating actively as members of the classroom communi-
ties and not as “quiet” as they seem.
In terms of future directions, my study responds to Moschkovich (2011), who
recommends future research to avoid deficit models of learners and their communi-
ties, by identifying bilingual learners’ competence in mathematical activities.
Moschkovich reminds us to exercise caution when comparing monolingual with
bilingual learners; one must not assume that monolingual learners have an advan-
tage over bilinguals or that monolinguals are the norm because of their proficiency
in the language of instruction. This line of work is much needed in the field of lin-
guistic diversity in mathematics education to achieve equity and to challenge a view
that focuses on what bilingual learners cannot do and do not know. Moreover, I
suggest that this discussion can be extended for cross-disciplinary work toward
equity for other minority groups of learners, where much research has already been
done to empower mathematics learners with special needs (Peltenburg, van den
Heuvel-Panhuizen, & Robitzsch, 2012; van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, 2015). The
potential for a “proficiency-based approach” in future research is promising, and it
is also valuable for critiquing a normative paradigm in mathematics education.

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Chapter 12
The Micro-Politics of Counting

Annica Andersson and David Wagner

Abstract  When we count, we have to decide what counts and what does not count.
Thus, counting is a political act. Certain language repertoires are necessary to con-
vey the ideas and perhaps even to perform counting actions. At the same time, the
language used to describe these ideas and enact the processes shapes the way we
conceptualize them. Our interest in the experience of counting includes the way
counting and its communication position people. In this chapter we identify how
micro-political moves are manifested in language and counting situations, including
reciting numbers, counting things present and not, and subordinating counting to
another goal. In our analysis, we look for language strategies that enable the process
of deciding what to (not) count as the process of establishing boundaries or catego-
ries, and we consider how these processes work as political acts.

Introduction

When you count, you have to decide what counts and what does not count. In this
chapter, we identify how such micro-political moves are manifested in language and
how language shapes the moves. People use and invent language to make distinc-
tions that they want to make in their interactions. This general phenomenon is also
at work in mathematical problem-solving contexts, including out-of-school prob-
lem contexts for which mathematics is used. Thus, in our research, we look for
language strategies that enable and/or direct the process of deciding what to (not)
count. We consider how such communication strategies form political acts. This

A. Andersson
Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden
e-mail: [email protected]
D. Wagner (*)
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 191

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_12
192 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

kind of analysis could, and probably should, be done with any mathematics, but we
choose counting here because it is the most fundamental mathematical act.
We begin this chapter unconventionally; we begin with reflections on a counting
exercise, which we would encourage others to try some time with their friends or
others. Our exercise involved trying to decide among ourselves who has been in the
most countries. We had to count the countries we visited, of course. Counting coun-
tries seems quite straightforward at first, but it doesn’t take long to find controversy.
For example, both of us have visited Yugoslavia before it was divided into smaller
countries. Shall we count one for Yugoslavia because it was one country when each
of us was there? Or can we count three or four (different for the two authors) for the
current countries represented by parts we visited? We may decide it counts as one,
because it was only one country when each of us was there.
A clearer question would be to ask how many national political entities we have
visited. Germany complicates such reasoning. We have both spent time in East
Germany, West Germany, and modern, unified Germany. Shall we count all three of
these entities that we have visited even though it was never three countries (in our
lifetimes)? Furthermore, one of us traveled through some countries by train. Does it
count to travel through a country on a train if one doesn’t get off the train? What
about flying over a country? Or landing in a country to refuel but staying on the
plane? What about a one-hour stop that includes a passport stamp? Or crossing the
border and being escorted out by police? And then there are disputed territories, like
the West Bank (of the Jordan River), or First Nations (Aboriginal lands never con-
ceded to colonialist governments). These were just some of our political controver-
sies when counting countries. Others who try this experiment are likely to have
some of these controversies and others.
When we count, we have to decide what counts and what does not count. For
example, what counts as being “in a country,” and what counts as “a country?” This
is political because different people will have unique reasons for wanting a country
to count or not. The status of a country is a question in geopolitical dialogue—for
example, Palestine has recently been recognized as a country by the United
Nations—but the definition of a country is also a political question in a group of
friends who may want to one-up each other. It is possible that someone has not trav-
eled outside their country, which highlights yet another political aspect. Comparing
numbers of countries visited may privilege people for whom travel has been possi-
ble and thus exclude others (if traveling is considered to be a good thing in the light
of global environmental sustainability). Nevertheless, someone has to decide what
counts and that decision sets up certain people’s experiences as normative. For
example, if a group of friends tried this exercise on our behest, we would be the ones
deciding what is normative, but the group may make the question their own as they
start dialoguing about it. Maybe it would be better to count our meaningful interac-
tions with diverse people, or it may be even more appropriate to reflect on the quali-
ties of those interactions instead of quantifying them. Indeed, it is possible to travel
to many countries and remain insular.
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 193

Research on Counting

Counting has fascinated researchers for some time. One of the oldest domains in
experimental psychology investigated children’s counting abilities—called numer-
osity (Luwel, Lemaire, & Verschaffel, 2005, p. 449). Many studies have investigated
people’s ability to identify the number of objects in a group without counting
(Dehaene, 1997)—called subitization. Subitization and numerosity are comple-
mented with operations on number to form number sense (though this term is used
in diverse ways). Others have compared human and animal number senses (e.g.,
Barrow, 1992). Linguists have been interested in counting as well, with a focus on
the words used for numbers—for example, Gordon (2004) reported on the limited
vocabulary for numbers among the Pirahã Amazonian Indians of Brazil, and Owens,
Lean, Paraide, and Muke (2017) reported on the rich vocabulary for numbers in
Papua New Guinea.
Mathematics education research covers these interests as well, generally with a
pedagogical orientation. A large body of research has distinguished between cardi-
nal and ordinal numbers especially in preschool education—for example, Bruce and
Threlfall (2004) and the special issue of Mathematical Thinking and Learning
(2015), “The Acquisition of Preschool Mathematical Abilities: Theoretical,
Methodological and Educational Considerations.” Tangentially, our literature
review directed us to a rich research body on chimpanzees’ learning of cardinal and
ordinal numbers (Biro & Matsuzawa, 2001; Matsuzawa, 2003) and on parrots
counting (Pepperberg, 2006). We note here that the choices of whose counting to
research is political; why did the researchers choose chimpanzees and parrots to
research?
Mathematics education research goes beyond the cardinal-ordinal distinction.
Wagner and Davis (2010) distinguished between number sense and quantity sense,
and they provided approaches to teaching to support the development of this quan-
tity sense. Sinclair (2015), who focused on embodied learning and technology, pro-
posed “an alternate way of approaching number that places much more emphasis on
ordinality, rather than cardinality, and that highlights number’s temporality”
(p.  347). Also Radford’s (2014) research on gestures supported this claim that
counting is an embodied, but also cultural, activity.
There are politics involved in any of this research. Some of the researchers rec-
ognized the politics in their work. For example, Wagner and Davis (2010) suggested
that people may numb themselves from disparities by working with numbers with-
out awareness of their quantities. And as noted above, there is politics in choices
about what to research. This is in line with Frankenstein’s (2008) presentation of
ways to help people understand large quantities in political contexts. Similarly, we
note that there are politics involved in our choices for this chapter; we acknowledge
that we chose to do this in Canadian English homogeneous first-language contexts,
which may suggest or support the idea that English is a critically important lan-
guage, and that children’s experiences in Canada are important for others to know
about. Most typically, researchers do not identify the politics in their work. For
194 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

example, when languages are compared by the extent of their numbers, it is a way
of identifying simplicity and development in the compared cultural contexts,
whether or not that was the intention of the researchers.

The Politics of (Mathematical) Language

Here, we extend the research that recognized the politics of counting with a focus
on language because language mediates power relations. For this, it is important for
us to say what we mean with the word politics. We understand mathematical educa-
tion as a network of created and re-created practices within particular social and
cultural contexts. These practices are further networked with other practices outside
the mathematics classrooms (Valero, 2007). Thus they are political, indicating that
power is distributed among the different networking practices. In line with Valero
(2004), we understand power as situational, relational, and in constant transforma-
tion. Power works among these practices in the network as macro-level processes.
Power also works at the micro-level, however, in the immediate situational contexts
among participants and (un)available materials. These micro-level actions are the
focus in this chapter.
The relations between the macro-level practices and participants’ micro-level
actions are dialectical. Macro-level practices give meaning to micro-level actions,
offering participants subject positions. The participants’ speech and other actions,
however, also give meaning to the mathematics practices, and they position the
participants in ways that are relational to the discipline and to other individuals in
their learning contexts (Wagner & Herbel-Eisenmann, 2009). Thus, participants are
implicated in the construction and circulation of power within mathematical prac-
tices (Gutiérrez, 2013). We emphasize the importance of connections between the
power relations at the macro- and micro-levels, which operate through positionings
and discourses (Gutiérrez, 2013; Wagner & Herbel-Eisenmann, 2009). In our analy-
sis, the negotiation and distribution of power on the micro-level are foregrounded,
while we acknowledge and connect to the related macro-level power distributions,
discourses, and negotiations (Morgan, 2006).
In our analysis of micro-politics in mathematical contexts, we choose to focus on
counting. In order to count, language is necessary, both for communicating our
counting choices and actions to others and perhaps for performing certain kinds of
counting. At the same time, the language used to describe our choices and enact the
processes shapes the way we conceptualize them. We are interested in the language
of counting because it is the medium through which people position each other in
counting situations.
Positioning theory (e.g., Harré, Moghaddam, Cairnie, Rothbart, & Sabat, 2009)
points us to the distribution of rights and duties, or, in other words, the politics of
counting. Careful language analysis helps us understand how these politics work.
As noted by linguists who theorize language as functional grammar, language arises
when people feel the need to make distinctions: “By ‘text’ … we understand a
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 195

c­ ontinuous process of semantic choice. Text is meaning and meaning is choice”

(Halliday, 1978, p.  137). Thus the language and grammar of counting helps us
understand the distinctions people have desired and continue to desire. At the same
time, language and grammar shapes the distinctions people see. As noted by Gee
(2011), language is inherently political:
[Politics] is about how to distribute social goods in a society: who gets what in terms of
money, status, power and acceptance on a variety of different terms, all social goods. Since,
when we use language, social goods and their distribution are always at stake, language is
always “political” in a deep sense. (Gee, 2011, p. 7)

We claim that attention to the distinctions and positioning in the language of

counting can help us to understand ourselves and hopefully to consider alternative
ways of positioning. We use this sensibility from systemic functional linguistics
(SFL) to help us identify the qualities of interpersonal interaction as they appear in
the distinctions made through grammar and lexicon. SFL is built on the recognition
that language involves the interconnectedness among construction of experience
(ideational metafunction), relationships with others (interpersonal metafunction),
and connection with other circulating text (textual metafunction) (Halliday, 1973).
Thus we look for grammatical and lexical choices and consider how they mediate
experience and relationships.

Number and Power

At the macro-level, number is often associated with power. School curriculum is

positioned as equipping children to be powerful in and outside of school, and num-
ber skills are generally taken as central to such power. For example, New Brunswick
Curriculum explicitly expects children to “become mathematically literate adults,
using mathematics to contribute to society” (New Brunswick Department of
Education, 2008, p.  5). We refer to this kind of positioning as equipping for the
future. Bishop (1990) has gone so far as to show how advanced counting systems—
exponential-based number systems in particular—made colonialism possible. With
rudimentary counting it is hard to organize and hold control over vast resources.
Bishop’s observation emphasized for us how such equipping for the future is not
neutral. If students are to gain power and control, they are going to be exercising
that power and control in particular contexts, presumably with the aim of having an
advantage over others in those contexts, whether they be global or relatively local
contexts. Such advantage may aid in one’s domination of others, but it may also aid
critical citizenry and related work on behalf of others.
Historically, technologies of counting (quantification) can be associated with
certain political structures. Porter (1995) traced the history of quantification in the
developing democracies of France and the United States of America. He noted the
necessity of quantification and mathematical reasoning in democracies because
they allow administrators to make “decisions without seeming to decide. Objectivity
lends authority to officials who have very little of their own” (p. 8). In democracies,
196 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

as opposed to other forms of political structure, arguments based on quantification

and taken-as-shared number operations replace personal status as justification for
decisions. We refer to this kind of positioning as justifying an action. Such justifica-
tions of action may well be the kind of future events imagined in the equipping for
the future positioning.
We have not found research that is focused on the micro-level politics of number.
Based on our experiences in classrooms as students, teachers, supervisors, and par-
ents, we recognize the fairly common explicit discussion about classroom practices
equipping students for the future, but we have not seen attention to the way politics
plays out in counting situations. We ask, when children count, who “gets what in
terms of … status, power and acceptance on a variety of different terms” (Gee,
2011, p. 7)?

Methodology

In order to illustrate the way micro-politics works in counting situations, we use

examples from our research data to identify a range of language strategies associated
with counting. Our key questions are these: what language strategies are used for
counting, and what are political implications of this kind of languaging? To be clear,
our primary goal is not to describe or document the situation in those contexts. Rather,
our use of these data is motivated by our wish to use a range of different counting
situations to identify various language strategies that are used for counting. We chose
episodes from our data that struck us as being different kinds of communication
related to counting. Some explanation of those contexts is necessary to make sense of
the language strategies, but we do not go into depth describing the contexts though
we acknowledge that the contexts were rich learning contexts in their own right.
To focus on our primary questions, we draw on excerpts of interactions from a
larger research project called students’ language repertoires for investigating math-
ematics, which oriented around the quest to identify linguistic resources mathemat-
ics students use to express conjecture. For that research, we collected data in a range
of contexts, working with 4- to 18-year-olds, in both English first language and
French immersion mathematics classroom contexts and in Swedish multilingual
mathematical contexts. We began with contexts involving risk and prediction
because we had noticed similarity in language repertoires between prediction and
conjecture (Wagner, Dicks, & Kristmanson, 2015). We also identified political
implications of the ambiguity in meaning of words that have different meanings
depending on the context identified by people in an interaction—conjecture, predic-
tion, risk assessment, and establishing authority. We extended the work to consider
other contexts of straightforward conjecture, which involved activities designed to
get student participants predicting numbers (e.g., Andersson & Wagner, 2016).
These contexts, of course, required students to count things.
We have been especially interested in presenting students with situations that we
expect to push them to the limits of their language resources. We engaged them in
counting in increasingly challenging ways. We draw on the rice-counting tasks
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 197

s­uggested by Wagner and Davis (2010), in their article distinguishing between

quantity and number sense. We were interested to see how participants construct
and negotiate roles and responsibilities as they decide what counts (e.g., how big
does a tree have to be to be a tree? What kind of plant counts as a tree?), how to talk
about a quantity when the numbers exceed individuals’ quantity sense, and what
benchmarks are used for communicating sense of quantity. Selecting benchmarks
requires identifying something that has a taken-as-shared meaning by one’s inter-
locutors. We identify how these micro-political moves are manifested in language.
In the interactions with participants, we avoided using specialized mathematical
language ourselves and refrained from suggesting to participant students how they
might perform the tasks and/or communicate their ideas. We aimed to identify their
strategies for communicating their counting and consider what these language strat-
egies say about the process of counting and the related politics. Thus, we wanted to
avoid a deficit perspective that would rate the students on the basis of which skills
and language they know. We have already noticed the problems with such deficit
approaches—for example, we have evidence that a participant not using a language
skill does not indicate inability (Wagner et al., 2015).
We also draw on examples of students counting in the following task because it
presented a different kind of counting situation and thus would reveal different lan-
guage strategies associated with counting. This task was also given to students as
part of the project described above. The excerpt used below came from a group of
grade 10 students (approximately 15 years old). They were given a page with the
following task and some images of cubes and cut-up cubes (e.g., Fig. 12.1):
A cube was painted red and then cut into smaller cubes, 3 × 3 × 3.
How many of the small cubes have no red faces?
How many have one red face?
Two red faces?
Three red faces?
Four red faces? Five? Six?
How about a cube cut into 4 × 4 × 4?
Or 5 × 5 × 5?
Or 10 × 10 × 10?
Or n × n × n?
Each group of students was also given a set of 27 solid cubes (all of the same
color) snapped together in a 3 × 3 × 3 configuration. It was possible for students to

Fig. 12.1  Cube task images

198 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

pull the cubes apart and reorganize them, but they still had to visualize what sides
would be painted and what sides would not be painted.
With the interactions that came from the above settings, we look closely at the
language students used and to identify micro-politics in action. As noted, orienta-
tion to the data was to identify distinctions in the word choice (the orientation of
SFL). Language is used to make distinctions that are relevant to the people in an
interaction. For example, the prevalence of gender distinctions in personal pronouns
in many languages signifies that people in those cultures have considered it impor-
tant to make such distinctions. An individual may find a way to avoid making such
a distinction and find this a challenge because the English language does not have
some gender-inclusive personal pronouns—e.g., using “they” instead of “he” or
“she.” Such practices may become acceptable to others and enter into a culture’s
language repertoire, as has happened with the new Swedish gender neutral word hen
to be used as an alternative to hon (she) or han (he) (The Swedish Academy, 2015).
Just as we invent ways to avoid a distinction, we can invent ways to make distinction
when no language strategy is established for that distinction. This is a phenomenon
at work in mathematical problem-solving contexts (Wagner, 2009) and also in
scholarship (e.g., when someone invents a new word or set of categories). Thus, in
our research, we look for language strategies that enable the process of deciding
what to count and what not to count (the process of establishing boundaries or cat-
egories), and we consider how these processes are political acts.
The next four sections present four different kinds of counting contexts, chosen
to reveal different kinds of language used in counting situations and to prompt
reflection on the politics of the language strategies. The contexts are reciting num-
bers, counting objects that are not present, counting objects that are present, and
subordinating counting to a different goal. In each section, we give a brief overview
of the context before presenting an excerpt of transcripts from the context. We fol-
low this with an account of the language strategies used in the excerpt and close
each section with an application of these strategies in different contexts, which
serves to illustrate their political significance. We note that in school and home con-
texts, children are prepared to navigate these other contexts in which the politics
may be more obvious. The language patterns may either prepare children to be
aware of politics or to ignore the politics. Each of the contexts presented here reveals
some language strategies, but we are aware that there are other strategies in other
contexts, and that these strategies are likely to work out differently with different
languages (though many languages have similar grammar and vocabulary structures
to English). Our goal is to expand our understanding of the way counting works. In
our reflection we call for more work that would further expand understanding.

Micro-Politics of Reciting Numbers

We started a conversation with a class of 4-year-olds to focus on counting. It began

with Dave interacting with the whole class in their reading space. The children were
familiar with him, as he had interacted with this class before—for example, to talk
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 199

about a stick he likes when they were constructing a stick museum. We wondered if
the children thought of counting as reciting numbers or an action done on objects.
If we asked them to show us how they count, would they simply recite numbers or
find something to count and then count those things? This question underpinned the
conversation. (Participant names are pseudonyms.)

A1 Dave: I would like to talk to you today about counting. Is that okay?
A2 Jenna: I know how to count.
A3 Dave: Do you!? Can you show me?
A4 Jenna: Well, I can actually count past twenty.
A5 Dave: Can you!?
A6 Jenna: Yeah.
A7 Dave: Can you show me?
A8 Jenna: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one,
twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven,
twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.
A9 Dave: Wow!
A10 Adam: I can count.
A11 Dave: Can you? Can you show me?
A12 Adam: Uh huh. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.
A13 Reece: I can show you.
A14 Dave: Can you? Okay [raises eyebrows with a nod].
A15 Reece: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
A16 Jenna: There are twelve stars on my clock.

The three children who wanted to demonstrate their counting each chose to dem-
onstrate by reciting numbers without reference to objects. Though it could be that
Adam and Reece’s way of showing their counting mimicked Jenna’s, it seems that
for these children, counting was more about saying correct numbers than it was a
skill to apply to objects. Counting is abstract in this way. It does not make sense to
identify the grammar of the number words in this case, as they do not appear in
sentences. By contrast, in “two plus three is five,” the number words are nouns, and
in “there are five cats,” the number word is an adjective. The numbers in an abstract
recitation are agrammatical here because they are not connected to objects.
Reece’s decision to conclude on twelve, however, prompted a connection to
objects for Jenna, a recollection that her clock has twelve stars (turn A16). Still, she
was referring to objects outside the classroom space. We wonder whether she was
visualizing the quantity of twelve or recollecting a conversation in which the num-
ber twelve was central (perhaps a parent pointing out the twelve stars).
With an abstracted counting like this, we cannot see the counting as a justifica-
tion for an action or decision. We could, however, say that the rehearsal of reciting
counting numbers is part of a culture of equipping children for future action. With
that, it seems evident that this is connected with a school culture of performance.
200 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

Even though this was technically a “preschool” class, and though we know the
teachers in the class endeavored to construct a play-based environment, there are
likely pervasive elements of a performance culture in these children’s lives from
popular media and their parents and even creeping into a classroom that tries to
resist it. Dave did not even have to ask the children to demonstrate their counting;
they volunteered (turns A2, A10, and A13).
Now we turn to the application of these language strategies in different contexts
to illustrate the political significance of these strategies. There is political signifi-
cance in abstraction, which we describe as an action that seems to be performed
without context. In a conflict situation, a move to abstraction is a way of ignoring
particulars of the context. People might make such a move when the conversation is
discussing particulars they do not want to be considered. One can also move to
abstraction as a tool with the intention of applying the abstracted work to the con-
text, as a way of developing an alternative perspective or insight. Abstract work in
school is often different though. It is not a move to ignore, nor is it a move to gain
perspective. It is a rehearsal of skills that might be used for such intentions. In that
way, it has a second level of abstraction—doing work outside of context with the
expectation that such work might be used in any context.
We turn our attention again to the linguistic markers of this abstraction in the
above context. We notice that the reciting of numbers is performed outside of sen-
tence structure. There is no subject and there is no action recognized in the recita-
tion. As noted by Stubbs (1996), a linguist, masking the presence of a subject is
often identified as a political move because the identification of who has agency (or
omission to identify this) has significant implications for the positioning of people
in any interaction. MacLure (2003) also explained how the masking of action can be
political. She showed how a speech from her prime minister, Tony Blair, featured
lists of noun phrases without subject and without verbs. With this language choice,
his speech associated him with these good things, without saying who would have
to act to make them happen, nor saying what kind of action would be required. We
have noticed this technique among current politicians and upper administration in
universities as well.

Micro-Politics of Counting Something Not Present

After inviting the 4-year-old children to show us how they counted, we wanted to
get them counting things not present. So Dave asked the children how many animals
they had in their homes: “Think of how many animals there are in the place that you
live. Don’t tell me yet. I want everyone to think a little bit.” This question was
crafted also to address the politics of distinctions, as illustrated in the country-­
counting activity at the beginning of this chapter. What counts as an animal in the
home? Many of the children responded saying one or two and then telling Dave the
names of these pets. After engaging with the children about their pets, Dave said,
“Yesterday, I was walking in my house and I saw a spider in the corner.” He described
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 201

what it looked like sitting between the wall and ceiling. Then he asked one of the
children, who hadn’t yet responded how many animals were in his house? The boy
responded, “One.” When asked what kind of animal it was, he said, “The spider.”
The conversation then diverted to discussion about whether spiders are good to have
in the house or not.
For the children, pets are counted as animals in their homes but not spiders or
other bugs. When Dave drew attention to a spider in his home, a boy recognized that
he, too, had a spider in his house, but only one. Then they discussed how good spi-
ders are; they talked about spiders eating other bugs, which could have drawn atten-
tion to the fact that there are many bugs in people’s houses. But the children did not
seek to revise their answers. Our impression was that the children simply did not
think about bugs when asked about animals. When Dave noted one spider in his
house, a boy also noted a spider in his own house but did not think about other bugs
beyond that.
Again, we turn to the application of such language in different contexts to illus-
trate the political significance. We believe that the politics of exclusion often works
like this. It is not that the children explicitly decided to exclude bugs from their
counts. Rather, the bugs never came to mind. Similarly, when reporting on war
casualties, reporters tend to count their nationals and not casualties from the oppos-
ing country. It may be the case that such exclusions form deliberate war journalism
rhetoric in war writing discourses as exemplified by MacLure (2003). It may also be
that the reporters do not think to include the casualties from other countries. Either
way, whether calculated or by habit, the exclusion shapes and sustains ideas about
what and whom are valued. Crowley (1989) called this an economy of exclusion.
Back to the classroom discussion, Dave tried another approach to counting things
not present. He asked, “How many rooms are there in your house?” The first child
to respond held up four fingers and said “four.” He touched one finger at a time as
he identified whose room each of the four was. Other children in turn listed the dif-
ferent rooms in their homes but without giving numbers. There was much excite-
ment when they started sharing how many toilets they had. One boy identified that
he had two houses (probably a result of his parents’ separation). When Jenna (the
girl who first volunteered to show off her counting) listed the rooms in her house,
Dave asked her how many that was. She said she didn’t know. Dave asked her if she
could count them, and she said she could not because there were too many. This is
interesting to us because the list she gave included fewer than thirty and she already
showed us that she could count to thirty. This suggests that other qualities of the
rooms in their houses were more important to the children than the number of rooms
(however, for toilets, the number of them did seem important). We had hoped that
there might be some discussion about what counted as a room, but the children did
not raise this discussion, though some counted only bedrooms and others counted
living rooms, dining rooms, and open spaces in their basements, etc. Perhaps if the
number became important—for example, if there is some kind of benefit to having
a certain number—then the issues around what rooms count and what rooms do not
would become important. In such a case, counting would become justification for
action, but without such motivation, it can only be equipping for future action. And
202 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

so we wonder how one becomes equipped to use number to justify choices without
experiences in which number is used to justify choices.
We find it a challenge to think about the language features that mediate the poli-
tics in these two conversations about counting things not present. This challenge is
due to the general lack of language. SFL tools draw attention to grammar and lexi-
con, but the answers to questions about how many do not follow conventional gram-
mar. How many animals? “Two.” As with the reciting of numbers, the one-word
answer has no subject/agent, and it has no verb. Here we are reminded that this
analysis is situated in the English language, because in some languages numbers are
verbs (Lunney Borden, 2010). Even so, though numbers are verbs in Mi’kmaq, it is
our understanding that there is often no subject for the verb, or that the language
gives agency to the objects being counted, not the person doing the counting.
The masking of agency in answers to “How many?” has implications for the
politics of categorization. The language structure does not recognize that categori-
zation is occurring, nor the fact that people (with their own agendas and/or values)
are making those choices about what to categorize. In the conversation about ani-
mals and rooms, there were, however, some full sentences. For example, the first
boy to answer how many rooms said “Four. There’s my room, my brother’s, my
Momma’s room, my Mom and Dad’s room, and my sister’s room.” Here we have at
least a verb—is in “there is”—but the sentence is still passive voice and thus said in
a way that ignores the categorization and the people doing the categorization.
To illustrate the political significance, we turn again to the application of such
language strategy. A recent high-profile sexual assault trial in Canada prompted
much discussion in the news and social media. In this context, people (mostly men)
pointed to “due process” to defend the traumatic questioning of victims who came
forward as witnesses: “there is due process.” This “there is” masks the truth that
these processes (laws) are crafted by people to favor the rights of certain people at
the expense of the rights of others.

Micro-Politics of Counting Something Present

After the discussion with the full class of 4-year-olds, children were invited to join
a table hosted by Annica or by Dave, among other choices (including playing at the
sand table, etc.). The excerpt below is from the table hosted by Annica, and we note
that she is an English second language speaker. Annica had a container full of dry,
uncooked kidney beans, pinto beans, and navy beans. We (Annica and David) had
chosen a variety of beans to prompt the possibility of children distinguishing among
the different kinds of beans. We also had broken many of the beans into pieces to
provoke the children to decide what counts as a full bean. The variety of beans and
presence of partial beans were intended to highlight aspects of the politics of count-
ing; the decision of what to count is more apparent when there is variety of and
“abnormal” items being counted.
When children came to the table, Annica dumped some beans into a pile and
asked the children if they could count them or if they wanted to count them
(Fig. 12.2).
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 203

Fig. 12.2  Counting beans

B3 Annica:
Can you tell me how many beans [Mia starts her counting while Annica finishes
her request.] there are on this paper? I am so curious.
B4 Mia: [Pointing at a bean with each number, see Fig. 12.2] One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, seventeen,
eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four,
twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-ten,
twenty-eleven, twenty-twelve, twenty-thirteen, [her voice now becomes quieter
and quieter until it is no longer possible to discern what she says though her
fingers keep pointing out beans], twenty-fourteen, twenty-fifteen…
B5 Annica: How many are there?
B6 Mia: I don’t know. [She hides her face in her hands.]
B7 Annica: Why don’t you know?
B8 Mia: There are so many, there are too many!
B9 Annica: There are too many…
B10 Tim: I’ll count [with a smug expression]
B11 Annica: Can you count? Let’s see how you will figure it out. I am so curious how many
there are, I have been thinking of this….
B12 Tim: [Points at beans for each number, a very quiet voice] One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, fifteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two,
twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, …
B13 Mia: There are little pieces too. [pointing to small piece of a bean]
B14 Annica: Should we count all these small pieces too, do you think?
B15 Mia: No. [she starts organizing the beans]
B16 Annica: Why don’t you want to count those, Mia?
B17 Tim: There are ninety beans.
B18 Annica: Ninety beans? That is very many. Are you sure? How can we figure it out, if
there really is ninety?
B19 Amanda: Do you think we can count these ones? How many are here? [pointing]
B20 Mia: One, two, three. Three!
B21 Annica: Why did you choose to pick up those?
204 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

B22 Mia: They are brown…

B23 Annica: Now I see you are picking out all the brown ones. Hmm… now I’m curious,
why do you do that [to Tim]. And now you choose white ones [to Mia].
B24 Mia: No, it’s a brown one.
B25 Annica: Is it?
B26 Mia: Yes. Yes, the skin comes off.

As with Adam reciting numbers (turn A12), both Mia and Tim did not count
conventionally. Mia missed sixteen, and she generalized unconventionally (but bril-
liantly) with “twenty-nine, twenty-ten, twenty-eleven …” (turn B4). And Tim
missed a few numbers between nine and nineteen (turn B12). We do not see such
idiosyncrasies as political. (We rather wondered whether the children made more
mistakes when counting actual objects or when reciting numbers, but our data does
not allow us to come to a conclusion on this question, nor is the question signifi-
cantly relevant to our primary research questions). We note, however, that the expe-
rience of counting things is very different than the experience of reciting the numbers
in the absence of referents. Without referents, there seems to be no reason for some-
one to make choices about how to count. In this episode with Mia and Tim, such
choices become apparent. Here, Mia became interested in the distinction-making in
the counting.
First, we identify our choice for the mix of beans to pour out for the children as
a communication act, and thus with political implications. We wanted them to think
about what to count and what not to count, or at least we wanted the opportunity.
Second, we notice the language in the conversation between Annica and Mia about
her choices (Tim appears unaware of their conversation). Mia’s language choices
positioned her decisions about what to count as statements of fact: “They are brown”
(turn B22), “No, it’s a brown one.” (turn B24), “Yes, the skin comes off” (turn B26).
The verb family to be is significant in statements of fact—particularly the forms is
and are. Also significant are unmodified action verbs—in this case, “the skin
comes.” There is no human agency in Mia’s statements. Annica used an unmodified
verb as well “now you choose white ones” (turn B23), but it is different because Mia
is the agent in this sentence. Annica also modeled an alternative structure by explic-
itly recognizing her own agency: “I see you are picking out all the brown ones” (turn
B22). Annica did not ask Mia to explain her choices of what to count but raised the
issue. We think it is significant that Mia did not seem motivated to justify her actions.
This may suggest that Mia had not had such justification modeled in her experience;
counts for her had not been justified.
Paralinguistic aspects of communication also feature strongly in this episode.
First, the pointing gesture that accompanies the counting seems to expose agency.
When Tim was counting, Mia watched and listened, and she noticed that he was
choosing only the whole beans (turn B13). Without the gesture, Mia could not have
known that Tim was making decisions about what to count. We think it likely that
she would not have even considered the question about what he was choosing.
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 205

Apparently Mia did not notice her own decision-making when she herself was
counting, though she too was gesturing.
Another set of paralinguistic features includes the gestures and the tone. Both of
these seem to serve to identify modality. Mia covering her face showed something
like embarrassment. Both Mia and Tim quieted their voices when they became
unsure of themselves. These indications of modality demonstrated awareness of
positioning in the relationship. They probably saw themselves as being judged by
Annica and each other, as part of a school culture of performance (discussed above)
and thus indicated their feelings about their counting. The presence of judgment
indicates a political presence that would have to be associated with larger discourses,
such as performance discourses in school or competition discourses among peers.
Our turn to the application of these language strategies in different contexts again
illustrates the political significance of the strategies. We consider, for example, the
counting of resources, such as trees or cod fish. When numbers are reported in the
press or scientific studies, they are often reported as statements of fact. We contrast
this with contexts in which one sees someone doing the counting of these resources,
in which case it becomes obvious that there are decisions being made about what to
count and what not to count, and the recognition of humans making these decisions
invites questions about the dependability of these numbers. Sometimes news reports
reveal the identity of people counting a resource that is otherwise reported without
the agency revealed. This choice to reveal the agency may undermine or strengthen
a reader’s confidence in the counts, depending on their trust of these people doing
the counting.

Micro-Politics of Subordinated Counting

Finally we consider a case of the counting being subordinated to a more challenging

task. We could not find an example of the 4-year-olds counting for another purpose,
so we looked to our data from other contexts. We consider this subordination in
Hewitt’s (1996) terms, as he contrasted that a mathematical process is different
when used for something else (the process is “subordinated” to a higher level pro-
cess), as opposed to the process being the objective. For this chapter, the above
contexts had counting as the explicit objective—coming up with the correct number.
But in the task given to the grade 10 students (described above in the Methodology
section), the counting was subordinated to pattern recognition and prediction. We
pick up this group’s interaction when they had come to their conclusions for the
3 × 3 × 3 cube and begun imagining the 4 × 4 × 4 cube, for which they had no dia-
gram and not enough cubes to model it. They were counting cubes that were not
physically present and doing so on the basis of extending a set of cubes they had at
hand.
206 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

C157 Andrea: There’s only four that won’t be covered, right?

C158 Carly: These four. There’s these four and the ones below it.
C159 Andrea: The ones below it are the bottom, aren’t they?
C160 Carly: Because look, let’s say it’s these, and then there’s these,
too. Not those.
C161 Andrea: Oh, so it would be eight.
…
C175 Lynn: So there’s four here.
C176 Andrea: These four. One, two, three, four.
C177 Lynn: So it’s six per side, and there’s six sides?
C178 Andrea: There’s four per side.
C179 Lynn: No, because there’s a block here?
C180 Andrea: That would have more than one side covered. Four
times four. Sixteen?
C181 Lynn: Four times six is twenty-four.

Considering the language of the girls in the interaction, we noticed the signifi-
cant presence of the language structures identified in the above three interactions.
When they counted, they usually counted outside of sentence structure, as in turn
C176 above. And they often used a passive voice statement of fact that masks agency
and action, as in “there’s only four” (turn C157), “There’s these four” (turn C158),
“There’s four here” (turn C175), “it’s six per side” (turn C177), “there’s six sides”
(turn C177), and “there’s four per side” (turn C178). Strikingly different, however,
was a pervasive presence of hedges, which identify the possibility of different views
by modulating the sense of certainty. The modal verb “would” is very common in
this entire group interaction, as in Andrea’s “it would be eight” (turn C161) and
“That would have more” (turn C180). All three girls used this word extensively to
indicate that they are extending beyond what is present among them. Andrea tagged
her statement of fact with “right” (turn C157) and “aren’t they” (turn C159) to invite
the others to check. Also significantly, Carly identified her agency in the counting
with “Let’s say” (turn C160). These hedges and identification of agency demon-
strate that is it possible for people to position themselves differently in counting
situations.
We also found the girls’ articulation of numeric operations fascinating. These are
instances of technologies of counting. For example, Lynn noted that “Four times six
is twenty-four” (turn C181). Throughout the interaction, when the girls did opera-
tions, the articulations appeared with this grammar. The verb is is. Hence there is no
human agent. And thus the language does not recognize any alternative. This is
significant politically in the same way as the passive voice statements of counts and
outside-of-sentence structure counting identified above. We recall the technique
used by politicians to mask agency and action.
To illustrate the politics of the hedging language described in this context, we
consider its use in other contexts. We consider again the counting of resources and
note that it is usual practice to avoid direct counts of fish, trees, and other numerous
12  The Micro-Politics of Counting 207

things (especially when they are living, growing, and dying). Those counts are usu-
ally built on mathematical models that involve sampling and prediction. Predictions
are usually multilayered models as they depend on counts built on models and then
apply other models for mapping the trends. We reiterate that reports on the count of
such resources tend to mask the modeling and prediction. Such reports make it dif-
ficult for citizens to identify the choices that are behind these numbers. By contrast,
political polls are more often reported with identification of degrees of confidence,
and people who deny climate change also point to differences among scientists’
numbers and to their hedging as if these are indicators of flaws in counting. When
many scientifically based numbers are reported as statements of fact, exceptions to
such statements of fact—for example, revelations of uncertainty or decision-­
making—appear more questionable.

Reflection

We came to this analysis already recognizing that counting is inherently political, as

demonstrated with our country-counting activity and similarly in our planning for
the interaction with the 4-year-olds. When people count, we have to decide what to
count and what not to count. The analysis helped us see how this politics expresses
itself in human communication specifically in the contexts of reciting numbers,
counting present and not present objects, and lastly subordinated counting.
The language for counting is typically outside sentence structure and thus hides
the presence of human action and the point of view of the human agent. Similarly,
the statement of a counting result is typically given with a passive voice, again hid-
ing the action and agent. Again, statements of operations mask actor and agent with
the “… is…” structure. The analysis nevertheless showed us that people can use
language and gesture (e.g., pointing at counted objects) to identify their points of
view and their action. Not coincidentally, this appeared most often in a situation
where students were solving a relatively complex problem.
We reiterate our point of view (and the point of view in SFL) that language speci-
ficities are designed to identify distinctions people in a culture want to identify and
to ignore what they want to ignore. Generally speaking, many language strategies
associated with counting mask the human activity and suggest only one point of
view (which is to deny the existence of point of view). There are language strate-
gies, however, that enable the recognition of point of view in counting. Either way,
a denial of point of view or an identification of point of view can be seen as moti-
vated by human relationships that are inherently political. In our examples, we
found the identification of point of view prompted by contexts that were designed to
prompt differences in views (three kinds of beans, including incomplete beans) and
that required modeling. By contrast, point of view was masked in the most basic
mathematical operations and straight counting. Our illustrative applications of the
counting language to other contexts helped us realize that typical media reporting
reflects the basic, single point of view language for reporting counting.
208 A. Andersson and D. Wagner

We ask ourselves why society would want to present counting as if interlocutors

share assumptions. We notice that if people are encultured to take counts at face
value, and not think about the choices behind the counting, they become ripe for
manipulation by others who are savvy with their counting. Nevertheless, to under-
stand better why our culture has developed in a way that masks agent and action in
counting, we claim that further analysis and reflection is needed from contexts in
which people are counting for their purposes. All four of our episodes above focus
on tasks we initiated. We asked the 4-year-olds to count and indicated what they
should count. We gave the cube task to students, who would not likely wonder how
many cubes fit the given criteria without our task.
Thus we encourage further work that attends to counting. We want to pay atten-
tion to our own counting and others’ counting and to the language used in those situ-
ations. We encourage others to focus attention in this way as well—in both research
contexts and everyday activity. We invite reflection on the following questions in
such counting contexts. (1) What motivates the counting? (2) How are these motives
recognized (or not) in the communication? (3) What is counted? And what might
alternatively be counted? (4) How are the decisions about what to count recognized
(or not) in the communication? (5) How do others respond to the person making the
decision about what to count? (6) How does all this relate to power relations in the
moment and in larger discourses?

Acknowledgment  This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada, with a grant entitled “Students’ language repertoires for investigating mathe-
matics.” Opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed here are the authors’
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the granting body.

References

Andersson, A., & Wagner, D. (2016). Language repertoires for mathematical and other discourses.
In M. B. Wood, E. E. Turner, M. Civil, & J. A. Eli (Eds.), Proceedings of the North American
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Barrow, J. (1992). Pi in the sky: Counting, thinking, and being. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
Biro, D., & Matsuzawa, T. (2001). Use of numerical symbols by the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes):
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Illinois Press.
Dehaene, S. (1997). The number sense: How the mind creates mathematics. New York: Oxford
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Gee, J. (2011). An introduction to discourse analysis. Theory and method (3rd ed.). New York:
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Chapter 13
A Commentary on Student Learning
and Engagement in Pre-K–12 Mathematics
Classrooms

Anita A. Wager

Abstract  This chapter is a commentary on the chapters in the book focused on

student learning and engagement in pre-K–12 mathematics classrooms.

The chapters in this section on student learning and engagement in pre-K–12

­mathematics classrooms shed light and invite discussion on the power of mathemat-
ics as a tool to reify existing structures or, when used in new ways, challenge exist-
ing structures. The authors raise critical issues for the field to consider with respect
to (a) the political nature of mathematics in the classroom, community, and world,
(b) possibilities for supporting equity with technology, and (c) how we can use
mathematics to recognize and challenge what is normalized.

The Political Nature of Mathematics

Every decision we make with respect to teaching mathematics is political (Gutstein,

2006), including the curriculum we choose, the activities we assign, and the partici-
pation structures we organize. In Chap. 10, Rubel, Lim, and Hall-Wieckert direct us
to the spatial political nature of where we live by extending the notion of teaching
mathematics for social justice to “spatial justice.” The researchers purposefully
design a module to engage students to learn about ratio and percent by exploring
New York City’s personal finance system. Throughout the unit it is apparent that
careful attention was given to curriculum that provides the students with access to
rich mathematics and the realities of who has access to various financial resources.
The activities in the module incorporate multiple ways of participating so that all
students have opportunity to demonstrate the ways they are “smart” in mathematics

A. A. Wager (*)
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 211

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_13
212 A. A. Wager

(Featherstone et  al., 2011). In Chap. 11, Ng’s study provides an argument for
­broadening our notion of participation to include bilingual students’ linguistic and
nonlinguistic means of communicating calculus ideas. The choices we make about
“what counts” as participation are political as these decisions change who has
access to mathematics learning. By recognizing gestures and other nonlinguistic
moves as evidence of students’ understanding, we not only gain a more holistic
picture of students’ strategies and knowledge but can provide greater learning
opportunities for bilingual students. In Chap. 12, Andersson and Wagner suggest
that the choices we make about “what to count” is politically motivated – whether
we are aware of it or not. They ask the reader to think about the political implica-
tions of everyday counting activities adults may do as well as the tasks asked of
children in classrooms. Interestingly, the researchers’ decision about what should be
counted in one of the tasks they engage children is also political. Counting dry
beans (or any food object) might be uncomfortable for children who experience
hunger and are asked to count objects that could serve as a meal. Although the class-
room is featured in each of these chapters, as Andersson and Wagner point out, the
notion of mathematics as political resonates beyond the classrooms to the politics in
our world. This is demonstrated in the module studied by Rubel, Lim, and Hall-­
Wieckert as students began by examining a single transaction and then eventually
zooming out to explore the financial system of the city.

Possibilities for Supporting Equity with Technology

Two of the chapters (Chaps. 10 and 11) provide examples of how technology can be
used to provide greater access to mathematics learning. Rubel, Lim, and Hall-­
Wieckert used interactive digital maps as a core feature of their instructional module.
These maps provided students with a new way to examine the phenomena being
studied and made the mathematics more dynamic. Beyond the participatory mapping,
students were provided several other structures to move between the mathematics,
the issue under study, and how mathematics could be used to study it. Ng (Chap. 11)
examined the competence demonstrated by bilingual students as they used dynamic
geometric environments. By attending to how students interacted with the touch
screen, Ng was able to provide evidence of understanding that might not be apparent
in verbal communication. Both of these studies point to the power of technology as a
way of providing access to learning – if we attend to learning in a different way.

Recognizing and Challenging Normalization

All three chapters remind us to recognize how mathematics is used to normalize

particular practices and ways of knowing. And, each chapter offers ways to challenge
that power. Students can learn not only what is happening in the world but how
13  A Commentary on Student Learning and Engagement in Pre-K–12 Mathematics… 213

mathematics can be used to interrupt what is “normal” by learning mathematics

through an examination of local phenomena that have direct impact on their lives
(Rubel, Lim, & Hall-Wieckert, Chap. 10). Recognizing that students’ nonlinguistic
means of communication provide a greater understanding of their understanding
interrupts what is considered “normal” with respect to mathematics learning (Ng,
Chap. 11). Finally, thinking about and responding to “what counts” when we are
counting or reading about what has been counted can start to challenge the normal-
ized “truths” in school and society (Andersson & Wagner, Chap. 12). The three take-
aways from these chapters should push us to constantly challenge what is taken as
true and how we think about teaching and learning mathematics.

References

Featherstone, H., Crespo, S., Jilk, L., Oslund, J., Parks, A., & Wood, M. (2011). Smarter together!:
Collaboration and equity in the elementary classroom. Reston, VA: National Council of
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Gutstein, E. (2006). Reading and writing the world with mathematics: Toward a pedagogy for
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 Part IV
Supporting Teachers on Addressing
the Needs of Marginalized Students
Chapter 14
Preservice Teachers’ Strategies
for Teaching Mathematics with English
Learners

Zandra de Araujo, Erin Smith, Ji-Yeong I, and Matthew Sakow

Abstract  Although English learners (ELs) are one of the fastest growing groups of
students in the United States, many teacher preparation programs have yet to require
preservice teachers (PSTs) to receive training in effective practices for teaching
ELs. We examined four elementary PSTs’ instructional practices when implement-
ing cognitively demanding mathematics tasks with ELs during a 4-week field expe-
rience. Through interviews, observations, and written reflections, we found that the
PSTs tried to support the ELs, with varying degrees of success, by allowing for
multiple modes of communication, including visual supports, pressing for explana-
tions, and checking for understanding. The PSTs’ use of these strategies during the
field experience was largely in response to the ELs’ use of language rather than
mathematics. Furthermore, although the PSTs’ attention to linguistic supports was
well intentioned, it often resulted in the PSTs taking on much of the mathematical
thinking or failing to consider different student mathematical conceptions. We con-
clude that explicit instruction in and reflection on effective instructional strategies
with ELs, set in authentic experiences, could help PSTs to more effectively develop
the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the needs of ELs in the mathematics
classroom.

Z. de Araujo (*)
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
E. Smith
University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA
J. -Y. I
Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
M. Sakow
Columbia River High School, Vancouver, WA, USA

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 217

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_14
218 Z. de Araujo et al.

Introduction

Recent curricular reforms have emphasized the importance of student engagement

in mathematical tasks and practices that facilitate a deep understanding of mathe-
matics (e.g., National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000; National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State
School Officers, 2010). This shift has come with increased linguistic demands in
mathematics classrooms as students are expected to justify their solutions and cri-
tique the reasoning of others. Such engagement requires extensive communication
skills in both everyday English and the academic language of mathematics.
In conjunction with curricular reforms, the demographics of US public schools
are undergoing significant changes. English learners (ELs) are one of the most rap-
idly increasing groups of students (Wolf, Herman, & Dietel, 2010). In states such as
Texas, California, and Florida where ELs have made up a sizeable portion of the
school population for a number of years, teacher education programs are required to
prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) to teach ELs. Even states with historically low
numbers of ELs are now experiencing dramatic increases in their EL population
(Office of English Language Acquisition, 2015). This has driven the need for these
states to consider ways to prepare teachers to provide instruction for an increasingly
diverse student population.
Researchers in mathematics education have increasingly attended to the prepara-
tion and development of teachers to work with diverse student populations (e.g.,
Aguirre et al., 2012; Foote et al., 2013; Wager, 2012). There are relatively few studies,
however, that focus specifically on the preparation of teachers to work with ELs in
mathematics. Of these studies, most have focused on preparing primarily monolingual,
English-speaking PSTs to work with ELs (e.g., Bunch, Aguirre, & Téllez, 2015;
Fernandes, 2012; Kasmer, 2013). There have also been studies that have focused on
preparing multilingual PSTs to work with ELs (e.g., Chitera, 2011; Vomvoridi-
Ivanovic, 2012). In both cases, examining experiences that facilitate PSTs’ develop-
ment of their own and/or ELs’ academic language in mathematics was a primary focus.
One such experience researchers have examined is field work that provides PSTs
opportunities to work specifically with ELs in mathematics (Fernandes, 2012;
Kasmer, 2013). Field experiences can support PSTs’ development of skills and dis-
positions necessary to teach mathematics with ELs. Moreover, they can enable
PSTs to become more aware of the inextricable relationship between mathematics
and language (Fernandes, 2012). In instances where PSTs taught ELs in whole-­
class settings, researchers found PSTs enacted adaptations to accommodate ELs’
mathematical learning, despite having no formal training (Kasmer, 2013). Because
field experiences have the potential to either counter or reinforce unproductive
beliefs about ELs (Fernandes, 2012; Kasmer, 2013), however, it is important to
carefully design and facilitate field experiences to develop PSTs’ productive beliefs
about and effective pedagogy for ELs.
Although studies have examined experiences that support PSTs in learning to
teach mathematics with ELs, we have found none which considered PSTs’ instruc-
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 219

tional strategies as a starting point. As such, in this study we examined the instruc-
tional strategies PSTs employed as they implemented cognitively demanding
mathematical tasks with ELs during a field experience. More specifically, we were
interested in the strategies employed by PSTs who had received no formal instruc-
tion on effective mathematics pedagogy specifically for ELs. We were interested in
this population because, as of November 2014, over 30 states did not require general
classroom teachers to have training in teaching strategies for ELs (Education
Commission of the States, 2014). Thus, a large proportion of teachers may leave
their teacher preparation programs without learning about effective pedagogy for
linguistically diverse students generally and in mathematics specifically. The fol-
lowing research question guided the present study: What instructional strategies do
PSTs enact when implementing cognitively demanding mathematics tasks with
ELs? We believe that by understanding the strategies PSTs employ, educators can
better understand the needs of PSTs regarding teaching strategies specific to the
mathematics education of ELs and researchers can study how these strategies may
be used to more effectively enhance ELs’ mathematics and language learning.

Theoretical Perspectives

We frame our study in a situated, sociocultural perspective (Moschkovich, 2002) of

learning. We view field experiences as situated activity for PSTs (Putnam & Borko,
2000) because they provide a space to engage in the type of thinking and practice
needed for their work as teachers. Putnam and Borko made the case for the benefit
of similar experiences stating, “Thoughtfully combining university- and field-based
experiences can lead to learning that can be difficult to accomplish in either setting
alone” (2000, p. 7). In our context, the low proportion of ELs in the local commu-
nity led us to develop a field experience that would provide PSTs with situated
opportunities to engage in mathematics with ELs.
A situated, sociocultural perspective emphasizes not only the situation in which
experiences occur but also the social interactions and semiotic activities that occur
as part of those experiences—in this case, between the PSTs and ELs. Therefore, to
anticipate the strategies PSTs might employ, we drew on the work of Chval and
Chávez (2012) who described seven research-based strategies as keys to enhancing
ELs’ mathematical learning. The strategies included (1) connecting mathematics
with students’ prior knowledge, (2) fostering a classroom environment that is rife
with language and mathematics, (3) allowing for the use of multiple modes of com-
munication, (4) including visual supports, (5) connecting mathematical representa-
tions to language, (6) recording key ideas and representations, and (7) discussing
students’ writing (Chval & Chávez, 2012). These strategies capture social interac-
tions, including the written and spoken resources and activities, that occur between
teachers and students and the realities of ELs’ simultaneous development of lan-
guage and mathematics.
220 Z. de Araujo et al.

As a whole, these strategies facilitate ELs’ use and development of academic

language and mathematical understanding and served as a framework to guide our
examination of the PSTs’ work with the ELs. Though the PSTs were not instructed
on these strategies as a means of facilitating ELs’ learning, several of these strate-
gies were discussed broadly in the PSTs’ mathematics methods course. For exam-
ple, the course emphasized eliciting and responding to student thinking in order to
connect mathematics with prior knowledge and the use of multiple representations
in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Method

We examined the strategies elementary PSTs employed when enacting mathemat-

ics tasks with ELs. Four PSTs—Kimberly, Hannah, Morgan, and Fiona (all names
are pseudonyms)—voluntarily participated in the study. The PSTs were juniors in
an undergraduate elementary education program at a large research university.
Although the PSTs varied in their confidence regarding teaching mathematics,
each student had earned high marks in her prior mathematics method course, and
their instructor described them as typical of elementary PSTs at her institution.
Similar to the vast majority of US elementary teachers, each PST was a monolin-
gual, English-­speaking, white woman (Goldring, Gray, & Bitterman, 2013). The
PSTs had limited prior experiences working with and learning about ELs; the
mathematics method courses they had taken did not directly address teaching
mathematics with ELs. Furthermore, the PSTs in this study, like all of the PSTs in
the program at that time, had no coursework in general pedagogical strategies for
ELs. In order to fill this gap, the field experience was purposely designed to pro-
vide the PSTs with opportunities to implement cognitively demanding mathemat-
ical tasks with ELs. Previously, the PSTs had learned about cognitive demand and
various strategies for planning and enacting cognitively demanding mathematics
tasks. Moreover, the PSTs had experience implementing cognitively demanding
mathematics tasks with elementary students. None of the PSTs, however, had
specifically discussed pedagogical strategies for enacting such tasks with ELs,
nor had they enacted such tasks with ELs.
The four ELs were native Korean speakers. Kyeong-Tae, Jin, and Ho-Min had
each been in the United States for about 6  months. Hwa-Young had been in the
United States for a little over a year and was also a fluent Japanese speaker. At the
time of the study, Jin and Ho-Min were in 4th grade, and Kyeong-Tae and Hwa-­
Young were in 5th grade. We purposefully selected (Patton, 2002) students enrolled
in classes specifically for ELs and who were at or above grade level in mathematics.
In selecting students in this way, we hoped the PSTs would gain experience with
students who were not yet fully fluent in English and whose mathematical ability
was not a confounding factor.
The 4-week field experience centered on each PST’s weekly one-on-one meet-
ing with her assigned EL. Prior to each of the first three meetings, the PSTs were
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 221

Week 1: Vehicles Task

Three classes at an elementary school are going on a fieldtrip to the zoo. Mrs.
Ruiz’s class has 23 people, Mr. Yang’s class has 25, and Mrs. Evans’ class has
24 people (all numbers include the teacher). They can choose to use buses,
vans, and/or cars. Buses have 20 seats, vans have 16 seats, and cars have 5
seats.

You are in charge of deciding how to transport all of the classes to the zoo.
Explain how you would choose how many of each type of vehicle to take and
why. Write a response and explain your thinking.
Week 2: Space Creatures Task
The two-eyed space creatures, three-eyed space creatures, and four-eyed space
creatures are having a contest to create a group with 24 total eyes.

If you have to include only two-eyed space creatures and three-eyed space
creatures, how many of each kind are needed to make a group with 24 total
eyes? If it is possible, list all possible combinations and explain your strategy. If
it is impossible, explain why.
Week 3: Rounding Task
Baseball stadiums have different numbers of seats. Giants’ stadium in San
Francisco has 41,915 seats and Nationals’ stadium in Washington has 41,888
seats. Padres’ stadium in San Diego has 42,445 seats. Compare these statements
from two students.
Jeff said, “I get the same number when I round all three numbers of seats in
these stadiums.”
Sara said, “When I round them, I get the same number for two of the
stadiums but a different number for the other stadium.”
Can Jeff and Sara both be correct? Explain how you know.

Fig. 14.1  The tasks given to PSTs for weeks 1–3

given a cognitively demanding mathematics task (Fig.  14.1) they were to enact
with their student during the weekly 30 min meetings. The first and third tasks
were adapted from the released items from the Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers (2014), and the second task was adapted from
the Smarter Balanced Consortium (2014). For the final meeting, the PSTs were
asked to select their own tasks. For the entire experience, the PSTs were instructed
they could modify the tasks as needed and make use of any additional resources.
We also asked them to develop a lesson plan based on the given task to guide their
weekly meeting with the EL.
We used qualitative methods in order to gain rich descriptions of the PSTs’ interac-
tions with the ELs (Patton, 2002). Prior to the start of the field experience, we admin-
istered a survey to each PST. For the present study, we used the survey data only to
understand the PSTs’ backgrounds and demographic information. The primary data
for this study were collected each week in a cycle. Prior to each meeting with the ELs,
the PSTs completed a lesson plan that detailed learning objectives, procedures,
planned modifications to the task, EL strategies, and assessments. For each field ses-
sion, the PSTs would then arrive before their student to participate in a pre-meeting
interview. During these interviews, we drew on the lesson plan data as we asked each
PST to discuss her planned instructional strategies in depth. We then video recorded
222 Z. de Araujo et al.

each meeting the PSTs had with the ELs and took field notes to note moments on
which to follow up on during the post-interview. The video-­recorded post interviews
were conducted with the PSTs immediately after each session with the ELs. These
interviews investigated the PSTs’ immediate reactions to the meeting, things she
would do differently if she could redo the session, and thoughts for subsequent meet-
ings. All video data were fully transcribed. Lastly, the PSTs wrote reflections follow-
ing each meeting that described what stood out to them from their session.
The analysis began with each member of the research team coding one of the
PST’s interview and meeting data. For this initial round of analysis, each researcher
coded instances in which the PSTs used or discussed planning to use the seven
aforementioned strategies from Chval and Chávez (2012). For example, when Fiona
told Jin during the first week’s meeting, “So I also have these cubes you can use
them if it can help you,” we coded this as including visual supports, which is one of
the seven strategies from Chval and Chávez (2012). We also used analytic memos to
note any additional strategies the PSTs employed.
Following this initial coding, we met as a team to finalize a list of codes to use in
subsequent iterations of analysis of the interview and meeting data. In this meeting,
we collapsed and refined the initial strategies identified by Chval and Chávez (2012)
in order to capture the instructional strategies the PSTs implemented. After consid-
ering only those strategies used during implementation and common across all
PSTs, four strategies emerged. Two of these strategies aligned with those described
by Chval and Chávez (2012)—includes visual supports and multiple modes of com-
munication. Two other strategies, presses for explanation and meaning and checks
for understanding, were not explicitly referenced in Chval and Chávez’s (2012)
work. We perceived these two strategies as more specific means through which the
PSTs sought to access and understand the ELs’ thinking than those described in the
literature. For example, checking for understanding is related to connecting lan-
guage with mathematical representations, discussing examples of students’ mathe-
matical writing, and creating a mathematically and linguistically rich environment.
However, the PSTs often checked for understanding simply to know if the EL
understood a term or phrase. Thus, we thought checking for understanding was a
clearer term for the strategy they employed.
Following this meeting, we recoded the data. For example, Kimberly planned
to use cutout pictures of vans, buses, and cars for a task about a class field trip to a
zoo as manipulatives with her student, Kyeong-Tae, to help him understand the
context and as a way to communicate his thinking. We coded this as includes
visual supports because Kimberly provided the manipulatives as a form of visual
support so that Kyeong-Tae could understand the task context. We also coded this
as allowing for multiple modes of communication because she provided the manip-
ulatives so that Kyeong-Tae could use them to show his thinking in addition to his
oral explanation. Two coders worked to code each data source independently and
then met to resolve any disagreements. In the following section, we discuss the
four strategies that most commonly occurred in all four of the PSTs’ data sets to
better understand which strategies they used and how they facilitated ELs’ engage-
ment in the tasks.
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 223

Findings

Each of the PSTs employed a number of strategies, intentional and unintentional, to

facilitate engagement in the weekly tasks. In this section we first provide a summary
of the strategies enacted by the PSTs across all 4 weeks. Then, we provide two
vignettes that exemplify the use of these strategies.

Common Strategies

Although each PST’s use of strategies varied, four strategies—using multiple modes
of communication, including visual supports, pressing for explanations and mean-
ings, and checking for understanding—were frequently employed across all four
weeks by the PSTs. This section describes these strategies and details the ways in
which they were employed.
Multiple Modes of Communication  The PSTs thought ELs would find it chal-
lenging to explain their mathematical thinking in English. As a result, the PSTs
encouraged students to use other modes to communicate. We defined the use of
multiple modes of communication as teacher actions that encouraged/allowed stu-
dents to communicate meaning and thinking in modes other than spoken English.
More specifically, we included writing, drawing, gesturing, manipulating, and/or
using a first language (Chval & Chávez, 2012). Although the PSTs discussed the
utility of such modes, they typically did not plan for this strategy. Rather, the
PSTs typically encouraged the ELs to use an alternative form of communication
in the moment when students appeared to face challenges communicating their
thinking in English.
Aside from speaking, writing and drawing were the most common modes encour-
aged by the PSTs. The PSTs perceived writing as a way to not only communicate
explanations, strategies, and thinking but to also scaffold language development.
Although the PSTs shared this view, they encouraged ELs’ use of multiple modes
of communication in different ways. For example, in week 3 Hannah assured Hwa-­
Young, who was hesitant to respond, to “go ahead write on the paper.” This encour-
aged Hwa-Young to respond, seemingly in a way she felt more comfortable. This
prompt also avoided leading Hwa-Young toward a particular strategy and main-
tained the task’s requirement for strategic reasoning and to explain one’s thinking.
Hannah’s use of the strategy contrasted with Fiona’s. During week 2, Fiona asked
Jin, “How can you write a sentence to explain how each stadium is compared to
each other? So are they all the same number? Is one stadium bigger than the other
stadium?” In spite of Fiona’s similar request to write, she also funneled Jin to a solu-
tion that ultimately lowered the task’s cognitive demand. Furthermore, Fiona’s
question asking Jin to “write a sentence” implies that he is to provide words on a
paper to explain his thinking. This seemed to lead him toward a particular mode of
communication. In contrast, Hannah’s request to “go ahead, write on the paper” did
224 Z. de Araujo et al.

not explicitly connect to words in the same way. Thus, in this way, the PSTs not only
funneled toward a solution strategy but also toward a particular mode of communi-
cation through which the students were to explain their use of the strategy.
The PSTs also described drawing as an effective means for their students to
explain their thinking. In week 3, Hannah asked Hwa-Young how she solved a
homework problem about “belly-button monsters.” Hwa-Young began writing
before hesitating and asking, “It’s creepy, but can I draw a picture?” Hannah assured
her, “Yes, of course.” In this case, the student suggested an alternate mode of com-
munication, which the PST supported. With this, Hannah gave power to her student
to communicate in a way she felt most comfortable. In the following week, Hannah
further encouraged Hwa-Young to use alternative modes of communication. She
provided markers and gave Hwa-Young options, stating, “scissors here, or you can
use these [markers] to draw. It’s up to you. Let’s split this [two brownies] between
me and you. How would you do that?” In response, Hwa-Young combined speech
and drawings to explain her thinking stating, “My whole is (draws a line).”
The PSTs also encouraged ELs’ use of gestures and manipulatives to communi-
cate mathematical thinking. For example, in week 3 Fiona’s partner, Jin, frequently
pointed to his written work to clarify his verbal explanation. The students com-
monly gestured in this way as they explained their thinking. Although unplanned,
these gestures appeared to aid the students and PSTs in developing a shared under-
standing of the students’ thinking. In less frequent instances, the PSTs encouraged
students to explain their thinking with manipulatives, even though some PSTs
hoped students would do this without prompting.
The PSTs’ use of multiple modes of communication enhanced ELs’ ability to
communicate their thinking. In some instances, the PSTs actively encouraged this
communication, while in other instances they accepted students’ decisions to use
writing, drawing, gesturing, and manipulatives to communicate. Interestingly, in
contrast to research recommendations (e.g., Moschkovich, 2002), none of the PSTs
drew on ELs’ first language. Furthermore, the PSTs’ use of these strategies was
largely unplanned, which contrasted with their planned use of visual supports, as
described in the next section.
Includes Visual Supports  Throughout the field experience, each of the PSTs
included visual supports in her lesson plans. We defined this strategy as the planned
use of concrete objects, videos, illustrations, or added emphasis (e.g., bolding,
color-coding). Whereas  the use of multiple modes of communication  was often
student-driven and enacted in real time, the  use of visual supports was  typically
teacher-driven and planned. Although the PSTs provided a variety of visual sup-
ports for the ELs, they most commonly used images or manipulatives.
Each of the PSTs added images to tasks. Frequently, the PSTs included pictures to
increase students’ understanding of the task contexts. Hannah, for example, included
images of American and Japanese desserts on the 4th week’s task to increase Hwa-
Young’s interest, engagement, and to provide a cultural connection. There were also
instances in which the PSTs included images as scaffolds for mathematical learning.
For instance, Morgan provided Ho-Min with a simplified shape in response to diffi-
culties he faced calculating the perimeter of the original shape. Morgan ultimately
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 225

took on the mathematical thinking of the task when she used her drawing to show
Ho-Min his mistake and how to correctly solve the problem. When the PSTs used
images in ways similar to Morgan, they lowered the cognitive demand of the task.
Each of the PSTs planned for the use of manipulatives at least once. These manip-
ulatives included items such as alien or vehicle cutouts and connecting cubes. The
PSTs intended for students to use these manipulatives during their exploration of the
problem. Although the PSTs had two main reasons for including visual supports—to
support students’ mathematical thinking and understanding of the task context—in
some cases, the PSTs (not the students) used manipulatives to demonstrate a certain
solution strategy, as in the following excerpt from Fiona’s second meeting.
Fiona: It’s impossible? Let’s work through this, Okay, because it’s possible. It’s
kind of confusing, I know. So, if I have (moves one of each 2, 3, and 4 eyed
cutouts of creatures into center of table), how many eyes do I have?
Jin: Nine eyes.
Throughout the lesson Fiona used the manipulatives in this way, which led to an
imposed solution strategy. Such occurrences were not unusual when the PSTs used
manipulatives.
Overall, the PSTs included visual supports to enhance their students’ mathemati-
cal thinking or understanding of the task. In many situations, however, we found
evidence that the PSTs used images or manipulatives to clarify or communicate
their own thinking and not to support the student’s mathematical work. Thus, the
PSTs seemed to be more proficient at using visuals as linguistic supports rather than
in support of mathematical understanding.
Presses for Explanation and Meaning  In an interview Fiona said, “I want to be
able to ask questions in a way that will help guide their thinking and not tell them
what their next step should be.” To accomplish this, she and the other PSTs regularly
pressed the ELs to explain their solution strategies and mathematical thinking. As
such, we defined this strategy as instances when the PST pressed the student for
explanations and/or meaning, which most commonly occurred via questions or
imperatives (e.g., “Explain what you mean by that” or “Tell me about how you fig-
ured that one out”). Throughout the field experience, we saw the PSTs use this
strategy to elicit student thinking with various degrees of success.
Most commonly, the PSTs asked students to justify their solution and/or provide
more details about their solution strategies. Hence, the PSTs’ implementation of
this strategy usually came after students finished or stopped their solving process.
There were several instances when the PSTs pressed their students for explanations
regarding the task context, though these instances were far less frequent. When
soliciting meaning from their students, the PSTs used various types of questions
ranging from general inquiries (e.g., “Why do you think so?” or “How did you find
out?”) to more specific ones (e.g., “Why did you decide to add these and not some-
thing else?” or “Where does the 12 come from?”). Other questions that were used
asked the meaning of the task statement, students’ current thinking, students’ plans
to solve the task, and students to think further.
226 Z. de Araujo et al.

When the PSTs pressed for explanation and meaning it generally provided stu-
dents with greater opportunities to communicate or think more deeply about their
solutions. This, however, was not always the case, as seen in the following excerpt.
Kimberly: Okay. (Kyeong-Tae writes) Okay, how did you find that?
Kyeong-Tae: Mm, (long pause) I don’t know. I just found.
Kimberly: Yeah, well I saw you do it, and I was thinking about how I would
have done that in my head, so I saw what you did, first was you
found the two-eyed creatures right? And you found five of those and
that gives you how many eyes?
In the first line, Kimberly asked Kyeong-Tae to explain his strategy; however, he
was unable to formulate a response after a long pause. Unfortunately, Kimberly did
not use guiding questions or scaffolding to facilitate the challenges Kyeong-Tae
faced. Instead, she provided her interpretation of his work, which resulted in her
taking on much of the thinking.
The PSTs’ use of this strategy evidenced their attention to the core teaching prac-
tice of eliciting students’ mathematical thinking, a strategy that was addressed in
their mathematics methods course. When the PSTs pressed for explanations after
the students arrived at a solution, the PSTs were typically able to hold them account-
able for their mathematical thinking. There were several instances, however, as in
Kimberly’s excerpt above, where this strategy did not support students’ mathemati-
cal thinking or hold them accountable to the task. This led to the PSTs suggesting
specific solutions or moving to another task without further discussion.
Checks for Understanding  While pressing for explanation and meaning occurred
after the ELs had begun working on a task, the PSTs often checked for understand-
ing immediately after presenting a task. We defined this strategy as instances when
a PST checked whether a student understood the problem, context, word, or phrase
(e.g., asking if there are words they don’t know). Prior to meeting the ELs, the
PSTs expressed interest in knowing more about their students’ mathematical abili-
ties and culture so they could anticipate potential challenges or better align the
tasks with the students’ culture. Fiona said, “I want to know as much about my EL
student’s culture and home life as possible before I start working with them. I
believe this will allow for fewer barriers to be created.” The PSTs thought that
knowing more about their students’ previous mathematical and linguistic knowl-
edge, experiences, and abilities would help them as they tried to enact tasks that
may include new ideas or contexts.
Each of the PSTs frequently checked the ELs’ understanding during task imple-
mentation, usually after the PSTs presented the student with the task. Kimberly, for
example, gave Kyeong-Tae a task about space creatures in week 2 and said, “Okay,
well this is the first one that I put together for you. And I want you to read it before
anything else. ((very short pause)) Okay, are there any words on there that you don’t
know?” Asking whether there were unfamiliar words in a task was a common way
in which the PSTs checked for understanding.
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 227

When a student did express difficulties with unfamiliar language or mathemati-

cal concepts, the PSTs often attempted to make connections to the student’s prior
knowledge or past experiences. For example, when Ho-Min did not readily under-
stand a problem concerning empty seats on a bus in week 1, Morgan asked, “Do
you ride a bus to school? Is there ever any seat, no one sitting on the bus? Or is it
already full?” Similarly, during week 4 when Kimberly asked Kyeong-Tae, “Okay,
so the first thing I wanted to talk to you about was what do you know about cir-
cles?” In this latter example, Kimberly not only checked for knowledge of vocab-
ulary related to the mathematical topic, such as radius and circumference, but she
also probed for Kyeong-Tae’s understanding of pi’s relationship to these features.
Such uses intended to increase access to the task and determine aspects for which
pre-­instruction or clarification was needed.
Strategies to facilitate language development were commonly employed among
the PSTs after checking for understanding. We found few situations where the PSTs
provided mathematical support after checking for understanding. As such, this strat-
egy was primarily used to check for language and contextual understanding, not
mathematical understanding. This resulted in the PSTs missing opportunities to
support students’ mathematical thinking.

Illustrative Vignettes

In this section we provide two vignettes that illustrate the PSTs’ use of the afore-
mentioned strategies. Each vignette draws from the PSTs’ second meeting with
their student where they enacted the Space Creatures Task (Fig. 14.2). We focused
on this meeting because it best evidenced the variety of instructional strategies the
PSTs employed to support ELs’ mathematical learning.
Morgan  Morgan heavily modified the written task by including visuals. The most
noticeable change was the addition of pictures of space creatures, which she ges-
tured to as she read the task aloud. Morgan explained her reasons for the pictures,

I created like a little chart with little space creatures. And so I say space creatures in each
one and each one says, like, what’s in here [the text] is put right here [the picture] so that he
can connect it [word] with it [image]. And since the eyes are really important and it talks
about eyes, I made sure to like box them and write like “eyes” so you can talk about that and
make sure he understands.

Morgan color-coded relevant text to match the pictures of the space creatures
(Fig. 14.2). Her modifications also included color-coded answer blanks as further
visual support for Ho-Min. She made these modifications to provide Ho-Min with
visual resources to support his understanding of the task’s language and context. She
drew on these visual resources heavily by gesturing and referencing them through-
out the enactment. Morgan seemed to have found value in this strategy as evidenced
by her continued use of it in subsequent meetings. It should also be noted that her
228 Z. de Araujo et al.

Fig. 14.2  Morgan’s modified Space Creatures Task

inclusion of the color-coded answer spaces suggested a particular solution path (and
an incorrect use of the equal sign). The blanks led Ho-Min to identify two numbers
that, when paired with the factors 2 and 3, resulted in products that summed to 24.
Before Ho-Min began the task, Morgan rephrased the problem and gave him an
example of how to combine groups of space creatures. Such practices were emblem-
atic of Morgan’s approach to set up a task and to check for Ho-Min’s understanding
of the task.
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 229

Fig. 14.3  An excerpt of Ho-Min’s work on the Space Creatures Task

They want to come altogether to make twenty-four eyes. So, if you have to include only
two-eyed and three-eyed creatures, how many different ways, how many different ways
could you put them together to have twenty-four total eyes? So you could do, you could
have, a couple, you could have two of these [two-eyed] creatures have four eyes together,
right? Because two plus two is four? Does that make sense?

When Ho-Min did not respond, Morgan continued to provide more examples and
check his understanding, “What if you had two of these [three-eyed] creatures, how
many eyes would you have? If you had two [more] of these [three-eyed creatures]?”
Ho-Min responded with “three times four,” and Morgan excitedly praised him
before providing additional examples. It was only after some iterations of this ques-
tioning pattern that she revisited the task question and asked, “How many eyes do
you have to put together to make twenty-four [eyes]?” Given Ho-Min’s reservations
to speak and Morgan’s insufficient wait time, she often asked numerous follow-up
questions to check for understanding before Ho-Min began writing.
Ho-Min’s quietness encouraged Morgan to offer alternative modes of communi-
cation, which often entailed a written explanation in lieu of a spoken one. For
instance, when Morgan asked how Ho-Min reached a solution of eight three-eyed
space creatures, he wrote the number sentence 8 × 3 = 24 (Fig. 14.3) to explain his
thinking. Often, Morgan would ask him what the various numbers in such equations
referred to, and Ho-Min would point to the given pictures. Communicating through
gestures helped Morgan to better understand Ho-Min’s thinking.
Morgan frequently pressed Ho-Min to explain his thinking. She asked many ques-
tions in an effort to better understand his solution strategies during their meetings.
Many of these interactions were similar to the transcript following Fig. 14.3.
Morgan: How’d you do that?
Ho-Min: (writes multiplication problems and number sentences)
Morgan: Okay, yeah. So you did two times three? And so where does, where did
those numbers come from? Where?
Ho-Min: Two.
Morgan: Two? Mhmm. Which one, what’s that two stand for?
Ho-Min: Two monster. (Indicates picture see Fig. 14.2)
Morgan: Two monsters? With how many eyes?
Ho-Min: Three eyes.
Morgan: With three eyes, okay. So you have, so what’s the six down here mean?
Ho-Min: Six?
Morgan: Mhmm, what’s the six stand for?
Ho-Min: Uh. Two monster eyes.
230 Z. de Araujo et al.

Morgan: Okay, yeah, so altogether it’s six eyes?

Ho-Min: Yes.
Morgan: Okay. And then, you did 24 minus 6?
Ho-Min: Yes.
Morgan: Yeah? And you got 18 so what is, what’s 18? What does that stand for?
Ho-Min: Twenty-four.
Morgan: Are those monsters or eyes?
Ho-Min: Eyes.
Morgan: They’re eyes? Okay. And then you divided by two. So why’d you divide
by two?
Ho-Min: Uh, this monster, eyes.
Morgan: Okay, so divide by the number of eyes he has? And so then, what does
that, what does that answer give you? Nine…
Ho-Min: Monsters.
Morgan: Nine of these monsters? Very good
As evidenced above, many of Morgan’s questions sought to clarify his written
work; however, they often required brief responses rather than discussions of his
solution strategy. In most cases, Morgan gained an understanding of Ho-Min’s
strategy. In others, she struggled to grasp his solution strategy and ceased her
solicitation efforts.
Morgan struggled to hold Ho-Min accountable for task directions that
requested he “explain his thinking” or “find all possibilities.” Although these
kinds of statements were emphasized throughout Morgan’s task (e.g., underlin-
ing the word “all”), Ho-Min was not often held accountable to these directions.
As a result, in the first problem of week 2, Ho-Min found only four of the five
possible solutions. This lack of accountability was also seen in subsequent weeks
when Ho-Min was not required to explain his thinking. The elimination of activi-
ties such as mathematical justifications, identification of patterns, and uncover-
ing all possible solutions led to differences between the original intent of the task
and its implementation.
Across all 4 weeks of the field experience, Morgan implemented the four instruc-
tional strategies. Her use of visual supports predominantly manifested through her
heavy use of color-coded images and bolded text. Because Ho-Min was hesitant to
speak, Morgan frequently checked for understanding and encouraged him to use
multiple modes of communication (i.e., write or gesture) in response to the many
questions she asked. Though she was often able to get Ho-Min to share his solution
strategies, she frequently abandoned mathematically and linguistically demanding
aspects of tasks, such as providing mathematical explanations. Thus, Ho-Min did
not fully engage in the task as intended. In the following section, we examine
Hannah’s work with Hwa-Young on the same task.
Hannah  Prior to meeting with Hwa-Young, Hannah did not modify the original
task’s language. She did, however, create an additional task to accompany the
original Space Creatures Task (Fig. 14.4). The purpose of this additional task was
to elucidate Hwa-Young’s strategies used to solve the original task and extend her
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 231

Fig. 14.4  Hannah’s question plan

thinking by creating her own task through the use of a “question plan.” Thus,
Hannah planned to first enact the original task and then use the question plan as
an extension, which she explained in the following excerpt.
Hannah: I just created it [the question plan]. And then, what I was thinking, hope-
fully by having her talk more about it, she will start to think about her own strate-
232 Z. de Araujo et al.

gies… We are going to do still like aliens, but she gets to pick body parts, and she
gets to pick the number of total body parts and starts off with same total of 24 eyes.
Then she gets to pick how many creatures or monsters or aliens—I think it’s space
creatures, yeah, creatures—that they are, and she gets to decide the number of body
parts each one has, so it has to be total 24 eyes. Then she can pick this one has only
one eye, two eyes, three eyes, four eyes.
Interviewer: So, this is all based on whatever questions you are going to do with,
so you’ll give it to her first to look at, and then after fill in top part
and this is kind of worksheet solving.
Hannah: This is what she gets to pick out of the number of eyes the creatures
have? Pick three; then you only need to go to three, and tell me three
and then she has to solve it based on the question she creates.
Interviewer: Oh, okay.
Hannah: Does that make sense?
Interviewer: So, she is making her own question?
Hannah: Yes.
Hannah began the session with a lengthy discussion of Hwa-Young’s day at
school. Following that conversation, Hannah began the original Space Creatures
Task by asking Hwa-Young to read the task line by line. As Hwa-Young read,
Hannah continually checked to see if she understood the task. When Hwa-Young
arrived at a word she could not read, such as creature, Hannah would explain what
the term meant, as illustrated in the transcript below.
Hannah: You know what that [creature] is?
Hwa-Young: Nope
Hannah: Okay. So, a creature is a broad term that covers multiple animals, so
it could be, do you know what a monster is?
Hwa-Young: Yes.
Hannah: Do you know what an alien is?
Hwa-Young: Alien?
Hannah: Like, UFO, like Ti-Yoong Ti-Yoong (makes sound of a UFO).
Hwa-Young: Oh, oh, I know.
Hannah: Okay, so monsters, aliens, bugs, animals, they are all considered
creatures.
Hwa-Young: Oh.
In this excerpt Hannah drew on multimodal communication, particularly sounds
and gestures, to provide Hwa-Young with additional information to understand the
term creature. Throughout the experience, Hannah regularly took time to check
Hwa-Young’s understanding of key terms and task contexts, which she followed up
with multimodal explanations as needed. For example, after explaining the terms,
space creatures, and combinations, she went on as follows:
Hannah: Did you understand what the question is asking you to do?
Hwa-Young: Hmmm
Hannah: So what is the question asking you to do?
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 233

Fig. 14.5  Hwa-Young’s written work on the Space Creatures Task

Hwa-Young: Like, 3-eyed space creatures and 2-eyed space creatures put together
and make 24 eyes. How many creatures are 24 eyes? I think?
Hannah: I think that’s an excellent way of thinking about it. So, now you
know what the strategy is that you have to do this type and that type.
Of the four PSTs, Hannah spent the most time on the task set up. Much of this
time was spent checking for understanding (as evidenced above) and pressing Hwa-­
Young to explain her thinking. Notably, these two strategies were employed prior to
Hwa-Young working to solve the task. Following the extensive set up, Hannah
encouraged Hwa-Young to try to solve the task.
Hannah also encouraged Hwa-Young to explain her thinking as she solved the
task by asking questions as Hwa-Young spoke. For example, in the following
exchange Hannah probed Hwa-Young to explain the written work she produced
in Fig. 14.5.
Hannah: If you had three [two-eyed creatures], how did you know there’s six
eyes?
Hwa-Young: Because this is two, this was three, and so I multiply three times
two because this is two.
Hannah: Can you show me that? How would you write that?
Hwa-Young: Three times two is six.
Hannah: And then you did what with this one?
Hwa-Young: Four times three is 12.
Hannah: And then what did you do?
Hwa-Young: And then, I, um, added 12 and 6, it was 18, and I subtract 24 minus
18, and it was 6.
In this excerpt, Hannah asked Hwa-Young to explain how she knew three space
creatures had six eyes. Although Hwa-Young explained aloud, Hannah encour-
aged her to also write, which was a common way she employed multiple modes
of communication, particularly when Hwa-Young faced difficulties solving a task.
In the excerpt above, Hwa-Young experienced challenges relaying her thinking,
and it appeared Hannah’s questions were intended to clarify the calculations Hwa-
234 Z. de Araujo et al.

Fig. 14.6 Hwa-Young’s
use of Hannah’s drawing
of 24 eyes

Young had already completed. This is evidenced by Hannah’s questions, such as

“and then what did you do?”
As the meeting went on, Hwa-Young had difficulty finding multiple solutions
to the task. In order to help her, Hannah drew 24 circles to represent the 24 eyes
(Fig. 14.6). This use of visuals was meant to support Hwa-Young’s mathemati-
cal understanding of the task. It also steered her to a particular strategy by
grouping “eyes.” Hwa-Young remarked that circling the eyes was “better than
thinking.” This suggested that she thought this strategy was easier than her origi-
nal attempts that relied on finding solutions by making combinations of multi-
ples of two and three.
Throughout the task, Hannah asked many questions and continually checked for
understanding as she pressed Hwa-Young to explain her thinking. Moreover, she
frequently encouraged her to write as an alternative way to communicate her think-
ing. Hannah also included supplemental tasks aimed to support Hwa-Young’s
understanding of the task language and context while helping her reflect on her
solution strategies.

Summary

Across the vignettes we see the two PSTs implemented all four strategies to support
their students. Both PSTs checked for understanding throughout the task, clarified
directions and/or concepts, and made use of visual supports. Morgan, for instance,
included images of space creatures and made use of color-coding and bolding to
highlight key features of the task, whereas Hannah provided a separate question
plan to guide Hwa-Young to reflect on her own thinking. In addition, although both
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 235

PSTs pressed for explanation and meaning in order to have their respective students
communicate their thinking, the frequency with which they did so varied.
Although each PST utilized the four common strategies, the way in which they
did so reflected the diversity of their respective ELs. Because Ho-Min was timid in
his meetings with Morgan, she regularly relied on visually oriented supports and
significantly altered the appearance of the task. She also encouraged Ho-Min to
utilize—almost exclusively—multiple modes of communication, particularly ges-
tures and writing. Hannah, however, generally implemented oral supports because
of Hwa-Young’s eagerness to talk. Although she did provide some visuals, Hannah
spent significant time explaining terms and pressing Hwa-Young to explain her
thinking. Such difference in strategy implementation was not unusual, given that
the PSTs responded to the ELs differently and adapted their instruction as they
saw appropriate.

Discussion

Our research was guided by the question: What instructional strategies do PSTs
enact when implementing cognitively demanding mathematics tasks with ELs?
Across the 4-week field experience, we found that the PSTs employed a number of
strategies in an attempt to facilitate their students’ mathematical learning. In particu-
lar, they made use of multiple modes of communication, included visual supports,
pressed for explanation and meaning, and checked for understanding. Our findings
suggest that the use of these strategies seemed to be driven by the interactions
between the PSTs and ELs during the field experience. This study’s findings are
consistent with prior studies that found PSTs can develop strategies to support ELs
during field experiences (e.g., Fernandes, 2012; Kasmer, 2013), but extends prior
work by identifying specific strategies the PSTs used and the  variety of ways in
which they were utilized. Furthermore, given the PSTs’ lack of experiences specifi-
cally focused on mathematics teaching of ELs in their teacher preparation program,
findings from this study provide insight into the strategies PSTs implement without
formal instruction or training on effective mathematics pedagogy for ELs.
To anticipate possible strategies the PSTs might enact, we drew on Chval and
Chávez’s (2012) summary of research-based instructional strategies for ELs. We
found that the PSTs drew on some of these strategies despite having no explicit
instruction related to the mathematics education of ELs. In particular, the PSTs’
included visuals and encouraged ELs’ to draw on multiple modes of communica-
tion. The PSTs also frequently employed two strategies not discussed by Chval and
Chávez (2012), but are often emphasized in the broader mathematics teacher educa-
tion literature (e.g., Jackson, Garrison, Wilson, Gibbons, & Shahan, 2013; National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014; Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver,
2009)—checking for understanding and pressing for explanation and meaning. We
did not find evidence, however, of other strategies specific to ELs, such as discuss-
ing students’ writing; recording key ideas, words, or concepts for later reference; or
236 Z. de Araujo et al.

attempts to foster an environment rife with language (Chval & Chávez, 2012).
Moreover, the strategies the PSTs employed were not used in conjunction with oth-
ers discussed by Chval and Chávez to further develop ELs’ mathematical and lan-
guage understandings. For example, the PSTs included visual supports but often did
not connect mathematical representations to language. Furthermore, the use of mul-
tiple modes of communication was in response to ELs’ language preferences and
facilitated discussion of their thinking, but the PSTs did not often discuss students’
writing or record key ideas and representations. Thus, we argue that the explicit
discussion of these strategies and their use with ELs would benefit PSTs’ ability to
effectively teach ELs. PSTs should have opportunities to enact these strategies with
ELs and be supported as they learn how the strategies can be used together in more
effective ways.
The PSTs’ use of strategies during the field experience was largely in response to
the ELs’ use of language. This was most evident through their implementation of
instructional strategies designed to facilitate student communication. Morgan, for
example, drew on multiple modes of communication for Ho-Min, who was reserved,
throughout the weeks. As a result, she and the other PSTs broadened the range of
acceptable forms of communication from spoken and written modes to include
drawings and gestures throughout the experience. We view this action from the
perspective of the PSTs in their role as the teacher in the interaction. From this per-
spective, the PSTs had the power to either accept or restrict different forms of com-
munication (Gutiérrez, 2013). Additionally, although these examples illustrate a
focus on ELs’ language, they also evidenced a view of English as a focal point,
rather than a way to bridge between languages. We saw no evidence of PSTs using
English to connect to the students’ first language and vice versa. Thus, the PSTs did
not draw on the students’ first language as a resource to facilitate learning, an
instructional strategy called for in literature (Chval & Chávez, 2012; Moschkovich,
2010). We hypothesize this stemmed from an immersion-focused mindset com-
bined with limited personal experiences learning another language and teaching
ELs. Without direct experience or concrete examples that illustrate how to draw on
a student’s first language, the PSTs might not employ such a strategy.
Furthermore, although the PSTs’ attention to linguistic supports was well inten-
tioned, it often resulted in the teachers taking on much of the mathematical thinking
or failing to consider different student mathematical conceptions. For instance, the
PSTs often removed directions that asked students to explain their thinking in order
to reduce the linguistic demands of the task. By doing so, however, the students were
not held accountable to engage in deep mathematical discourse, regardless of their
preferred mode of communication. Similarly, in week 3, all four PSTs spent substan-
tial time modifying the task language to increase linguistic access but failed to con-
sider how they would provide mathematical instructional support. As a result, each of
the PSTs had difficulty completing the task with the EL due to a mismatch between
the ELs’ and the PSTs’ understanding of rounding. This situation was further com-
pounded by a lack of common language to describe the mathematical concept (e.g.,
“round to” versus “round from”). These findings elucidate the challenges PSTs face
when discerning whether ELs are challenged by the mathematical or linguistic aspects
of the task. Moreover, these findings imply PSTs should be p­ rovided with guided
14  Preservice Teachers’ Strategies for Teaching Mathematics with English Learners 237

experiences that facilitate the development of mathematical and linguistic learning

goals for ELs while maintaining mathematical demands of tasks.
We did find some evidence that the PSTs intended to increase access to the math-
ematical content of the tasks. For example, they frequently checked students’ under-
standing of the task contexts and pressed students to explain their mathematical
thinking. Such strategies—while employed with good intentions—often did not
uphold the cognitive demand of the task. We also found some evidence of PSTs’
encouragement or support of students’ use of mathematical representations. In cases
where representations were used, however, they were often initiated and taken over by
the PST. In the few cases where a student initiated a mathematical representation, the
PSTs failed to effectively probe students’ thinking and the meaning of the model. As
a result, a shared mathematical meaning was not negotiated between the PST and EL,
although there were instances in which they later acknowledged not knowing what the
student intended. Such findings highlight the challenges that teachers face when elicit-
ing mathematical thinking from ELs and indicate that prior experience alone is insuf-
ficient to establish such skills. These findings suggest that PSTs need direct instruction
and guided experience to effectively support and elicit ELs’ mathematical thinking.
There are a number of possible reasons for why the PSTs did not use many of the
strategies advocated for by prior research. These reasons and our related findings
carry various implications for teachers and teacher educators. For instance, the
PSTs lacked formal instruction in pedagogical strategies for teaching mathematics
with ELs. This was evident when Fiona learned in the first week that Jin was unfa-
miliar with the term “strategy”; she avoided this term in subsequent weeks rather
than build his language. Her avoidance of the term ran counter to research (e.g.,
Khisty & Chval, 2002) that suggests teachers foster ELs’ language development. As
such, we argue that PSTs may benefit from instruction that highlights how to build
ELs’ academic language over time. For example, rather than avoiding unfamiliar
terms, teachers should facilitate the transition from students’ informal language to
the academic language of mathematics. In the example above, Fiona could have
initially connected “strategy” to phrases Jin may have known, such as way of getting
the answer, or to situations with which he may be familiar, such as playing a board
game. Then, over time, Fiona could signal how to reformulate informal to special-
ized language through her own talk and by encouraging Jin to use the specialized
terms. She could also continue to revisit this word as it comes up so that it becomes
part of Jin’s repertoire.
It is also important to note that the ELs in our study were at or above grade level
mathematically. ELs with different mathematical backgrounds may pose different
challenges to PSTs. Finally, it seemed plausible that the PSTs were noticing particu-
lar aspects of the ELs’ performance and utilizing strategies in response to those
noticings. Because the PSTs had not previously engaged in experiences aimed at
noticing ELs’ mathematical and linguistic resources, it is not surprising they were
not fully able to employ appropriate strategies for ELs. Teacher educators should
consider developing PSTs’ ability to notice and draw on student thinking in order to
drive their use of strategies to support ELs in developing their mathematical and
linguistic understandings.
238 Z. de Araujo et al.

Conclusion

Although we found that the PSTs’ use of strategies to accommodate ELs work on
cognitively demanding tasks was often insufficient to facilitate ELs’ mathematical
and linguistic learning, further development of these strategies in teacher prepara-
tion programs may enable future teachers to more effectively teach mathematics
with ELs. The use of visuals, affordances for multiple modes of communication,
frequent pressing for explanation and meaning, and checking for understanding
were powerful tools when enacted effectively. Teacher educators should build on
PSTs’ use of these strategies and extend their repertoire to include other research-­
based strategies as they find avenues to remove language obstacles while maintain-
ing the cognitive demand of mathematics tasks and eliciting ELs’ mathematical
thinking. Explicit instruction in, reflection on, and authentic experiences with the
enactment of such strategies with ELs could help PSTs more effectively use their
knowledge and skills to facilitate the development and extension of ELs’ mathe-
matical and linguistic understandings.

Acknowledgments  We would like to thank the PSTs and students for participating in this study.
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the North American
Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education in East Lansing,
MI (de Araujo, I, Smith, & Sakow, 2015).

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Chapter 15
“How I Want to Teach the Lesson”:
Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical
Knowledge Bases in the Analysis
and Adaptation of Existing Curriculum
Materials

Frances K. Harper, Corey Drake, Tonya Gau Bartell, and Eduardo Najarro

Abstract  We consider how prospective elementary teachers think about multiple

mathematical knowledge bases as they consider adapting existing mathematics cur-
riculum materials to meet the needs of culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomi-
cally diverse students. Multiple mathematical knowledge bases include both
children’s mathematical thinking and the cultural-, home-, and community-based
funds of knowledge that children inevitably bring into the classroom. We explored
how prospective elementary teachers attended to multiple mathematical knowledge
bases as they used a lesson analysis tool, the Curriculum Spaces Table, to evaluate
existing curriculum materials and identify spaces for adapting these curriculum
materials to more efficiently meet the needs of all students. Our analysis examined
47 written reflections on the analysis of and adaptations for a Grade 3 lesson.
Findings showed that prospective teachers paid considerable attention to children’s
mathematical thinking and gave some attention to funds of knowledge, but they
considered these knowledge bases largely in isolation of each other. Attention to
integrating children’s mathematical thinking with funds of knowledge was rare.
Nonetheless, prospective teachers overwhelmingly found the Curriculum Spaces
Table useful for analyzing an existing lesson and identifying spaces for adaptations
to more effectively build on children’s mathematical knowledge bases. Thus, we
argue that a lesson analysis tool that draws attention to multiple mathematical
knowledge bases offers a promising start for prospective elementary teachers’
development of pedagogical practices that integrate children’s mathematical think-
ing with diverse cultural-, home-, and community-based funds of knowledge.

F. K. Harper (*)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
C. Drake · T. G. Bartell · E. Najarro
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 241

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_15
242 F. K. Harper et al.

Introduction

Increasingly, mathematics teacher educators and researchers are attending to how

the cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic positionality of students impacts their
mathematics learning (Zevenbergen, 2001). Such research suggests that historically
underrepresented groups of students in mathematics benefit from instruction that
builds on children’s approaches to problem-solving and thinking about school-­
based mathematics (e.g., Fennema, Franke, Carpenter, & Carey, 1993; Villaseñor &
Kepner, 1993) and pedagogy that draws on their cultural-, linguistic-, and
community-­based knowledge to support mathematics learning (e.g., Howard, 2001;
Kisker et  al., 2012; Ladson-Billings, 2009). Despite the promise of drawing on
home- and community-based knowledge, a focus on children’s mathematical think-
ing (e.g., problem types, solution strategies, etc.; Carpenter, Fennema, Peterson,
Chiang, & Loef, 1989) overshadows considerations of students’ cultural, linguistic,
and socioeconomic positionality in mathematics teacher education (Aguirre et al.,
2012). The failure to balance attention to children’s home- and community-based
knowledge with a focus on school-based mathematical thinking leaves prospective
teachers (PSTs)  – majority of white, female, and middle class  – ill-equipped to
effectively teach a racially, culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse
student population (Sleeter & Milner, 2011).
In response, the Teachers Empowered to Advance Change in Mathematics
(TEACH Math) project aimed to transform elementary mathematics teacher prep-
aration to equip new generations of teachers with powerful tools and strategies to
increase student learning in mathematics in our nation’s increasingly diverse pub-
lic schools (http://teachmath.info/about/). More specifically, the project sought to
foster equity in mathematics education by preparing PSTs to integrate children’s
school-based mathematical thinking and children’s home- and community-based
knowledge. In this chapter, we look closely at one aspect of mathematics teaching
practice addressed by the project – analyzing and adapting mathematics curricu-
lum – to understand how PSTs made sense of attending to the needs of histori-
cally underrepresented populations by integrating school-based and home- and
community-­ based sources of mathematics knowledge and resources for
learning.

Background of the Study

The study presented in this chapter was part of the larger TEACH Math project,
which aimed to transform elementary mathematics teacher preparation to ensure
PSTs’ readiness to work with racially, culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomi-
cally diverse student populations. To do so, project members developed and itera-
tively refined three instructional modules for elementary mathematics methods
courses designed to explicitly build teacher competencies necessary for effective
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 243

mathematics teaching with diverse students. In this section, we describe the research
and theoretical basis for the development of the three instructional modules and give
an overview of each module.

Theorizing Multiple Mathematical Knowledge Bases

Children’s Mathematical Thinking and Funds of Knowledge  Theoretical per-

spectives from two strands of research on elementary mathematics teaching and
learning guided the development and refinement of modules for elementary math-
ematics teacher preparation: (1) mathematics instruction guided by children’s math-
ematical thinking and (2) mathematics instruction guided by children’s cultural-,
linguistic-, and community-based knowledge. First, the extensive body of research
on mathematics instruction that centers children’s mathematical thinking (e.g.,
Cognitively Guided Instruction, Carpenter et al., 1989) provided a basis for devel-
oping PSTs’ knowledge of children’s mathematical thinking in ways that change
teacher beliefs and shape classroom practices. Second, research that illuminates the
benefits of drawing upon the cultural-, linguistic-, and community-based knowledge
of historically underrepresented groups (e.g., Ladson-Billings, 2009; Turner,
Celedón-Pattichis, & Marshall, 2008) guided PSTs’ development of leveraging
home- and community-based knowledge in mathematics instruction. In particular,
module developers drew on the theory of funds of knowledge (FoK) for teaching.
FoK refer to the “historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of
knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-­
being” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992, p. 133). Using students’ FoK for
mathematics teaching means that classroom instruction utilizes the cultural, linguis-
tic, and cognitive resources from home or community settings to promote students’
learning of the school mathematics curriculum (Moll et al., 1992).

Multiple Mathematical Knowledge Bases  These two strands of theory and

research complement each other because they both focus on centering children’s
knowledge/thinking as resources for mathematics learning; however, one approach
(children’s mathematical thinking) prioritizes school-based problem-solving strate-
gies and thinking, whereas the other (FoK) prioritizes out-of-school experiences
and ways of knowing. Although both strands of research are well developed and
complementary, the foci on children’s mathematical thinking and FoK remain dis-
connected in mathematics teacher education. The TEACH Math project sought to
bridge these two bodies of research by guiding preK-8 PSTs to utilize both chil-
dren’s mathematical thinking and community and cultural FoK in mathematics
instruction. To do so, across three instructional modules in mathematics methods,
PSTs’ develop knowledge, beliefs, and dispositions specifically for supporting
mathematics learning by leveraging multiple mathematical knowledge bases
(MMKB) – the integration of children’s mathematical thinking and children’s FoK
(Aguirre et al., 2012). By theorizing the MMKB construct and making this construct
244 F. K. Harper et al.

central across the three instructional modules, TEACH Math module developers
hoped to balance the emphasis on children’s school-based and out-of-school knowl-
edge, thinking, and experiences as critical pieces in effective mathematics teaching
for diverse student populations.

Instructional Modules for Elementary Mathematics Methods

With the goal of learning to leverage MMKB in mathematics instruction, PSTs’

develop various competencies related to mathematics, children’s mathematical
thinking, and community and cultural FoK across three modules: (1) Case Study
Module, (2) Community Exploration Module, and (3) Classroom Practices Module.
In the Case Study Module, PSTs work with a case study student throughout the
elementary mathematics methods course to expand their thinking about children as
mathematics learners and to focus on student learning and identity. The Community
Exploration Module gives PSTs an opportunity to visit and learn about local com-
munities in order to design a mathematics lesson around community-based mathe-
matical practices. Finally, the Classroom Practices Module guides PSTs to think
about MMKB as they analyze video cases, lesson plans/curriculum, and their own
teaching (for more information about each module, see http://teachmath.info).
Although PSTs explore a range of mathematics teaching practices across the three
modules, developing lesson plans to integrate MMKB receives considerable atten-
tion. The study described in this chapter focused on one core teaching practice
related to planning for mathematics instruction: analyzing and adapting curriculum
materials to integrate MMKB. Namely, we focused on one specific activity within
the Classroom Practices Module to investigate how PSTs framed the idea of draw-
ing on MMKB, specifically for historically underrepresented student groups, in the
context of adapting existing curriculum materials.

Methods

Research for the TEACH Math project occurred at six university sites across the
United States, with data on PSTs’ work in all three modules collected from elemen-
tary mathematics methods courses at each of these sites. For this study, we analyzed
data collected at one university site, a large university in the Midwest located near a
small city with an increasingly diverse population. In this analysis, we used data
collected from two K-5 mathematics methods courses at this university, each taught
by a different co-principal investigator (PI). To investigate how PSTs framed the
idea of drawing on MMKB in the context of adapting curriculum materials, we col-
lected and analyzed PSTs’ written reflections from one activity  – Analyzing
Curriculum Spaces – within the Classroom Practices Module. This activity is one of
four in the Classroom Practices Module in which PSTs learn to analyze classroom
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 245

practices through four lenses: (1) teaching, (2) learning, (3) task, and (4) power and
participation. In this section, we describe the activity, our data sources, and data
analysis.

Analyzing Curriculum Spaces Activity and Data Sources

In the Analyzing Curriculum Spaces activity, PSTs analyzed a lesson, Stickers: A

Base-Ten Mode, from an existing Grade 3 mathematics curriculum, Investigations
in Number, Data, and Space (TERC, 2008, pp. 26–33), to identify opportunities for
accessing, building on, and integrating children’s mathematical thinking and chil-
dren’s home- and community-based mathematical FoK (i.e., MMKB). This lesson
focused on addition of two-digit numbers with attention to recognizing and repre-
senting the place value of each digit using multiple representations (e.g., singles and
strips of 10; 100 chart; equations). PSTs analyzed the lesson with the goal of iden-
tifying opportunities for minor, feasible adjustments to existing curriculum materi-
als; we refer to places in the curriculum where teachers can make these types of
small adjustments as curriculum spaces (Drake et al., 2015). PSTs use a tool, the
Curriculum Spaces Table, designed by the co-PIs, to facilitate their identification of
curriculum spaces and to guide their adaptations of curriculum materials that create
spaces for eliciting and building on children’s MMKB (see http://teachmath.info/
modules/classroom-practices-module/activity_2/ for a full description of the activ-
ity and for the full version of the Curriculum Spaces Table).
The Curriculum Spaces Table has three sections. In the first section, PSTs iden-
tify the central mathematical goal or ideas of the lesson. In the second section, they
answer questions about the different phases of the lesson (i.e., launch, explore, sum-
marize) and lesson peripheries (i.e., notes in the margin of the teacher’s edition): (1)
What makes the task(s) in each phase good and/or problematic? Consider multiple
entry points, representation uses, level of cognitive demand, language supports, and
alignment with lesson goal(s). (2) What are opportunities for activating or connect-
ing to family/cultural/community knowledge in each phase of the lesson? (3) How
does each phase of the lesson open spaces for making real-world connections? Do
students have opportunities to make their own connections? (4) What are opportuni-
ties for students to make sense of the mathematics and develop/use their own solu-
tion strategies and approaches? (5) What kinds of spaces exist for children to share
and discuss their mathematical thinking with the teacher and the class? How does
the lesson create opportunities for students with varied mathematical and linguistic
backgrounds and confidences to communicate their mathematical understanding?
(6) Where does the mathematical authority reside in the lesson (e.g., only with
teacher, only with textbook, only a few students, shared among teacher and stu-
dents)? In the final section, PSTs propose possible adaptations, based on their les-
son analysis, for each lesson phase and the overall lesson.
Data for this study included 47 written reflections by PSTs’ on their lesson
analysis and use of the Curriculum Spaces Table. In their reflections, PSTs dis-
246 F. K. Harper et al.

cussed (1) strengths and limitations of the lesson, (2) spaces they identified for
eliciting and building on children’s MMKB, and (3) the ways in which using the
Curriculum Spaces Table aided in their analysis. As an added source of validity,
two authors collaboratively analyzed the same lesson using the Curriculum Spaces
Table analysis tool.

Research Questions and Data Analysis

In our analysis of PSTs’ reflections, we sought to understand how PSTs framed the
idea of drawing on MMKB, specifically for historically underrepresented student
groups, in the context of adapting curriculum materials through three research ques-
tions: (1) What features of the curriculum did PSTs attend to when thinking about
making adaptations to draw on MMKB? How did PSTs evaluate those features? (2)
How did PSTs draw on their personal experiences and general beliefs about math-
ematics teaching when thinking about adapting curriculum for MMKB? (3) How
did PSTs find the Curriculum Spaces Table, a lesson analysis tool, useful for identi-
fying possible adaptations for drawing on MMKB?
The first and fourth authors analyzed the written reflections through an iterative
coding process. We began coding separately, analyzing two of the written reflec-
tions and noting themes. We compared our initial impressions and used the themes
to develop an initial codebook, and we continued coding separately, comparing
analyses, and revising the codebook until we produced a final (seventh) version of
the codebook. Throughout our development of the codebook, we continually looked
for confirming and disconfirming evidence of the identified themes (Erickson,
1986).
Using the final version, we coded the remaining written reflections together, dis-
cussing discrepancies and reaching consensus on coding. Written reflections were
coded at the paragraph level (as denoted by the participant or roughly 10–15 lines)
because surrounding sentences provided important context for inferring meaning.
We assigned codes in four streams, which we describe in more detail here.
Coding Stream 1: Content  We used the codes defined in Fig.  15.1 to identify
major themes related to the content of PSTs’ written reflections. These themes pro-
vided evidence of the features of the curriculum PSTs attended to when thinking
about making adaptations to draw on MMKB (first part of RQ1). Codes in the first
stream (Fig.  15.1) served as the primary codes for analysis, meaning that these
codes were exhaustive (i.e., every paragraph received at least one code from the first
stream), and codes could stand independently (i.e., were not necessarily associated
with codes from the other streams). Codes were not mutually exclusive; in other
words, paragraphs could (and often did) receive multiple codes from the first stream.

Coding Stream 2: Evaluation  We created a second coding stream to identify

themes related to PSTs’ evaluation of the curriculum. This coding stream reflected
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 247

Primary Definition Subthemes & Definitions (if applicable)

Theme
Mathematical Aspects of the Sense making: Opportunities for mathematical
features lesson/teaching sense making through the use of manipulatives
access, built /visual aids, multiple representations, or
on, or integrate multiple strategies for solving problems
children’s
mathematical Cognitive demand: Higher-order thinking
thinking. (e.g., using procedures with connection to
meaning) or lower-order thinking (e.g.,
memorization) (see Henningsen & Stein,
1997)
Learning goals: Objectives for mathematics
learning
Mathematical Aspects of the lesson/teaching provided opportunities for
talk students to explain or justify mathematical work or thinking in
small groups (with/without teacher facilitation) or whole class
(with teacher facilitation of discussion; see Smith & Stein,
2011). Teacher may make use of explanations/justification for
formative assessment (i.e., eliciting student thinking for
evaluative purposes to inform instruction).
Mathematical Aspects of the lesson/teaching are primarily directed by the
authority teacher (e.g., teacher takes the lead in talking about
mathematics) or primarily centered around student thinking or
ideas with minimal direction from the teacher (e.g.,
participation-structure facilitates student engagement and
discussion without direct teacher supervision).
Learning Aspects of the General Learning Supports: Considerations
supports lesson/teaching that will arise in essentially every classroom
provide setting, including scaffolding (i.e. gradually
supports to decreasing the need for learning aids as
facilitate students’ comfort with language, concepts, etc.
student increases); teacher questioning (i.e. various
learning of forms of questioning recognized to support
mathematical learning (e.g., Boaler & Brodie, 2004)); or
content differentiation (i.e. individualized adaptations
of lessons/tasks); no reference to FoK
Learning Supports for Diverse Learners: give
diverse learners access to the mathematical
content; particularly impo rtant when the class
included culturally and linguistically diverse
students or special education students; may or
may not reference FoK.
Prior Aspects of the School-Based Knowledge: Prior knowledge
knowledge lesson/teaching that arose in a school-based setting.
are relevant to Funds of Knowledge: Prior knowledge that
the students’ arose from community/family/cultural
prior knowledge or experiences.
knowledge. Not-Specified: Source of prior knowledge is
not specified
Motivation Aspects of the lesson/teaching are relevant or familiar to
students for the purpose of engaging or motivating students.

Fig. 15.1  Coding stream 1 summary. This figure provides an overview of coding themes and their
definitions for analysis of the content of written reflections
248 F. K. Harper et al.

Primary Definition Subthemes & Definitions (if applicable)

Theme

Strength PSTs evaluated some aspect of the lesson/teaching as strong.

Weakness PSTs evaluated Too little – Weakness or limitation resulted

some aspect of from too little of an aspect (e.g., too little
the lesson/ support for diverse learners)
teaching as
weak or limited. Too much – Weakness or limitation resulted
from too much of an aspect (e.g., too much
explaining/telling by the teacher)

Curriculum PSTs identified an aspect of the lesson/teaching where the

Space curriculum could be adapted. This code was used both when the
PT made a specific adaptation suggestion (e.g., I would let the
students try the problem on their own first.) or when the PT
talked more generally about spaces in the curriculum (e.g., The
lesson needs to be adapted for English Language Learners
(ELLs).)

Fig. 15.2  Coding stream 2 summary. This figure provides an overview of coding themes and their
definitions for analysis of PSTs’ evaluation of the lesson

three major themes in PSTs’ analyses: (1) strength, (2) weakness, and (3) c­ urriculum
space (i.e., space in the curriculum materials for minor/feasible adaptations)
(Fig.  15.2). Coding in this stream allowed us to examine whether PSTs framed
aspects of the lesson as strong/weak and/or curriculum spaces (second part of
research question 1). We linked codes in the second stream directly to codes in the
first stream so that we could determine which specific aspects of the lesson/teaching
PSTs evaluated in their analysis (i.e., second stream codes only occurred when they
were associated with first stream codes). For example, sometimes PSTs discussed
ways in which the lesson provided learning supports, and they clearly identified
those learning supports as strengths of the lesson. Such a paragraph would receive a
“learning supports (first stream)-strength (second stream)” code. When PSTs did
not clearly evaluate lesson aspects as a strength/weakness or a curriculum space, we
did not use the second coding stream. Codes in the stream were not mutually exclu-
sive because some paragraphs included a discussion of both strengths and weak-
nesses of the same aspect of the lesson and because spaces for adaptations were
generally identified alongside weaknesses.

Coding Stream 3: Context  In order to answer the second research question, we

created a third coding stream to identify what contexts, outside of the lesson plan
itself (the default context), PSTs drew on as they reflected on the curriculum analy-
sis and/or suggested adaptations. Third stream codes were independent of previous
coding streams, but they were not exhaustive. In the absence of a third-level code,
we inferred the PSTs’ reflection was grounded in the analysis of the specific lesson.
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 249

The third coding stream contained two codes: (1) personal experience and (2)
general.
When PSTs discussed their personal experiences as mathematics learners or as
PSTs in their field placement classrooms, we added the “personal experience” code
to the paragraph. For example, “I know in my placement, the students love going up
to the board to do the problem in front of the class,” indicated the PST was drawing
on personal experience in their reflection. We also identified instances when PSTs
made more general statements about mathematics teaching and/or learning, which
we interpreted as representing their general beliefs about mathematics teaching and
learning. For example:
Every student learns differently…it is very important to understand that elementary school
students can get confused very easily. So when a topic is presented to the class, the teacher
needs to recognize and be aware of how the students are responding so he/she can adapt the
lesson to the class.

Such statements were marked by the “general” code at the paragraph level. As pre-
viously, codes in the third stream were not mutually exclusive because PSTs could
reference both their personal experience and general beliefs in the same paragraph.
Coding Stream 4: Utility  In order to answer the third research question, we cre-
ated a fourth coding stream to indicate when PSTs discussed their use of the
Curriculum Spaces Table analysis tool. We coded paragraphs in which the PSTs
described their use of the table using the code “utility.” We identified paragraphs in
which PSTs indicated that they found the table useful for their analysis (i.e., coded
“utility-yes”) and instances in which PSTs indicated that they did not find the table
useful (i.e., coded “utility-no”). In these instances, fourth stream codes could occur
independently of the other streams, but they were not necessarily mutually exclu-
sive because some PSTs stated they found the analysis tool useful for some parts of
the curriculum analysis but not for others. When possible, we linked fourth stream
codes to the first and second coding stream. For example, if a PST described how
they used the table to identify the learning goals for the lesson and stated that using
the table helped them recognize that the learning goals aligned with the lesson, the
paragraph received a “learning goals (first stream)-strength (second stream)-utility-­
yes (fourth stream)” code.

Analysis and Synthesis  When coding was complete, we analyzed raw data (i.e.,
coded excerpts) and synthesized across written reflections to identify themes. First,
we calculated the total frequency of each code for all four streams. Next, we created
several tables to show code co-occurrence across streams. We examined which
codes from the first stream (i.e., content codes) occurred most frequently alongside
codes from the second, third, and fourth coding streams, and we considered the
code co-occurrence of first stream codes with other first stream codes within the
same paragraph. Finally, we investigated individual differences in PSTs’ reflections
for major themes by determining how many PSTs’ attended to those themes in their
reflections.
250 F. K. Harper et al.

Findings

In this section, we share the major themes that emerged across the written reflec-
tions. We divided these themes into three categories based on our three research
questions: (1) attention to and evaluation/adaption of lesson features, (2) influence
of personal experiences and general beliefs about mathematics teaching, and (3)
utility of the Curriculum Spaces Table analysis tool.

Attention to and Evaluation/Adaptation of Lesson Features

Overall, we found that PSTs generally paid attention to children’s mathematical

thinking and FoK separately in their analyses of the lesson and in their suggestions
of adaptations. Attention to the needs of historically underrepresented populations
of students emerged across several different themes (e.g., learning supports, motiva-
tion) related to curriculum features, but PSTs largely focused their attention on how
the existing lesson and possible adaptations could support all students’ mathemati-
cal learning, more generally, rather than focusing on the needs of specific groups of
students. Additionally, PSTs attended to lesson features that they saw as promoting
or limiting children’s mathematical thinking more often than lesson features that
they saw as promoting or limiting children’s FoK. In fact, all 47 PSTs attended to
children’s mathematical thinking, but only 25 PSTs explicitly considered FoK in
their reflections. Only three PSTs described the integration of children’s mathemati-
cal thinking with FoK (i.e., MMKB) in their reflections. Thus, we present findings
of PSTs’ attention to and evaluation/adaptation of the lesson features related to
children’s mathematical thinking first, followed by findings related to FoK, and
finally MMKB.
Attention to Children’s Mathematical Thinking  PSTs paid considerable atten-
tion to aspects of the lesson that accessed, built on, or integrated children’s mathe-
matical thinking. As mentioned previously, all 47 PSTs attended to children’s
mathematical thinking in their reflections, and this consideration represented the
majority of content codes. More specifically, 61.5% of all first stream codes related
to children’s mathematical thinking in relation to mathematical features of the les-
son that fostered mathematical sensemaking (36.5%), created opportunities for chil-
dren to talk about mathematics (14.1%), and positioned mathematical authority
with student or teacher (10.9%) (Table 15.1). Features of the lesson that promoted
mathematical sensemaking through the use of manipulatives, multiple representa-
tions, or multiple solution strategies were particularly noteworthy, representing
25.8% of all first stream codes. In particular, the use of manipulatives was the most
commonly recognized strength of the lesson across all reflections (i.e., this code
occurred most frequently alongside the second stream code: “strength”). The use of
multiple representations and multiple solution strategies were also evaluated as
strengths of the lesson but to a lesser extent.
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 251

Table 15.1  Percent of total codes in the first stream (n  =  1051) by theme across 47 written
reflections
Children’s mathematical thinking
Math Math Learning
Math features talk authority supports Prior knowledge Motivation
36.5% 14.1% 10.9% 8.3% 12.1% 8.1%
Sensemaking 25.8% General 15.7% School 4.3%
Cognitive 3.6% Diverse 2.6% FoK 4.9%
demand
Learning goals 7.1% Not
specified 2.9%

Those PSTs who positively evaluated mathematical sensemaking in the lesson

often described those lesson features as important for supporting learning (i.e.,
“math features” codes from the first stream frequently occurred alongside “learning
supports” code also from the first coding stream). Statements such as this were
common:
Another strength of this lesson is that it allows the students to develop, and reinforce, their
understanding of tens and ones through multiple mediums such as stickers, pictures, num-
bers, and cubes. The students are asked to physically represent the problem through the use
of both cubes and a drawing. Students are then asked to turn that physical representation
into a column of tens and ones and then list the total number of stickers and the equation.
The use of multiple mediums promotes student learning by having the students redo the
same problem multiple times.

As this example illustrates, PSTs’ considerations of learning supports were gener-

ally vague, sometimes referencing the needs of various learners but rarely naming
how lesson features supported the needs of specific groups of students. Although all
47 PSTs discussed general learning supports in their reflections, only 22 PSTs
explicitly referenced learning supports for diverse groups of students, and those 22
PSTs did not devote much space in their reflection to this topic. References to learn-
ing supports for diverse learners generally appeared only in one paragraph and rep-
resented only 2.6% of all content codes (Table  15.1). When PSTs attended to
learning supports for diverse learners, they most commonly expressed that the les-
son inadequately addressed the needs of diverse learners (i.e., “learning supports:
diverse” in the first stream occurred most commonly alongside “weakness” in the
second stream). For example, “This lesson also limits ELLs [English Language
Learners]. At no point in the lesson do I see any talk of ELLs so that’s something
that could limit their learning.” Specific suggested adaptations for meeting the needs
of diverse learners, however, were rare (i.e., “learning supports: diverse” in the first
stream occurred least often alongside “curriculum spaces” from the second stream).
PSTs paid the most attention to children’s mathematical thinking when suggest-
ing adaptations (i.e., the overwhelming majority of codes linked to the second
stream code, “curriculum spaces,” were “math features,” “math talk,” and “math
authority ” codes (combined) from the first stream). For example, even though PSTs
252 F. K. Harper et al.

positively evaluated the lesson’s use of manipulatives, they suggested adaptations

for using them:
The one part of the lesson I found to be the most ineffective is the use of cubes. I think the
cubes are a good idea to bring to students’ attention, but at a later part in the lesson. A lot of
different techniques for the students used adding and subtracting the multi-digit numbers,
and therefore, I think only one object of manipulative should be used during the lesson.

This excerpt shows how some PSTs viewed mathematical features aimed at student
sensemaking positively, but some also suggested adaptations that would change the
way that multiple representations, including manipulatives, or solution strategies
were used during the lesson. PSTs were divided on whether the lesson’s use of mul-
tiple representations and solution strategies was too much, thus overwhelming stu-
dents, or too little, thus limiting opportunities for sensemaking.
Across reflections, PSTs agreed on two weaknesses in the lesson: too much
mathematical authority residing with the teacher and too little opportunity for stu-
dents to discuss mathematics as a whole class (i.e., “math authority: teacher” and
“math talk: students” in the first stream occurred frequently alongside “weakness:
too much” and “weakness: too little,” respectively, in the second stream). In particu-
lar, PSTs recognized a need for less teacher-led mathematical sensemaking and
mathematical talk:
I would argue that [authority lies] solely [with] the teacher. The questions do not set up a
discussion where students are sharing with each other. Rather, the questions set up an IRE
[Initiate-Respond-Evaluate] session. The one area that was beneficial to the students was
when they were invited up to the overhead to share their work, but the teacher is ultimately
the authority and most likely evaluates the students that share.

Even though PSTs were specific in identifying features of the lesson that positioned
the teacher as the mathematical authority, suggested adaptations were vague (based
on content of excerpts with code co-occurrence of “math authority” and “math talk”
from the first stream with “curriculum spaces” from the second stream). In most
cases, PSTs simply noted that the lesson needed to be adapted to position students
as the mathematical authorities but did not describe how they would make such
adaptations. Some of the few specific adaptations suggested adding a whole-class
discussion at the end of the lesson:
The lesson provides opportunities for students to explore but the lesson could summarize
more in a group discussion format … students could share their solutions and allow other
students to ask questions, compare, or justify their own thinking.

Other PSTs suggested changing the sequence of the lesson as written, using the
planned launch as a guide for orchestrating a more student-driven, whole-class dis-
cussion after students had time to explore the problems more freely.
Funds of Knowledge  General prior knowledge (12.1%) represented one of the
major themes related to how PSTs framed the idea of drawing on MMKB, in the
context of adapting curriculum (Table 15.1). Attention to home- and community-­
based FoK (4.9%) occurred with roughly the same frequency as attention to school-­
based prior knowledge (4.3%) across all written reflections. Figure 15.3 provides
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 253

School “The lesson connects back to Sticker Station done in second grade so
Based it utilizes [students’] background knowledge.”

FoK “Aspects of the lesson plan that stand out as especially important for
making the lesson effective in promoting students’ learning are…that
the lesson opens spaces for making connections to their
family/cultural/community knowledge.”

Non- “I do believe that it is possible to be responsive to students’ thinking

Specified and background knowledge while also using the curriculum
materials.”

Fig. 15.3  Examples for each category of prior knowledge

example excerpts of school-based prior knowledge, FoK, and prior knowledge with
source unspecified.
Few PSTs identified prior knowledge (combined) as a limitation in their lesson
analysis (combined “prior knowledge” codes from the first stream rarely occurred
alongside “weakness” codes from second stream); however, when PSTs did identify
prior knowledge as a weakness, they overwhelmingly focused on FoK (i.e., when
“prior knowledge: FoK” from the first stream co-occurred with a second stream
code that code was “weakness”). For example:
I thought the lesson was limited at making a connection to cultural, community, and/or fam-
ily knowledge. It was great that the lesson used stickers which students were familiar with
from the sticker station store in 2nd grade. This would hook student’s interest and motivate
them for the lesson.

As the above excerpt illustrates, school-based prior knowledge was rarely identified
as a weakness in the analysis of this lesson. Moreover, this quote illustrates how
PSTs who identified FoK as a weakness identified the need for adaptations related
to FoK, but few suggested adaptations for integrating FoK. In fact, only nine PSTs
suggested how to adapt the lesson to integrate FoK.  Specifically, they suggested
changing the context of the problem to build on FoK. For example:
The teacher could have had students create their own problems using something from [stu-
dents’] culture, home, or of interest that could be bundled in a set of 10 or used individually;
for example, my case study student was very interested in basketball and played it at home
with family often. He could create a problem having one team of basketball players repre-
sent the 10’s place and an individual basketball player representing the 1’s place. They
could then share these problems in partners or with the whole class. I feel if students could
connect with the problem better, it would better promote students learning.

Although this PST gave a specific example for possible adaptations (i.e., basket-
ball), most PSTs referenced changing the context but did not identify a specific
context that would draw on FoK in their reflections.
As the previous two excerpts show, attention to student interest and motivation in
the lesson plan was common throughout the reflections (i.e., a major code: 8.1%,
Table 15.1), and discussions of student interest and motivation frequently occurred
254 F. K. Harper et al.

alongside considerations of FoK (i.e., “motivation” and “prior knowledge: FoK”

codes, both from the first stream, frequently occurred together in paragraphs). PSTs
identified aspects of the lesson that attended to motivation in both strong and limited
ways (i.e., alongside both the “strength” and “weakness” codes from the second
stream), and they suggested adaptations toward integrating FoK and other sources
of prior knowledge to increase student motivation and learning, as illustrated by
these previous two excerpts (i.e., “prior knowledge” codes frequently occurred
alongside “curriculum spaces” code).
MMKB  Attention to integrating children’s mathematical thinking with FoK (i.e.,
MMKB) was rare (only three PSTs attended explicitly to MMKB), but again, these
rare instances are important because they provide insight into PSTs’ potential sen-
semaking of this construct. More specifically, these few PSTs (three of the nine who
suggested adapting the context of the problem) discussed MMKB as they consid-
ered ways of adapting the use of manipulatives to integrate FoK. For example:

The teacher [could] make story problems up about the students and their interest. For exam-
ple, instead of saying the cubes are just cubes, say they are lumps of sugar that ‘Tom’ has
to feed to his horses. (Given there’s a Tom in the classroom who has horses to feed at home.)
The kids will see that this problem has a meaning more so than just seeing the cubes as
cubes.

Because PSTs overwhelming saw the use of manipulatives as building on and sup-
porting children’s mathematical thinking in this lesson, their attempts to adapt these
manipulatives to integrate FoK represented the most explicit attention to MMKB
across reflections.

I nfluence of Personal Experiences and General Beliefs

About Mathematics Teaching

PSTs primarily grounded their reflections in their analysis of the specific lesson (as
directed in the assignment description); however, PSTs also drew on their personal
experiences and general beliefs about mathematics teaching when reflecting on
their lesson analysis and adaptations. Almost all of the PSTs (45 of 47) included
some reference to their general beliefs about mathematics teaching in at least one
paragraph of their reflection. Connections to personal experiences – either as math-
ematics learners themselves or as PSTs working with students in their field place-
ment classrooms – were less common (26 of 47 PSTs included references to their
personal experiences). When PSTs drew on their personal experiences, they most
commonly did so to elaborate on their evaluation of general learning supports and
mathematical features of tasks (i.e., “personal experience” code from third stream
occurred most commonly alongside “learning supports” and “math features” codes
from the first stream). In particular, PSTs described how manipulatives, multiple
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 255

strategies, and multiple representations supported student learning in their field

placement classrooms, more generally, and during their student thinking interviews
done as part of the Case Study Module (see “Background of the Study” for over-
view of module). For example, this PST justified her positive evaluation of the les-
son based on her assessment of her case study students’ needs:
[This lesson] also encourages students to visually represent the problem using a picture of
strips and single stickers or through the use of lines or sticks and small dots. I believe that
this is very beneficial for promoting the students’ learning because it encourages them to
use the solution strategy that works best for them. I believe that this would especially be
beneficial for students who do not have a fully developed understanding of place value,
such as my case study student Janette. I think that having multiple visual representations of
the stickers, whether it is through cubes, pictures, or lines and dots, would help her to under-
stand that there are ten singles in a strip.

Less frequently, PSTs drew on experiences with students in their field placement
classrooms to evaluate the lesson or suggest adaptions for connecting to students’
prior knowledge, including FoK. (i.e., “personal experience” code from the third
stream occurred less frequently alongside “prior knowledge” codes from the first
stream). For example, one PST noted, “My case study student was very interested
in basketball and played it at home with family often,” when suggesting an adapta-
tion to the problem context of the lesson (see p. 253 for full excerpt from this PST’s
reflection).
A focus on learning supports equally permeated PSTs’ general statements about
mathematics teaching and learning (i.e., “general” from the third stream occurred
most frequently alongside “learning supports” from the first stream). Additionally,
prior knowledge, and FoK in particular, garnered considerably more attention than
other topics, including mathematical features of tasks, in PSTs’ general statements
about teaching (i.e., “prior knowledge” codes from the first stream were the second
most frequently linked codes to “general” codes from the third stream). These gen-
eral statements often focused on what teachers would or should do to meet the needs
of diverse learners. For example,
I think that teachers need to analyze the curriculum materials and manipulate the lessons to
include more student led discussions and instruction…When being provided with a curricu-
lum it is not necessarily tailored for every classroom of students and after knowing one’s
specific students the lesson can be altered in ways to reach all students in the classroom. For
example, if I had a classroom of primarily ELL students then I would make sure the task is
authentic to these students by connecting it to their community or family, and also by
spending more time reviewing the language used, allow them to work in partners first, and
find ways for them to contribute in the discussion.

This statement illustrates how the PST was making sense of incorporating FoK in
future teaching. General statements, such as this one, about providing learning sup-
ports, shifting mathematical authority to students, or connecting to prior knowledge
were common across reflections. Although some PSTs named specific groups of
underrepresented students, most commonly ELLs, most PSTs focused broadly on
all students.
256 F. K. Harper et al.

Utility of the Curriculum Spaces Table

PSTs overwhelmingly stated that they found the Curriculum Spaces Table useful for
analyzing existing curriculum materials and identifying spaces for integrating
MMKB toward supporting the needs of all students (i.e., 43 of 47 reflections
included “utility-yes” codes from the fourth stream). For example, the PST quoted
previously concluded by reflecting on the utility of the table:
By using the curriculum analysis [table] I was able to get an idea of a lesson on a topic that
I wanted to cover and come up with alterations to the curriculum lesson. Although I would
not want to teach the lesson as it is written, I think that looking at the original resource gave
me more ideas on how I want to teach the lesson.

Many PSTs similarly expressed that existing curriculum materials can provide valu-
able resources for mathematics teaching and learning, but adaptations are necessary
for supporting the learning of all students. Moreover, they considered the table use-
ful for identifying possible adaptations to different aspects of the lesson. In particu-
lar, PSTs found the Curriculum Spaces Table helpful for evaluating/adapting the
following lesson features (i.e., the following codes from the first stream occurred
alongside “utility-yes” from the fourth stream): learning supports (most common
but rarely focused on learning supports for diverse learners), mathematics features
of tasks (second most common), and prior knowledge (third most common but
rarely focused on FoK specifically).
Only four PSTs offered critiques of the Curriculum Spaces Table (i.e., “utility-
­no” from the fourth stream only occurred four times). Two PSTs said they found the
table useful for analyzing existing curriculum materials, but they did not find it as
useful in planning their own lessons:
Personally, during my lesson planning process I only find the front page [i.e., questions 1-3;
see methods] of the curriculum analysis helpful … Then once I am done with a portion of
my plan, I begin to look through the rest of the spaces just to get an idea of what I still need
to add or change in my plan.

The other two PSTs stated that they found the structure of the table difficult to work
with because the existing curriculum materials did not provide enough information
to complete the table, but one suggested the tool would be better suited for teacher-­
created lessons:
I spent too much time trying to fit the “right answer” into the cells of the chart instead of
focusing on the content of the lesson [when analyzing existing curriculum materials]. Using
something like this chart when writing my own lesson plans would be helpful though. It is
much easier to cover all – or most – of the topics with my own words and ideas before writ-
ing my lessons to make sure all of the important areas are covered. But using it to analyze
someone else’s work was just overwhelming and frustrating. I eventually stopped filling in
the cells and just started making notes in the margins.

As this quote illustrates, even when PSTs had critiques of the analysis tool itself,
their statements suggested that they appreciated the importance of attending to dif-
ferent aspects (e.g., learning supports, prior knowledge) of mathematics lessons.
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 257

Discussion and Conclusion

Our findings suggest that the Curriculum Spaces Table analysis tool may offer a
promising start for PSTs, who are early in their professional development as teach-
ers, to develop equitable mathematics teaching practices. Elsewhere, our TEACH
Math colleagues and other mathematics teacher educators have argued that aware-
ness and openness to multicultural- and community-based approaches to mathemat-
ics represent an important first step toward developing more sophisticated equitable
mathematics teaching practices, such as incorporating MMKB meaningfully into
instruction (Turner et al., 2011; White, Murray, & Brunaud-Vega, 2012). In particu-
lar, our findings showed how PSTs found the Curriculum Spaces Table analysis tool
was especially useful for drawing attention to and creating awareness of a need to
adapt, extend, or build on learning supports, mathematics features of tasks, and con-
nections to prior knowledge within existing curriculum materials. Although most
suggested adaptations for connecting children’s MMKB in the lesson lacked spe-
cific details  – when considering adaptions for diverse students, integrating FoK,
positioning students as mathematical authorities, etc.  – PSTs’ initial attempts to
make these connections suggest that they are developing the key practices along a
trajectory toward engaging children with MMKB (Turner et al., 2011). Moreover,
general statements about teaching, which focused on what teachers would or should
do to meet the needs of diverse learners, suggest an emerging openness and commit-
ment to multicultural- and community-based approaches to mathematics (White
et al., 2012).
Here, we discuss what our findings suggest about PSTs’ development of initial
practices for integrating MMKB into instruction. In particular, we reflect on the
promising ways that roughly half of PSTs’ attended to racially, culturally, linguisti-
cally, and socioeconomically diverse students’ learning (22 of 47 PSTs) and
attempted to connect to children’s cultural- and community-based FoK (25 of 47
PSTs). We focus on PSTs’ attention to diverse students and attempt to connect to
FoK because equitable mathematics teaching demands instruction that responds to
the specific needs of racially, culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically
diverse students and integration of the cultural and community resources they bring
for mathematics learning (Martin, 2003) and because our findings illustrate a need
to continue challenging the overemphasis on children’s mathematical thinking in
teacher preparation. We consider implications for using the Curriculum Spaces
Table analysis tool in mathematics teacher education to increase, even more, the
number of PSTs who develop the initial attention, awareness, openness, and com-
mitments necessary for equitable mathematics teaching.
258 F. K. Harper et al.

 uilding on Experiences with Children’s Mathematical

B
Thinking to Shift Focus to Integrating FoK

PSTs’ tendency to focus on children’s mathematical thinking, even when analysis

tools attempt to direct their attention to other considerations, has been observed
elsewhere (Aguirre, Zavala, & Katanyoutanant, 2012). The overwhelming emphasis
on children’s mathematical thinking shown in our findings also makes sense given
that (1) the use of manipulatives and multiple representations is a prominent feature
of the Stickers lesson (TERC, 2008) and (2) PSTs’ reflections indicated that they
had experience working with students or observing teachers working with students
using manipulatives and/or multiple representations in their field placement class-
rooms. In light of the lesson focus and their personal experiences, PSTs naturally
paid considerable attention to manipulatives/multiple representations as both a
strength of the lesson and as a possible space for adapting, extending, or building on
the existing lesson features to support learning about place value and two-digit
addition.
We see this attention to and evaluation of using manipulatives/multiple represen-
tations as promising because some PSTs built on this particular mathematical fea-
ture of the lesson in attempts to connect to children’s mathematical thinking and
FoK. Most initial attempts to connect to children’s MMKB represented emergent
connections (i.e., superficial in nature; Turner et al., 2011), such as changing the
context of problem, thus changing the manipulatives from stickers to something
(usually unnamed) more relevant to students’ cultural-, community-, or home-based
experiences. Some attempts to connect to children’s MMKB, however, reflected
more meaningful connections (Turner et al., 2011), which PSTs made by drawing
on either their actual experiences with students in their field placement classrooms
(e.g., “My case study student was very interested in basketball and played it at home
with family often”) or the experiences of hypothetical students (e.g., “There’s a Tom
in the classroom who has horses to feed at home”). This finding suggests that famil-
iarity and experience with a prominent mathematical feature of the lesson (i.e.,
manipulatives) provided an entry point for PSTs to imagine ways to integrate chil-
dren’s mathematical thinking and FoK.
Making sense of and connecting children’s cultural-, home-, and community-­
based FoK to mathematics instruction is a complex practice (Civil, 2007). Lessening
the need to adapt a lesson to elicit and support children’s mathematical thinking –
because opportunities for eliciting and building on children’s mathematical thinking
through manipulatives/multiple representations already existed within the lesson
and because PSTs had already thought about these opportunities at other times –
could free up PSTs’ to focus on the less familiar and, arguably, more challenging
task of leveraging FoK. This has implications for the types of lessons that mathe-
matics teacher educators select for analysis using the Curriculum Spaces Table tool
and for the types of experiences they help create in field placement classrooms.
Mathematics teacher educators could strategically select lessons for analysis that
effectively support children’s mathematical thinking with specific mathematical
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 259

features of the tasks, which are already familiar to PSTs, as a way of shifting more
attention to cultural- and community-based FoK in lesson analysis and adaptation.

 reating Opportunities for More Experience with and Attention

C
to Diverse Cultures and Communities

In the promising examples from our findings when PSTs attended to FoK, they
rarely framed their analysis or suggested adaptations in terms of specific groups of
students who are underrepresented in mathematics. Instead, they focused either
more generally on supporting learning of all students or on specific individuals in
their field placement. Our findings showed how references to FoK were framed
more vaguely in terms of “culture” or “community” and motivating students. The
complete absence of attention to supporting learning along race, ethnicity, gender,
or class differences throughout PSTs’ reflections is perhaps unsurprising for several
reasons: (1) the majority of our PST population comes from a white, suburban
middle-­class background, which often leaves them with little contact with people
outside their dominant cultural group, particularly the underrepresented students
they intend to teach (Sleeter & Milner, 2011); (2) even as former mathematics
teachers who worked with diverse K-12 student populations, we (the first and fourth
authors) found it challenging to suggest specific adaptations to connect FoK and
children’s mathematical thinking in this lesson without imagining a specific class-
room context with which we were intimately familiar; (3) reference to diverse learn-
ers in the Curriculum Spaces Table analysis tool is mostly general (i.e., “family/
cultural/community knowledge; “real-world connections”), with the exception of a
reference to “language supports.”
Research on integrating equity and social justice into teacher education suggests
that PSTs need experiences with racially, culturally, linguistically, and socioeco-
nomically diverse students in order to move from conceptual (e.g., awareness, atten-
tion) to more practical pedagogical tools (e.g., making connections, integrating
MMKB into instruction) (McDonald, 2005). Even though some of the PSTs in this
study worked with diverse student populations in their field placement classrooms,
they did not name specific students’ backgrounds, with the exception of ELLs,
when reflecting on their personal experiences in the context of analyzing and adapt-
ing this lesson. Thus, we propose that our findings have implications for the ways
that mathematics teacher educators support PSTs to make sense of their limited
experiences with diverse students during teacher preparation and into their teaching
career to support efforts to analyze/evaluate lessons toward integrating MMKB into
instruction.
PSTs overwhelmingly expressed that they found the Curriculum Spaces Table
useful because it provided guidance on what to look for in their lesson analysis, and
their fidelity to the analysis tool showed in our findings. Every topic explicitly
named in the Curriculum Analysis Table (e.g., cognitive demand, lesson goal)
260 F. K. Harper et al.

emerged as a primary theme in our analysis. We posit that we observed a tendency

for PSTs to name one specific group of underrepresented students – ELLs – because
a question on the Curriculum Spaces Table directly prompted them to consider “lan-
guage supports.” Providing more explicit prompts as part of the Curriculum Analysis
Table questions that ask PSTs to consider race, ethnicity, gender, and class diversity
might offer one way of supporting PSTs to unpack ideas about relevance and
culture.
Given the difficulties we (the first and fourth authors) faced in our own lesson
analysis/adaptations, explicit prompts asking PSTs to consider race, ethnicity, gen-
der, and class will likely be insufficient for supporting meaningful connections to
diverse children’s MMKB. We found that we were only able to craft specific adapta-
tions to integrate MMKB once we imagined a context in which we had previously
taught. Because PSTs were already finding ways to draw on their field placement
experiences, mathematics teacher educators might consider asking PSTs to suggest
adaptations specifically for their field placement classroom, if those classrooms
include diverse groups of students. Having a specific context in mind, combined
with more explicit prompts to consider race, ethnicity, gender, language, and class
diversity, while analyzing the lesson might encourage PSTs to draw more strategi-
cally on their personal experiences to craft specific lesson adaptations for histori-
cally marginalized students.
In addition, PSTs will likely need additional supports to connect to their personal
experiences with diverse students or to consider explicit prompts about race, ethnic-
ity, gender, language, and class in ways that challenge deficit views and support
openness to multicultural approaches in mathematics (e.g., White et al., 2012). In
our findings and in other research (e.g., Barton & Tan, 2009), PSTs cited a variety
of reasons for attending to FoK and diverse learners, including motivating students,
increasing access to the content, and changing the content itself. Connecting lesson
analysis/adaptions to other activities designed to build self-awareness of cultural
differences, to reveal and challenge stereotypes and deficit thinking, and to frame
cultural differences as assets for mathematics learning (e.g., Jackson, Appelgate,
Seiler, Sheth, & Nadolny, 2016; White et al., 2012) could help ensure that PSTs’
attention to and initial attempts to connect to diverse groups of children’s MMKB
foster practices and dispositions for the ongoing development of equitable
teaching.
We view the Curriculum Spaces Table analysis tool as a promising way that
PSTs can begin to think about adapting existing curriculum materials to meet the
needs of diverse groups of students by integrating MMKB into instruction. By start-
ing from existing curriculum materials, efforts to meet the needs of diverse groups
of students can seem more feasible in day-to-day instruction. We recognize, how-
ever, that there is room within teacher preparation to improve the way that PSTs use
this analysis tool to think more specifically about groups of historically marginal-
ized students in mathematics and to add more emphasis to cultural- and community-­
based FoK as they imagine how they want to teach the lesson. We hope that our
findings offer some insight into how the Curriculum Space Table analysis tool might
support development of initial practices and continue to support teachers’ ongoing
development of equitable teaching that integrates MMKB into instruction.
15  “How I Want to Teach the Lesson”: Framing Children’s Multiple Mathematical… 261

Acknowledgments  The research reported in this chapter was supported with funding from the
National Science Foundation (NSF, Award #1228034). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the NSF.

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Chapter 16
Seeing Mathematics Through Different
Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use
with Prospective Teachers

Christa Jackson, Cynthia E. Taylor, and Kelley Buchheister

Abstract  Teacher educators need to prepare prospective teachers by encouraging

them to critically examine their current beliefs about the teaching and learning of
mathematics while also providing opportunities for prospective teachers to develop
an equity-centered orientation. Attending to these practices in teacher preparation
programs may help prospective teachers observe actions that occur in classrooms
and determine effective strategies that provide the opportunity to enhance all stu-
dents’ access to high-quality mathematics instruction. As mathematics teacher edu-
cators, we must recognize what prospective teachers attend to as they direct their
attention to various classroom events and how they relate the events to broader
principles of teaching and learning. In this chapter, we investigate what prospective
teachers attend to in a classroom vignette of a student who is above grade level in
mathematics and exhibits disruptive behavior during instruction. Keeping every-
thing constant in the vignette except the student’s race and sex, we examined pro-
spective teachers’ responses when the student was an African American male, White
male, African American female, and White female. By attending specifically to race
and sex, we explored whether prospective teachers demonstrated (1) an equity-­
centered orientation toward mathematics instruction or (2) deficit views of students
based on race, sex, or the intersection of the two. Using a constant comparative
method, the data were coded and analyzed using the equity noticing framework.
The results indicate that prospective teachers are beginning to attend to cultural
influences and their responses reveal differences not only between races but also
between males and females.

C. Jackson
Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
[email protected]
C. E. Taylor
Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Millersville, PA, USA
[email protected]
K. Buchheister (*)
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 263

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_16
264 C. Jackson et al.

Introduction

Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are. (José Ortega y Gasset)

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) asserts that in order to

teach in an equitable manner, teachers and schools must maintain “high expectations
and strong support for all students” (2000, p. 11), meaning mathematics teachers must
provide opportunities for students to learn challenging mathematics regardless of their
students’ “personal characteristics, backgrounds, or physical challenges” (p. 12). For
the past three decades, mathematics educators have conceptualized what it means to
teach mathematics for equity (Gutiérrez, 2002; Gutstein, 2003; Hart, 2003; Matthews,
2005), from gender studies (e.g., Forgasz & Rivera, 2012) to the considerations of
students of color (e.g., Battey, 2013; Diversity in Mathematics Education Center for
Learning and Teaching, 2007), socioeconomically disadvantaged students (e.g.,
Lubienski, 2002), and students who struggle mathematically (e.g., Allsopp, Kyger, &
Lovin, 2007). Only in recent years, though, have mathematics teacher educators docu-
mented efforts to prepare prospective teachers (PSTs) to teach mathematics while
considering matters of equity (e.g., Bartell, 2010; Freitas, 2008; Wager, 2014).
Although there is an emerging body of research on equitable mathematics
instruction (e.g., Leonard & Martin, 2013; Pinnow & Chval, 2014; Vomvoridi-­
Ivanović & Chval, 2014), there is more to learn about supporting PSTs as they work
to implement pedagogical practices that promote and support the mathematical
learning of all students (Wager, 2014). In fact, “very few teacher education pro-
grams have successfully tackled the challenging task of preparing teachers to meet
the needs of diverse populations” (Watson, Charner-Laird, Kirkpatrick, Szczesiul,
& Gordon, 2006, p.  396). To address issues of equity and support mathematical
learning for all students, it is imperative for teachers to integrate aspects of the stu-
dents’ culture and language within their instruction (NCTM, 2014). Unfortunately,
many PSTs do not know how to make these necessary connections, especially with
students who are different from their own culture and background (Futrell, Gomez,
& Bedden, 2003; Turner, et al., 2012). Consequently, within the current educational
system, students from non-dominant backgrounds are often denied equitable oppor-
tunities to learn (Wager, 2014), and maintaining the status quo will only continue to
“widen the gap between teachers and children in schools” (Sleeter, 2001, p. 96).
Currently, about 49% of the US public school population is comprised of cultur-
ally and racially diverse groups such as African Americans, Asian-Americans,
Latinas, and Native Americans (Hussar & Bailey, 2016). By 2023, researchers have
predicted a “minority-majority flip” for students of color with White students’
enrollment declining to 45% (Hussar & Bailey, 2016). By 2050, students of color
are predicted to represent approximately 62% of the school-age population (National
Center of Educational Statistics, 2010). As the population of public school students
continues to become more and more diverse, it is critical that teachers’ instructional
practices purposefully align with students’ funds of knowledge when teaching
mathematical concepts because the thoughtful integration of community contexts,
resources, and language promotes connections between students’ lived experiences
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 265

and the mathematical content addressed in the classroom setting, thus contributing
to meaningful, high-quality instruction (NCTM, 2014).
To further complicate existing disparities in mathematics education, many math-
ematics teachers and PSTs dismiss issues of equity as relevant factors in the math-
ematics classroom because they view mathematics as a universal, culture-free
subject (Jackson & Jong, 2017; Rousseau & Tate, 2003). There is a growing body
of mathematics education researchers, however, who understand that mathematics
and mathematical knowledge are neither universal nor culturally neutral but are
situated in a sociocultural framework (Turner & Drake, 2016; Ukpokodu, 2011).
Specifically, Gay (2000) argues that if we “decontextualiz[e] teaching and learning
from the ethnicities and cultures of students [it] minimizes the chances that their
achievement potential will ever be fully realized” (p. 23). To move PSTs beyond
viewing mathematics as a “neutral” subject, work in teacher education programs
must purposefully address this point of view by reinforcing how mathematics
“reflects particular cultural and sociopolitical contexts, and ways of knowing”
(Turner & Drake, 2016, p. 32). More specifically, mathematics teacher educators
must implement pedagogical practices that not only encourage PSTs to reflect upon
their perceptions of the subject area, but it is also essential that mathematics teacher
educators promote meaningful learning experiences by emphasizing explicit strate-
gies for connecting mathematical concepts to students’ lived experiences.
Reducing the opportunity gap in mathematics education is possible by transition-
ing to an equity-centered paradigm. Teaching mathematics from an equity stance
requires teachers to understand that students from diverse backgrounds come into
the mathematics classroom with different worldviews. Teachers must be willing to
move beyond teaching mathematics from a Eurocentric viewpoint and impart equi-
table pedagogical practices by building relationships, setting high expectations, and
helping students maintain their identities (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Matthews, 2005).
According to Irvine (2003), in order for all students to be successful, teachers must
make connections “between subject-area content and their students’ existing mental
schemes, prior knowledge, and cultural perspectives” (p. 47). Furthermore, teachers
need to “value the cultural and lived experiences of all children … [and emphasize]
the belief that all children possess strong intellectual capacity and bring a wealth of
informal, out-of-school knowledge to the teaching and learning process” (Lemons-­
Smith, 2008, p. 913). Although mathematics education researchers recognize what
needs to be done to teach mathematics to diverse populations of students (e.g.,
Leonard & Martin, 2013; Pinnow & Chval, 2014; Vomvoridi-Ivanović and Chval
2014), mathematics methods courses must better prepare PSTs for their role in cre-
ating opportunities that provide students with equitable access for learning high-­
quality mathematics (Aguirre, et al., 2012). Hand (2012) documents the importance
of the relationship between teachers’ instructional practice and their dispositions
toward equity. Therefore, it is imperative for mathematics teacher educators to pre-
pare PSTs by promoting an equity-centered paradigm, which begins by implement-
ing activities in mathematics methods courses that encourage PSTs to critically
examine their current beliefs supplemented by discussions that explicitly address
the elements of teaching mathematics through an equitable lens.
266 C. Jackson et al.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine what PSTs attend to in a classroom

vignette of a student who is above grade level in mathematics and exhibits disrup-
tive behavior during instruction. More specifically, the research question underlying
this study is what do PSTs notice when the student in the vignette is an African
American male, White male, African American female, and White female? By
attending specifically to race and gender in this study, we can explore whether PSTs
demonstrate (a) an equity-centered orientation toward mathematics instruction or
(b) deficit views of students based on race, gender, or the intersection of the two.
The focus on what PSTs attend to in classroom situations and a purposeful analysis
of how PSTs interpret teachers’ actions provides a mechanism that contributes to
the field in two major ways. First, the empirical data adds to the research by identi-
fying what is most salient to PSTs in the classroom and how what PSTs attend to
intersects with the equity-centered paradigm. Secondly, with this knowledge, math-
ematics teacher educators can begin valuable work to disrupt existing inequities in
students’ learning experiences by opening critical dialogue that highlights how our
perceptions and actions can either enhance or hinder students’ access to high-­
quality, rigorous mathematics instruction.

Equity Noticing Framework

Gutiérrez (2007, 2009, 2013) argues that equity includes four dimensions: access
(i.e., resources that provide students an opportunity to learn rigorous mathematics),
achievement (i.e., students’ outcomes, students’ scores on standardized and non-­
standardized mathematics assessments, students’ participation), identity (i.e., draw-
ing on students’ cultural frame to see themselves and the broader society in
mathematics), and power (i.e., social transformations such as voice, who is being
privileged, and using mathematics to read and change the world). To examine how
PSTs perceive classroom situations and identify what they notice – or attend to –
during the teaching and learning process, we integrated Gutiérrez’s (2013) four
dimensions of equity within van Es and Sherin’s (2002) three main components of
noticing – attention, interpretation, and implementation/instructional decisions (see
Fig.  16.1). The structure of the Equity Noticing Framework provides a lens for
researchers to investigate how each dimension of equity is or is not evident within
each level of noticing.
Classroom episodes are complex; it is inevitable that individuals choose, con-
sciously or subconsciously, what they notice, or attend to, and use the interpreta-
tions of these events to make instructional decisions (Sherin, Russ, Sherin, &
Colestock, 2009). Teachers may attend to equitable issues in the classroom as a
process or as a product (Gutiérrez, 2002; Martin, 2003; Rousseau & Tate, 2003).
Seeing equity as a process means treating all students equally, without regard to
race, ethnicity, or economic background. On the other hand, seeing equity as a
­product means differentiating instruction based upon students’ needs; implement-
ing equitable approaches that are respectful of students’ ethnic, racial, and eco-
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 267

Fig. 16.1  The equity noticing framework

nomic background; and promoting equal learning outcomes. According to

Gutiérrez (2013), when teachers have equitable practices, the power of predicting
students’ outcomes (e.g., participation, achievement, ability) is not based on stu-
dents’ background, race, class, or gender but in how students are positioned and
the power they are given in the mathematics classroom. In other words, “[students
are] both greatly influenced by and greatly influence the taken-for-granted rules
and institutions in mathematics education” (Gutiérrez, 2013, p. 46). This approach
to teacher education emphasizes the importance of being responsive to students
from diverse backgrounds by developing a mindset in teachers that attends to
preK-12 students’ cultural capital (Averill et al., 2009; McCulloch, Marshall, &
DeCuir-Gunby, 2009).
In the classroom, many things happen simultaneously, and the teacher must
decide what deserves immediate consideration (van Es & Sherin, 2006). Noticing is
a culturally shaped perception, which may include preferences and biases. Ball
(2011) claims the noticing required in teaching is highly specialized because teach-
ers must be attuned to notice things such as existing knowledge, potential difficul-
ties, and learning trajectories, as well as how cultural capital contributes to students’
interpretations. Therefore, it is vital that teachers acknowledge and effectively
address how cultural experiences influence their perceptions and interpretations of
students and classroom events. van Es and Sherin (2002) argue there are three main
components of noticing: (1) identifying what is important about a situation (atten-
tion), (2) making connections between the specifics of classroom interactions and
268 C. Jackson et al.

the broader principles of teaching and learning they represent (interpretation), and
(3) using what one knows about the context to reason about classroom events
(implementation/instructional decisions).
The first level of noticing (attention) involves the ability to focus one’s attention
on what is significant. In other words, teachers decide what deserves immediate
consideration (van Es & Sherin, 2006) while simultaneously regulating what
­dimensions of equity – access, achievement, identity, power – are valued in their
practice. Although what is noticed in a classroom episode might not be understood
as an explicitly reasoned choice, the second level of noticing (interpretation) also
underlines the role of active reflection, which involves using knowledge of one’s
context to reason about events that occur. During the reflection process, the teacher
makes connections between specific events and the broader principles they repre-
sent. For example, when encouraged to extrapolate from the specific to the general,
teachers form connections between the particular instances they observed and the
broader pedagogical issues such events may represent (van Es & Sherin, 2010).
Consequently, it is vital to examine how PSTs perceive students and interpret class-
room events with respect to the four dimensions of equity (i.e., access, achievement,
identity, and power).
The third level of noticing (implementation/instructional decisions) includes
teachers using knowledge about their students, curriculum, and school context to
reason about events that occur while simultaneously attending to the four dimen-
sions of equity as teachers make instructional decisions. For example, when teach-
ers provide students with opportunities to engage in high-quality, appropriate tasks,
students are given access to learn rigorous mathematics and feel a sense of empow-
erment as they develop the strategies and skills necessary to use mathematics to
change the world. Moreover, students’ identities are shaped by agentive opportuni-
ties to participate. It is the role of the teacher to develop experiences and guide dis-
cussions so all students, particularly those from non-dominant backgrounds, have
opportunities to develop strong mathematical identities. Conducting an empirical
study that uses the equity noticing framework to focus on what PSTs attend to in
classroom situations can add to this research and is critical to disrupt existing ineq-
uities in students’ learning experiences.

Method

In this chapter, we describe an activity used in our elementary mathematics methods

course that was designed to encourage PSTs to face existing (and often hidden) bias
in order to alter unproductive beliefs and consequently broaden their ways of seeing.
We view this as an essential activity to help PSTs (a) develop an awareness of equity,
(b) define what equity means in classroom instruction, and (c) implement equity prac-
tices within the mathematics classroom. We examined what PSTs noticed about stu-
dents’ mathematical thinking and its relation to culture, home, and community.
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 269

PSTs from four different universities in the southeast, Midwest, and north-
east sections of the United States participated in the study. All participants were
within 1 year of student teaching. The demographics of the PSTs reflected
demographic patterns of elementary education majors at our universities and
included 92.2% White females, 3.7% White males, 0.3% Latino, 1.4% Asian
females, and 2.7% African American females. These demographics continue to
support the existing data that a less diverse population of PSTs is facing an ever-
increasing diverse population of students in our public school systems (Hussar
& Bailey, 2016).

The Vignette

To access PSTs’ thoughts and ideas on issues related to equity in the mathematics
classroom, we used classroom vignettes to identify what they noticed. Each vignette
represented a different scenario that potentially challenged students’ equitable
access to high-quality mathematics. The five authentic topics focused on the follow-
ing teachers: (a) one who exhibits gender bias for class participation, (b) one with
preconceived biases that cause him/her to withdraw from students who are from
different backgrounds than himself/herself, (c) an instructor who does not take time
to develop relationships with his/her racially diverse students, (d) one who recom-
mends a new English learner with limited English proficiency for special education
services without adequately assessing the student’s content knowledge, and (e) a
teacher who is frustrated with a student who is above grade level in mathematics
and exhibits disruptive classroom behavior. For this chapter, we describe what the
PSTs attended to in their responses to the vignette that involved Eric, an African
American male, who was above grade level in mathematics but was disruptive dur-
ing mathematics instruction (see Fig.  16.2) because the case provided the most
information regarding how PSTs attended to students’ actions and mathematical
thinking and its relation to culture, home, and community.

Fig. 16.2  Vignette of Eric and corresponding reflection questions

270 C. Jackson et al.

Fig. 16.3  Modified Eric[a] vignette

After conducting an initial analysis of PSTs’ responses on the Eric vignette, we

wondered if we would have the same results if Eric was White and if Eric was
changed to a female, Erica, who was White or African American. Consequently, we
administered a modified version of the Eric vignette to our students the following
semester. In the modified version, we included an example of the student’s strategy
for solving a mathematics problem to further emphasize and provide PSTs an
opportunity to examine a student’s mathematical thinking, and we varied the demo-
graphics of the student by race (African American or White) and sex (male [Eric] or
female [Erica]) while keeping all other characteristics and descriptions constant
(see Fig.  16.3). We noticed a dichotomy of what the PSTs perceived between
Eric[a]’s mathematical understanding and his/her disruptive behavior during a
mathematics lesson.
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 271

Data Collection and Data Analysis

To access the PSTs’ thoughts and ideas on issues related to equity in the mathemat-
ics classroom, we used classroom vignettes that represented situations that poten-
tially challenged students’ equitable access to high-quality mathematics.
Data Collection  The PSTs (n = 180) were asked to respond to the five vignettes
described earlier that focused on authentic topics for pedagogical discussions
related to teachers facing equity issues. To help ensure all PSTs fully participated in
the class discussion, each PST independently read and responded to corresponding
reflection questions for each vignette. Using a modified version of “jigsaw,” a coop-
erative learning structure (McGuire, 2006), the PSTs were divided into five groups,
where each group was randomly assigned a specific vignette and asked to discuss
their responses, which were audio-recorded and transcribed. The PSTs recorded
their thoughts to the guiding questions that accompanied their case on chart paper,
and an expert was selected from each small group to share their results with other
members in the class. Everyone from each group, except the expert, rotated from
vignette to vignette and listened to the “expert” report the group’s analysis of the
situation before the PSTs shared their individual thoughts pertaining to the events in
the vignette. At the conclusion of the discussion, the PSTs recorded their thoughts
and ideas on post-it notes that were placed on chart paper. Once the PSTs finished
rotating to each of the other four groups, they returned to their original group where
the expert shared what he/she learned from the discussions with the other groups.
Finally, the PSTs shared their thoughts and ideas on each case within a large group
discussion.
In order to accurately draw conclusions on whether the PSTs’ responses were
based on Eric’s race (i.e., African American), we modified the vignette and ran-
domly assigned it to our PSTs. The PSTs (n = 114) at three universities were ran-
domly assigned three vignettes (i.e., White Eric, White Erica, African American
Erica) as comparison cases to the vignette with African American Eric, which was
previously administered. The PSTs individually responded to the prompts and dis-
cussed their responses in a small group setting with those who were assigned the
same student  – White Eric, White Erica, or African American Erica. The PSTs
recorded their thoughts and ideas that were most salient on a chart paper, which was
shared with the class. During a whole group discussion, the PSTs identified the
similarities and noted key differences within and across the responses to each
vignette. Thus, the data collected for this study included PSTs’ individual responses
to the prompts, collective chart paper responses, and class discussion.
Data Analysis  To analyze the data for evidence of the three levels of noticing
across the four dimensions of equity, we (i.e., each author) independently coded the
data and wrote analytical memos. We met throughout the process to verify that the
coding was consistent and to resolve any differences, first through refining the code
272 C. Jackson et al.

Table 16.1  Coding dictionary

Access Achievement Identity Power
Noticing level The task was to “He is above grade “Why does it “Erica harasses
1: attention find the level in matter the other children”
difference mathematics.” “The specifically that
between 179 child has the correct he is white and
and 354 answer” good-looking?”
Noticing level “If he is truly “I personally think “Erica has a “If Erica is held
2: interpretation above grade that her way of mathematical accountable for
level in thinking is crazy yet mind and is new and more
mathematics, intriguing. She capable of challenging
and he is actingsubtracted each expanding her learning, she may
out during the place value and then knowledge much sustain from
math lessons, took the remaining further at this causing more
she needs to numbers and time.” “Erica has trouble in the
give him harder subtracted those. some serious classroom.” “This
assignments” Erica took problems. It took me about
300 − 100 to get the sounds like it 10 min to figure
200; she took starts at home out, which is why
50 − 70 to get −20; and continues it should not be
and she took 4 − 9 over to school” recommended for
to get −5. After students to use”
those steps, she took
the 200 − 20 to get
180 and then
180 − 5 to get a
final answer of 175”
Noticing level “I would try to “I would make sure “I would have “If I wanted her to
3: provide work I am not attacking Erica be my do the problem
implementation/ for Erica that him but point out special math the way I taught
instructional provides a that his disruption is scientist. I would it, then I would sit
decisions challenge for robbing his have her help down with her and
her. I would classmates of a students when ask her how she
also see if there chance to learn, as she is finished. solved it and then
was a more well as himself.” “I She can be like tell her that I
advanced math would put Eric in a my STA (student would like it to be
class that she place by himself, so teacher done the way I
could switch he cannot harass assistant)” taught it”
to” anyone”
Note: All of the codes in each cell are from the data except noticing level 1/access. There was not
any data for this cell, so we included a representative code

definitions and then through discussions of the coding until agreement was reached
(see Table 16.1 for coding dictionary). We then quantified the number of “referring
responses” (total n = 632), which represented the number of references the PSTs
made for each coding category (i.e., noticing level 1: attention/access).
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 273

Results

In this study, we examined what PSTs noticed and attended to when the student in
the classroom vignette was an African American male, White male, African
American female, and White female. In this section, we discuss what the PSTs
attended to within each of the three levels of noticing and across the four dimen-
sions of equity. In addition, we not only identify what PSTs noticed in relation to
Eric[a], but we also describe how these findings were similar or varied depending
on the race and sex of the student.

Overview

When looking across the data, the findings demonstrated how the PSTs’ responses
corresponded to the three levels of noticing and how the percentage of total responses
focused on each dimension of equity (see Table 16.2).
The first level of noticing – attention – had the fewest references, with only 8.2%
of the responses, while about 39% of the PSTs’ responses were in level 2 noticing –
interpretation. The majority of the responses from the PSTs focused on their instruc-
tional decisions, with over half of the references corresponding to level 3
noticing  – implementation. While these data are interesting, it is not surprising
given that one of the prompts specifically asked the PSTs “what would you do if you
were Ms. Maben?” Consequently, these results also serve as a continued reminder

Table 16.2  Prospective teachers’ level of noticing within the dimensions of equity

Access Achievement Identity Power TOTAL

Noticing level 0 40 1 11 52
1: attention 0% 19.0% 0.9% 5.3% 8.2%
0% 76.9% 1.9% 21.2%
Noticing level 21 119 26 83 249
2: interpretation 20.2% 56.7% 23.2% 40.3% 39.4%
8.4% 47.8% 10.4% 33.3%
Noticing level 83 51 85 112 331
3: 79.8% 24.3% 75.9% 54.4% 52.4%
implementation/ 25.1% 15.4% 25.7% 33.8%
instructional
decisions
TOTAL 104 210 112 206
632
16.5% 33.2% 17.7% 32.6%

Note: Purple percentages indicate percent of the dimensions of equity, while the blue percentages
indicate the percent of the levels of noticing
274 C. Jackson et al.

Table 16.3  Noticing level 1: attention – what is noteworthy?

Access Achievement Identity Power TOTAL TOTAL
African 0 9 0 2
11
American 0% 22.5% 0% 18.2%
21.2%
ERIC 0% 81.8% 0% 18.2% 39
African 0 19 0 9 75%
American 28
0% 47.5% 0% 81.8%
ERICA 53.8%
0% 67.9% 0% 32.1%
White 0 2 1 0
3
ERIC 0% 5% 100% 0%
5.8%
0% 66.7% 33.3% 0% 13
White 0 10 0 0 25%
10
ERICA 0% 25% 0% 0%
19.2%
0% 100% 0% 0%
TOTAL 0 40 1 11
52
0% 76.9% 1.9% 21.2%
Note: Purple percentages indicate percent of the dimensions of equity, while the red percentages
indicate the percent of the student’s demographics

that the tasks teacher educators provide PSTs – and the questions that are posed –
may implicitly, or purposefully, guide what PSTs attend to and subsequently learn.
Across the three levels of noticing, the majority of the references corresponded
to achievement (33.2%) and power (32.6%). This result implies that PSTs are
focused on student outcomes, such as the correctness of a student’s mathematical
response, as well as the opportunities for, and the hindrances to, classroom partici-
pation. Moreover, these data suggest PSTs seem to view the role of the classroom
teacher as one who maintains order and control, which often reflects privilege, and
in some cases stifles the student’s voice in the classroom. Throughout the total
responses, the PSTs’ attention to developing tasks (access) and reflecting on draw-
ing upon Eric[a]’s identity was less prominent.
In the subsequent sections, we provide a detailed explanation of each level of
noticing and discuss how the four dimensions of equity are addressed. Specifically,
we describe the disparities that emerged across race and sex to answer the research
question underlying this study: What do prospective teachers notice and attend to
when the student in the vignette is an African American male, White male, African
American female, and White female?

Noticing Level 1: Attention – What Is Noteworthy?

The majority of references (76.9%) in the first level of noticing are related to
achievement (see Table 16.3), which seems to imply that PSTs mainly focused on
outcomes and answers. While references to power within this level occurred less
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 275

often (21.2%), the responses were generally related to classroom management and
behavioral issues (e.g., “Erica harasses the other children”). And, of the 52 total
references at noticing level 1, only one of the PSTs’ responses corresponded to
identity (1.9%), while none referenced access.
Achievement  Of the 40 references that corresponded to achievement, 37 stated
either Eric[a] was above grade level or had the correct answer. Furthermore, only in
the responses for Erica did the PSTs indicate the student had the correct answer,
whereas when PSTs discussed retention and limited reading skills, these responses
were only in reference to African American Eric. Moreover, when closely examin-
ing discrepancies between races, 70% of the PSTs’ references in achievement were
for the African American students. While this may seem arbitrary, it leads us to
question if this finding implies that PSTs are more inclined to notice and attend to
achievement for African American students when they were identified as high
achievers in mathematics. It appears that PSTs expect mathematical success for
White males (5% of the achievement responses); therefore, the fact a White male
was above grade level in mathematics seems “normal” to PSTs, whereas the success
was more “noteworthy” for all of the other students.

Identity  The only identity reference at this level was for White Eric, and the PST
stated, “Why does it matter that he is white and good-looking?” By asking this ques-
tion, the PST dismisses the socialization of race and the treatment of students based
on looks. It has been documented that nicer-looking people are treated more favor-
ably than those who are not (Olson & Marshuetz, 2005), and often the attractive
student’s misbehaviors are overlooked, or they are given a lighter consequence.

Power  References attending to privilege, position, control, and voice comprised

21.2% of the responses. Examining the disaggregated responses more closely
reveals that all of the power references were for African American Eric[a]. In these
responses, the PSTs attended to and recorded the description that the student was
harassing other students or was disruptive by throwing paper and closing books.

 oticing Level 2: Interpretation – Connections to Principles

N
of Teaching and Learning

At the noticing level 2 – interpretation – more than 70% of the references were for
the African American students (see Table 16.4), and within each race the number of
references for females was about twice as much as the males. Females also domi-
nated the responses in achievement with 73.1% of the references. In addition, within
this level of noticing, the references within achievement (47.8%) were the highest,
followed by power (33.3%). This result implies PSTs were mainly focusing their
responses on outcomes and interpreting the vignette through the lens of a dominant
voice or control in the classroom, particularly for African American students.
276 C. Jackson et al.

Table 16.4  Noticing level 2: interpretation – connections to principles of teaching and learning

Access Achievement Identity Power TOTAL TOTAL

African 5 24 7 34
70
American 23.8% 20.2% 26.9% 41%
28.1%
ERIC 7.1% 34.3% 10% 48.6% 178
African 11 58 15 24 71.5%
108
American 52.4% 48.7% 57.7% 28.9%
43.4%
ERICA 10.2% 53.7% 13.9% 22.2%
White 2 8 2 11
23
ERIC 9.5% 6.7% 7.7% 13.3%
9.2%
8.7% 34.8% 8.7% 47.8% 71
White 3 29 2 14 28.5%
48
ERICA 14.3% 24.4% 7.7% 16.9%
19.3%
6.3% 60.4% 4.2% 29.2%
TOTAL 21 119 26 83
249
8.4% 47.8% 10.4% 33.3%
Note: Purple percentages indicate percent of the dimensions of equity, while the red percentages
indicate the percent of the student’s demographics

Access  Within access, 95.2% of the references indicated that the PSTs perceived the
student was not challenged, and 75% of these responses were in reference to the
African American students. For example, one PST noted, “It sounds like [African
American] Eric is not being pushed hard enough and there might be an issue with the
expectations of him.” Similarly, another PST stated, “I believe the reason he [White
Eric] is being disruptive is because the math lessons are probably too simple or easy
for him.” While the responses for Eric focused on why he was disruptive, responses
centering on Ms. Maben’s frustration, which inhibits student’s access to rigorous
mathematical tasks, were predominantly for the African American students.

Achievement  Approximately 30% of the PSTs responses stated Eric[a] was bored,
which may hinder the student’s participation, as one of the reasons why he/she was
causing disruptions. For example, a PST suggested, “[African American] Eric is
very smart in the subject of mathematics so acting out may be caused by boredom.”
Another PST offered, “[African American Erica] is bored and that is why she only
bothers other students during math class.”
In relation to Eric[a]’s mathematical thinking, some of the PSTs understood the
student’s thinking and articulated how the student solved the problem. For example,
a PST commented [African American] Erica used the “place value method” to solve
the problem. The PST went on to explain the student’s understanding:
Subtracting 5 from 179 give 174 making it easier to compare to 354. Giving a −5. Looking
at the ones & tens place it is easy to see that −20 is the difference between 54 and 74. Next
comparing the hundreds place you can see that 300 − 100 is 200. Erica is left with 200,
−20, and −5 which once added [is] 175.
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 277

Unfortunately, 45.9% of the PSTs’ references revealed they did not understand the
student’s mathematical strategy for solving the subtraction problem. A PST
articulated,
I am unsure how she arrived at the solution. It is correct which also confuses me because I
am uncertain how she got to the right answer. I understand how she got the (−5) but then I
am unclear where the 200 and −20 come from.

Another PST stated, “I can’t tell what her logic is with the math. I can’t tell the
beginning steps of her system.” It is interesting to note that some of the PSTs inter-
preted African American Erica’s mathematical thinking as an attempt to avoid the
mathematics. None of the responses for African American Eric related to interpret-
ing his mathematical thinking. Instead, the PSTs suggested African American Eric
had a learning disability in mathematics and should be held back a grade level.
Identity  Over 80% of the references for identity were for the African American
students with a considerable focus on the difficult home life. For African American
Erica, 11 of the 20 responses addressed her difficult home situation. For example,
“She [African American Erica] has a lot of emotions and is looking for a way to
solve them.” On the other hand, it is interesting to note that two references identified
African American Erica as one with a “mathematical mind.” Moreover, out of the
three references regarding the size of the student, two indicated African American
Eric would be “much bigger” than the other students and interpreted his identity as
that of a bully. For example, one PST stated, “I would talk to him about being a
bully to other students.”

Power  About 70% of the references in power corresponded to the African American
students. Moreover, these responses were more negative when compared to the
responses for the White students. For example, a PST explained, “[African American]
Eric would be a great student that could really benefit from being held back this year
so that he could grow and learn to practice age appropriate behaviors and gain the
reading skills he needs to move on.” This PST’s comment completely disregarded the
fact that Eric was above grade level in mathematics. For White Eric, a PST com-
mented, “Once he is engaged in the lessons, the disruptive behavior will stop.”
The PSTs (45.7% of the referring responses) primarily focused on the need for
the student to have attention and or control in the classroom. One PST stated, “I
think [White] Erica is doing extra steps and going around the problem for extra
attention. She knows the teacher is going to spend time talking to her if she does the
problem wrong.” In addition, the PSTs only indicated that African American Erica
should be “held responsible for the actions.”
It was reassuring, however, that 14 responses explicitly identified the need to
empower or bring voice to Eric[a] by making adjustments to Ms. Maben’s teaching.
One PST mentioned, “there could be judgments about his [African American Eric]
race that are unfair, just because he is being disruptive.” While there were no explicit
implications for instruction listed, these highlight that a small number of PSTs are
278 C. Jackson et al.

Table 16.5  Noticing level 3: implementation actions such as instructional or pedagogical

strategies

Access Achievement Identity Power TOTAL TOTAL

African 39 22 44 42
147
American 47% 43.1% 51.8% 37.5%
44.4%
ERIC 26.5% 15% 30% 28.6% 251
African 30 17 22 35 75.8%
104
American 36.1% 33.3% 25.9% 31.3%
31.4%
ERICA 28.8% 16.3% 21.2% 33.7%
White 9 6 6 14
35
ERIC 10.8% 11.8% 7% 12.5%
10.6%
25.7% 17.1% 17.1% 40% 80
White 5 6 13 21 24.2%
45
ERICA 6% 11.8% 15.3% 18.8%
13.6%
11.1% 13.3% 28.9% 46.7%
TOTAL 83 51 85 112
331
25.1% 15.4 % 25.7% 33.8%
Note: Purple percentages indicate percent of the dimensions of equity, while the red percentages
indicate the percent of the student’s demographics

beginning to interpret the situation as an area that can be altered by conscious peda-
gogical actions that address the needs of the students.

 oticing Level 3: Implementation Actions Such as Instructional

N
or Pedagogical Strategies

The third level of noticing had the largest number (331/632, or 52.4%) of total refer-
ences (see Table 16.5). In this level, the PSTs focused mainly on actions that would
reflect power, control, and voice in the classroom (33.8%) and emphasis on peda-
gogical decisions that correspond to identity (25.7%) and access (25.1%).
Access  Instructional actions that corresponded to access were those that related to
tasks, resources, or tools that provide Eric[a] with opportunities to learn challenging
and rigorous mathematics. Some of these actions benefited and challenged the stu-
dent, while others potentially inhibited the student’s access to high-quality and
appropriately challenging mathematics. One PST stated the job of the classroom
teacher is to “make sure that a student is being challenged and engaged on a level
that is appropriate for them.” Noticing and supporting the need to select appropri-
ately challenging tasks for Eric[a] indicated that the PSTs did recognize increasing
rigor, and stimulating the student’s thinking was a viable strategy to quell the issues
related to behavior. In fact, one PST wrote, “I would provide [African American
Erica] with more challenging math concepts to deepen her thinking, hoping that will
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 279

curve some of the disruptions.” Another PST stated, “[African American] Eric needs
to have access to more difficult problems to deepen his thinking.”
While some PSTs stated they would give the student challenging problems, other
PSTs commented they would give Eric more work, essentially “busy work.”
Responses referencing “busy work” seemed to overlook the possibility that Eric
was not receiving appropriate assignments, and instead of reflecting on and explor-
ing opportunities to stimulate the student’s thinking through high-quality tasks that
appropriately and effectively challenged Eric, the PSTs merely indicated the need to
increase the quantity of the work. Decisions such as these serve as additional obsta-
cles in providing access to high-quality mathematics instruction. While most of the
references (66.3%) within access indicate actions that would benefit the student,
such as providing more challenging work or including the student in advanced
classes or grade levels, the remaining references either ignored Eric[a]’s mathemati-
cal needs (i.e., focusing on tutoring for literacy) or suggested providing one-on-one
practice to make sure Eric[a] understood the mathematics.
Achievement  Approximately 32% of the PSTs’ responses referred to addressing
classroom management to further support the student’s participation and outcomes.
While classroom management was a component of each of the vignettes, actions
such as separating the student or isolating Eric[a] from the rest of the mathematical
community were more commonly referenced for the African American students. In
fact, of the 51 responses in achievement, 27 of these were specific references to
removing African American Eric[a] from the group (17 males and 10 females). One
PST expressed that African American Eric’s behavior was such an obstacle that he
should not continue with his peers to the next grade level. This is alarming because
although Eric was noted in the vignette to be above grade level in mathematics,
PSTs inhibited his participation in appropriate mathematical opportunities by disre-
garding his academic aptitude and instead focused solely on his behavior.
In looking at differences among males and females, the only times the PSTs
referenced they would have the student share their thinking was in reference to
Erica, and this occurred twice as much for African American Erica because the
PSTs wanted to ensure she had the correct understanding of the problem. One PST
suggested, “I would have [African American] Erica share her strategies with the rest
of the class since they are so different.”
Identity  In the third level of noticing, the PSTs identified positive roles and posi-
tions for the student that would encourage him or her to identify as a contributing
member of the classroom community. While not all of the suggested roles and
responsibilities corresponded to Eric[a]’s identified success in mathematics, the
responses did encourage the student to take a more leadership role in the classroom.
For example, one PST expressed,

I would make [African American] Eric the classroom leader and give him jobs to do around
the classroom like having him turn the lights on and off and having him sharpen the pencils.
This will make him feel more like he is a part of the classroom and hopefully it will make
him more of a helper than someone who disrupts other students’ work.
280 C. Jackson et al.

While references to African American Eric were the only ones that reflected roles
and responsibilities that did not relate specifically to mathematics, references for
African American Eric[a]’s leadership roles, like those for White Eric[a], regularly
did involve offering roles to teach peers such as “pairing her up with a lower level
math student,” “allowing him to be the teacher,” or inviting her “to be my special
math scientist.”
It was reassuring that the PSTs noticed the need to develop students’ identities as
mathematicians and positive members of the classroom culture by connecting with
the student and providing systems of support. For example, one PST claimed, “stu-
dents just want love and attention. This is why I think it is so important to create a
caring community in the classroom. I truly believe that when students trust and feel
loved and accepted, they will perform much better in school.” Another PST stated,
“I think the issues could be solved by just letting Erica know there is someone who
cares.” The PSTs also noticed the former abuse in Eric[a]’s past and recognized the
student’s stressful living situations can negatively impact a student and may be
exhibited through defiant or inappropriate behavior. Consequently, several PSTs
saw the need to create a place in which Eric would feel safe and secure. One PST
articulated,
I think that the student is acting up because of his home life and I have seen this many times.
Yes, you should have clear, set rules in class, but as an educator you should take the time to
see where the student is coming from and maybe provide resources such as counseling.

Despite the PSTs’ reference to develop a caring classroom environment for all stu-
dents, the PSTs identified the need to have culturally relevant pedagogy for all of the
students except White Eric. A larger number of these connections were made for
White Erica – by mostly White female PSTs.
Power  Several of the PSTs’ responses focused on positive pedagogical practices
such as mentoring or personally connecting with the student. For example, family
discussions with the grandmother to glean ideas that would support Eric[a] had the
greatest number of references within power, and providing a positive role model/
mentor was more focused on African American Eric. Moreover, recognizing the
issues at home and considering referrals to the guidance counselor were also viewed
as considering Eric[a]’s needs. Finally, putting a reward system in place that would
provide positive reinforcement through praise and tokens was suggested by several
PSTs. In each of these cases, these references were made more often for African
American Eric[a], than for the White counterpart.
Despite these more positive interventions and instructional strategies, a large
number of the PSTs’ responses focused on “support” systems that could potentially
disempower the student and cause Eric[a] to lose his/her voice in the classroom.
Actions such as discrediting the student’s voice by not allowing Eric[a] to solve the
problem in the way that is both mathematically correct and makes sense to him/her
were discouraging. For example, one PST explained that White Erica was only
using this strategy to be defiant and more difficult. Responses like this are quite
alarming because mathematics teacher educators not only want to prepare PSTs
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 281

with a deep conceptual understanding of the mathematics but to also be prepared to

accept multiple strategies as viable approaches to solving mathematical problems.
More worrisome is the disproportional distribution of these less beneficial prac-
tices for males and African American students. For example, none of the PSTs
responses for African American Eric encouraged him to justify his mathematical
thinking. In addition, the PSTs argued that the mathematical strategy Erica (both
African American and White) used should align with the teacher’s.

Discussion

We used the equity noticing framework to examine what PSTs attended to in a class-
room vignette and how these observations, interpretations, and instructional deci-
sions compared across race and sex. Because of the dichotomy the PSTs perceived
of Eric[a], his/her mathematical knowledge and the disruptive behavior exhibited
during the mathematics lesson, the responses to the vignette provided an opportu-
nity to reveal hidden biases in PSTs’ noticing.
The results of this study tell a very interesting tale of what PSTs noticed across
the four dimensions of equity both within and among each level of noticing. Some
of the most telling results included references to stereotypes within and across both
race and sex. For example, when examining the referring responses by sex, a larger
percentage of references were made when Erica shared her mathematical thinking,
had the correct answer, and completed the problem as the teacher instructed,
whereas a greater percentage of references for Eric corresponded to giving him
“busy work” that was not cognitively demanding.
When examining disparities across race, the largest number of references across
the four dimensions of equity and three levels of noticing is related to the African
American students. For example, the PSTs attended to the African American students’
achievement across all levels of noticing. This is particularly interesting because sev-
eral references often indicated the PSTs’ desire to remove the African American stu-
dent from the classroom, which could result in the student falling behind due to lack
of instruction. On the other hand, the PSTs’ responses indicated they would remove
White Eric[a] from his/her group but keep him/her in the classroom. The PSTs were
more cognizant of and had more negative consequences for African American Eric[a]’s
disruptive behavior. It was alarming that the PSTs stated African American Eric
should be held back a grade level to learn appropriate behaviors.
Although the PSTs shared culturally relevant practices for the African American
students, they were more adept to suggest culturally relevant strategies for White
Erica. It was interesting that none of the responses related to culturally relevant
pedagogy were for White Eric. This appears to indicate the PSTs did not think they
needed to make explicit connections to White Eric’s culture, which may be because
White males are considered dominant in the Western society. Therefore, because of
the privilege and dominance that exist for White males, cultural relevance is unnec-
essary because the connections are already being made for him.
282 C. Jackson et al.

Furthermore, the PSTs referenced all the students should be given a leadership
role in the mathematics classroom. The leadership roles ascribed to African
American Eric, however, were unrelated to mathematics, while the suggested lead-
ership roles for the White students were directly and explicitly related to mathemat-
ics and mathematics instruction.
Finally, the PSTs alluded to the importance of the students having role models.
This was more evident for African American Eric, which may indicate the stereo-
typical view that PSTs contend African American families lack male role models in
the home. It is also interesting the PSTs did not state White Erica needed a role
model or mentor. This could be because the PSTs may have viewed themselves as
White Erica’s role model since the majority of the PSTs were White females.
The results of this study provide an initial glimpse into what PSTs attend to, and
through a comparative analysis of the demographic variation in the provided Eric[a]
vignette, we documented how PSTs perceived issues of equity when a single classroom
episode was represented where only the race and sex of the student were changed.
Several results found in the study indicate distinct discrepancies – not only between
races but also between males and females  – which can be detrimental for particular
populations if not explicitly and carefully addressed in teacher education programs.
The results from this study provide implications for mathematics teacher educa-
tors in that PSTs must have additional opportunities to discuss the impact of stu-
dents’ cultural identity and perceptions of themselves within the mathematics
community as well as the resources, tasks, and tools that provide access to learn
mathematics. Teachers cannot attend to everything that occurs in a classroom; thus
they must make choices – whether consciously or subconsciously – about what they
notice. In several responses, the PSTs directly and explicitly identified the student
as the sole source of the problem or disruption that was occurring in the mathemat-
ics classroom without critically reflecting on how the teacher’s actions or home
events potentially contributed to Eric[a]’s outbursts. From these responses, it was
evident that a large proportion of the PSTs first noticed the behaviors – even without
explicitly identifying them in their written responses – and wanted to “deal with”
Eric[a]’s actions. While this attribution may be expected of PSTs, it is important that
mathematics teacher educators help PSTs focus on what they are and are not attend-
ing to in their instruction that may cause students’ disruptive behavior.
The data from Eric[a]’s vignette provides an opportunity for mathematics teacher
educators to reflect on how equity issues are addressed in their mathematics meth-
ods courses. Moreover, the results may prompt teacher educators to consider how to
design tasks and activities that purposefully and explicitly address equity in math-
ematics education by supporting productive actions, while simultaneously bringing
awareness to and challenging PSTs’ stereotypes, hidden biases, and unproductive
beliefs about students from diverse backgrounds. In order to create opportunities
that foreground an equity-centered approach to mathematics teaching and learning,
we, as mathematics teacher educators, must recognize what PSTs attend to as they
direct their attention to various classroom events and how what they notice relates
the events to broader principles of teaching and learning.
16  Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use… 283

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Chapter 17
Using Concept Maps in Teacher
Education: Building Connections
Among Multiple Mathematical Knowledge
Bases and Assessing Mathematical
Understanding

Lynette DeAun Guzmán

Abstract  A role of teacher education programs is to provide support for prospec-

tive teachers to develop professional skills that are specific to and required for
teaching. Mathematics teacher educators may provide opportunities for prospective
teachers to recognize and validate children’s many ways of knowing mathematics,
which is especially powerful for addressing the needs of students who are marginal-
ized in mathematics classrooms. This study investigates how 20 prospective ele-
mentary teachers in a mathematics methods course made connections among
children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases in their thinking about assessing
children’s understanding of fractions. This paper focuses on using concept-mapping
tasks as a research tool and a pedagogical tool in supporting prospective teachers in
addressing the needs of marginalized students through building stronger connec-
tions among concepts related to children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases,
teaching practices, and mathematics content. Findings suggest that prospective
teachers made more connections to children’s multiple mathematical knowledge
bases in their end of semester concept maps; however, these connections used more
general language than specific examples of children’s multiple mathematical knowl-
edge bases. One potential entry point to better support these connections involves
emphasizing high-level tasks as a concept related to teaching practices that connects
to both children’s mathematical thinking and children’s lives and experiences.
Considerations and implications for teacher education include a focus on the role of
assessment to serve the needs of all students, especially those who have been his-
torically marginalized in the mathematics classroom, and explicit attention to whose
multiple mathematical knowledge bases are represented in concept maps.

L. D. Guzmán (*)
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 287

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_17
288 L. D. Guzmán

Introduction

Equity and social justice efforts in education and educational research are multifac-
eted. In mathematics education, some researchers have explored such efforts
through supporting teachers to engage in equitable practices that recognize stu-
dents’ identities and knowledges (e.g., Aguirre, Mayfield-Ingram, & Martin, 2013).
Mathematics teacher educators may provide opportunities for prospective teachers
to recognize and validate children’s many ways of knowing mathematics, which is
especially powerful for addressing the needs of students historically marginalized in
the mathematics classroom by narrow perspectives about mathematics teaching and
learning (Aguirre, 2009; Gutiérrez, 2013).
One approach to support this goal in mathematics education research emphasizes
the importance of eliciting and building on children’s mathematical thinking in
teaching mathematics by attending to students’ multiple solution strategies (e.g.,
Carpenter, Fennema, Peterson, Chiang, & Loef, 1989; Jacobs, Lamb, & Philipp,
2010). Extending this focus on children’s mathematical thinking, more recent
research calls for incorporating children’s home and community-based funds of
knowledge—termed by Vélez-Ibáñez (1988) to refer to an array of historical and
cultural knowledges and skills—in mathematics teaching to support student learn-
ing (e.g., Aguirre et al., 2012).
When teachers consider both children’s mathematical thinking and children’s
home and community-based mathematical funds of knowledge, they ultimately
have more resources to draw upon and inform their teaching practice to design
meaningful classroom experiences that incorporate their students’ knowledges and
experiences both inside and outside the mathematics classroom (Aguirre et  al.,
2012; Vélez-Ibáñez & Greenberg, 1992). There is limited research, however, on how
prospective teachers connect these two practices—assessing children’s understand-
ing of mathematics and incorporating children’s mathematical thinking (Aguirre
et al., 2012)—in the classroom. This work seeks to further understand how prospec-
tive teachers make sense of both of these practices together as part of a coherent
effort to engage equity-oriented practices in mathematics education.
The purpose of this study is to explore prospective elementary teachers’ (PSTs’)
thinking about connections between children’s multiple mathematical knowledge
bases and assessing children’s mathematical understanding. In this chapter, I address
the following research question: In what ways do prospective elementary teachers
link concepts related to children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases with the
root concept of assessing children’s understanding of fractions during concept-­
mapping activities?

Literature

As González, Andrade, Civil, and Moll (2001) pointed out, humans, as sociocultural
beings, are inseparable from their social worlds. Drawing on a diversity of histories
and cultures can provide windows for some students to learn about people in the
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 289

world and mirrors for some students to see themselves as people who engage with
mathematics. Therefore, ways of knowing mathematics cannot be reduced to indi-
vidual traits. Conceptualizing ways of knowing mathematics, Nasir, Hand, and
Taylor (2008) argued that mathematics knowledge is fundamentally linked to cul-
tural practices. Many scholars have also highlighted this argument through their
studies of out-of-school mathematical practices (e.g., Carraher, Carraher, &
Schliemann, 1985; Nasir, 2002; Saxe, 1988; Taylor, 2009). Researchers have also
pointed to evidence that indicates all children, regardless of demographic groups,
participate in multiple forms of mathematical play outside of the mathematics class-
room (e.g., Parks, 2015). Mathematics, from these perspectives, is not limited to a
formalized body of knowledge. Instead, this scholarship validates multiple practices
and ways of meaning making involving mathematical ideas.
Mathematics teacher educators could provide opportunities for PSTs to highlight
children’s multiple ways of knowing mathematics through teaching practices that
foreground commitments to equity in mathematics education, such as focusing on
children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases (e.g., Aguirre et al., 2012; Turner
et al., 2012) or culturally responsive assessment of children’s learning. In the fol-
lowing sections, I briefly discuss this literature in order to situate an equity-oriented
focus of this work in mathematics teacher education. Lastly, I examine research that
uses concept mapping as a tool in teacher education—one that might function as
both a learning tool for PST reflection and an evaluation tool for teacher
educators.

Children’s Multiple Mathematical Knowledge Bases

As noted above, mathematics education research has documented the importance of

eliciting and building on children’s mathematical thinking in teaching mathematics
(e.g., Carpenter, et al., 1989; Jacobs et al., 2010). More recent research also calls for
incorporating students’ home and community-based mathematical funds of knowl-
edge—defined as “historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of
knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-­
being” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992, p. 133)—in mathematics teaching to
support student learning of mathematics with a broader range of resources (Aguirre
et al., 2012; Turner et al., 2012). For example, Aguirre and colleagues (2012) call for
drawing on children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases (MMKB) in mathe-
matics instruction, where MMKB includes children’s mathematical thinking and
children’s community, linguistic, and cultural funds of knowledge.
Considering children’s MMKB provides more resources for teachers to draw
upon to inform their instructional practice while aligning with a sociocultural per-
spective of teaching and learning mathematics. In turn, mathematics teacher educa-
tors might encourage and support PSTs to make connections among children’s
MMKB by foregrounding what students do both inside and outside their classroom
communities. By building stronger connections to children’s MMKB in mathemat-
ics instruction, teachers may support their students’ learning in powerful ways by
290 L. D. Guzmán

connecting students’ lives and experiences to their mathematics classroom

community.
Connecting children’s MMKB in instructional practice might also support PSTs’
engagement in mathematical practice. Recommendations in The Mathematical
Education of Teachers II (Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, 2012)
suggest that PSTs should have opportunities to engage in Common Core State
Standards for Mathematical Practice (CCSSM, 2010) and “to mathematize situa-
tions by focusing on the mathematical aspects of a situation and formulating them
in mathematical terms” (Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, 2012,
p.  33). In particular, MET II connects mathematizing situations to Standard for
Mathematical Practice 4: “Model with mathematics” (CCSSM, 2010, p. 7). These
recommendations suggest that teacher educators should support PSTs’ learning and
teaching of mathematics while expanding their capacity to support children’s
engagement in mathematical practice and learning of mathematics.

 ulturally Responsive Teaching and Assessment of Children’s

C
Learning

Culturally responsive teaching may be generally identified as “using cultural char-

acteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students” (Gay, 2002,
p. 106) as resources in teaching practice. Culturally responsive teaching promotes
ideas for inclusive teaching, which involves the “ways in which pedagogy, curricula
and assessment are designed and delivered to engage students in learning that is
meaningful, relevant and accessible to all” (Hockings, 2010).
Castagno and Brayboy (2008) claim that culturally responsive teaching provides
multiple entry points and opportunities to learn for students and also encourages
multiple forms of assessment for students, which maintains an equitable way for all
students to exhibit their competence. As Moschkovich (2007) convincingly showed
in her research about bilingual mathematics learners, using a sociocultural perspec-
tive toward assessment of student learning can help uncover student competencies
and support teachers in considering how to build upon those competencies in math-
ematics teaching. This focus on competencies moves away from all-too-common
deficit views of students’ mathematical understandings (Gutiérrez, 2008).
Highlighting students’ competencies is a productive way to frame formative
assessment practices. Many scholars view formative assessment as a continual
­process in which adjustment in instruction is necessary to shape future instruction
for positive gains in learning (Black & Wiliam, 2009; Popham, 2006; Shepard,
2005). Shepard (2005) noted that the purpose of formative assessment is to improve
instruction “as teachers interact with students during the course of instruction”
(p. 5). The short-cycle nature of formative assessments distinguishes it from bench-
mark or interim assessments because results may be meaningfully used for adjust-
ments in how teachers teach and in how students approach their own learning
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 291

(Popham, 2006, p. 86). I hypothesize that mathematics teachers, then, through their
various interactions with students, could draw on students’ MMKB when designing
and implementing a variety of formative assessments.
Formative assessment is not, of course, the only assessment in mathematics
classrooms; standardized tests remain ever present. Considering children’s MMKB
also applies in this context. Solano-Flores and Nelson-Barber (2001), for example,
argued that cultural validity, which refers to the “sociocultural influences that shape
student thinking” (p. 555), is a key component to accommodate student diversity in
standardized test design and implementation. Sociocultural influences include stu-
dents’ inherent cultural values, beliefs, experiences, discourses, and epistemologies.
Full accommodation and sensitivity to students’ sociocultural influences requires
consideration at the beginning of test design and cannot be accounted for merely
through language translation at the end of the test design process (Solano-Flores &
Nelson-Barber, 2001). Designing assessments that do not marginalize or disadvan-
tage students of a particular culture or language fluency is important for equitable
learning opportunities (Lyon, 2013; Solano-Flores & Trumbull, 2003).

Using Concept Maps as a Research Tool in Teacher Education

Novak and Cañas (2007) defined concept maps as “graphical tools for organizing
and representing relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line
linking two concepts” (p. 29). The research literature on concept mapping in teacher
education has provided evidence that its use as a research tool is valid and robust
(e.g., Beyerbach, 1988; Beyerbach & Smith, 1990; Hough, O’Rode, Terman, &
Weissglass, 2007; Koc, 2012; Miller et  al., 2009; Morine-Dershimer, 1993;
Varghese, 2009; Wallace & Mintzes, 1990; Williams, 1998). For example, Miller
and colleagues (2009) examined concept maps as a research tool by studying pre-
and post-­concept maps of 251 prospective and practicing teachers. The authors used
a concept map scoring method (Novak & Gowin, 1984) and found that participants’
concept map scores distinguished expert to novice levels in conceptual understand-
ing and growth over time.
Scholars have also used concept map artifacts to examine teacher knowledge
about mathematics content (e.g., Hough et  al., 2007; Varghese, 2009; Williams,
1998) and knowledge about teaching skills (e.g., Koc, 2012; Miller et  al., 2009;
Morine-Dershimer, 1993). Beyerbach (1988), for example, found that PSTs reported
that concept mapping is a useful and educative task that helps them reflect on the
ways in which their understandings of topics change.
I follow Hough and colleagues (2007) to engage concept maps as a tool to exam-
ine changes in PSTs’ connections and concepts related to a main idea: assessing
children’s learning of mathematics. In particular, I draw on these authors’ methods
to engage quantitative and qualitative analyses of the content in PSTs’ concept
maps. Additionally, I combine these analyses with PSTs’ reflections on their growth
in understanding about assessing children’s learning of mathematics over the period
292 L. D. Guzmán

of a semester-long elementary mathematics methods course. The purpose of this

study is to explore PSTs’ thinking about connections between children’s MMKB
and assessing children’s mathematical understanding as equity-oriented practices in
mathematics education.

Method

This study was conducted within the context of a larger research project, TEACH
Math, that produced modules designed to support PSTs’ integration of children’s
MMKB in their mathematics instruction (www.teachmath.info). Participants
included 20 PSTs enrolled in an elementary mathematics methods course using
these modules. All PSTs in this course were members of a specialized cohort pro-
gram designed to prepare educators qualified to work in school communities where
resources are most limited. PSTs in this cohort all took designated sections of
required teacher education courses together during their bachelor’s degree study
and also engaged in field placements at local urban area schools. Participating PSTs
reflected typical trends in terms of gender, race, class, and age—predominantly
White, middle-class, females in their early twenties (Green, 2010). All PSTs created
concept map artifacts and reflections during their regular class meeting time. The
methods course instructor allowed me to conduct research during this part of the
class and was not present during the facilitation of research activities. All names that
appear are pseudonyms. I use “they” as a singular pronoun throughout this chapter
to acknowledge that I did not ask participants for their preferred pronouns.

Data Generation

Given the intricacies of teaching practice, I selected concept mapping as a tool that
provides PSTs with an opportunity to create a representation of their thinking. I
used concept-mapping activities to examine evidence of how PSTs might link con-
cepts in their maps together and what PSTs said in their written reflections about
their maps. Based on work by Hough et al. (2007), we generated maps at the begin-
ning (pilot activity) and at the end of the methods course.

Pilot Activity

I facilitated the beginning of semester concept map activity as a pilot to inform the
design of the end of semester concept-mapping activities. First, I introduced and
explained parts of a concept map to the whole group: root, which is the main con-
cept on the map; concept, which is one idea depicted on a map by a circle or box;
and link, which is a connecting line between two concepts (Fig. 17.1). During this
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 293

Fig. 17.1  Parts of a

concept map with root,
concepts, and links

introduction, I instructed PSTs to think about our concept map activity with a net-
work structure—containing cycles and web-like interconnection—to encourage
making connections among any related concepts on their maps.
After the introduction, I provided PSTs an opportunity to individually practice
constructing a concept map with fractions as the root concept. I chose “fractions” as
the root for this exercise because it was a major topic in the mathematics methods
course in which they were enrolled. Then, I prompted PSTs to create a concept map
to represent their knowledge about assessing children’s understanding of fractions
with that main concept as the root. PSTs had the option to draw the map entirely by
hand or to write single concepts on provided sticky notes to place on a sheet of
paper. After creating concept maps, I asked PSTs to specifically think about content
in their elementary mathematics methods course, such as funds of knowledge, and
discuss potential concepts they might add to their maps. Finally, I asked each group
to create a list of concepts that they would add to their maps after thinking about and
having these discussions with their group members. They added items such as real-­
world applications, open questions, and culturally relevant problems.
Mathematics concepts were quite prevalent across concept maps in the pilot
activity. Evidence also suggested PSTs had knowledge of concepts related to chil-
dren’s MMKB, such as in the added items listed above. I used what I learned from
this pilot activity to design the end of semester concept-mapping activities, which
are the data analyzed and presented in this chapter.

End of Semester Concept Maps

Data sources for end of semester activities included individual concept maps,
researcher field notes, and individual written reflections. During the last class meet-
ing of the semester, I revisited concept map terminology (e.g., root, concept) and
the concept map activity with the whole group (e.g., create a concept map for
assessing children’s understanding of fractions). In this activity, I used the same
prompt from the pilot activity for PSTs to create a concept map to represent their
knowledge about assessing children’s understanding of fractions with that main
concept as the root.
294 L. D. Guzmán

Edited Concept Maps

After drawing an initial map, I asked PSTs to have a focused discussion in their
small groups about evidence of connections among children’s MMKB in their con-
cept maps. After a few minutes, I interrupted small group discussions to direct atten-
tion to specific concepts related to children’s MMKB that I provided on a sheet of
paper:
• Children’s mathematical thinking
• Problem-solving strategies
• Making sense of students’ mathematical ideas
• Students’ personal experiences
• Students’ interests and activities
• Students’ home and community knowledge bases
• Regular routines
• Places in community
• Funds of knowledge (e.g., cultural, community, and linguistic resources)
• [Blank spaces for PSTs to fill in their own ideas]
I compiled this list of concepts based on my review of course materials (syllabus,
assignments, and weekly course PowerPoint presentations) to match the language
used within the course context. My purpose in providing a list was twofold: (1) for
PSTs to engage in discussion about children’s MMKB with familiar language from
their methods course and (2) as a resource for PSTs to then make decisions in link-
ing these ideas within their end of semester concept maps. I asked each group to
review the list and determine if any of these concepts, including any concepts not on
this list that they came up with as a group, connected to their concept maps. I also
asked each group to discuss how they would change their concept maps to include
any of the provided concepts. I designed this activity in two parts with different
colored pens to distinguish and collect data for both parts (before and after focused
group discussion). PSTs individually revisited their concept map to make any
changes with a different colored pen. Finally, PSTs individually wrote a brief reflec-
tion (50–150 words) to a prompt about what they saw as “evidence” of children’s
MMKB in their map. Beyond connections, I wanted to also provide a space for
PSTs to share with me their thoughts on what they saw as children’s MMKB within
their concept maps.

Data Analysis

Drawing on Hough et al. (2007), I used content analysis techniques to examine links
and concepts within PSTs’ concept maps by specifically looking for evidence of
children’s MMKB in their maps. I first coded all concepts in the maps using three
initial categories based on my research question: mathematical concepts, assess-
ment, and children’s MMKB (see Table 17.1). I started analysis by coding five maps
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 295

Table 17.1  Final coding scheme with examples

Category Definition Examples
Mathematical Includes all concepts related to fractions or Numerator; reciprocal;
concepts number and operations, more broadly common denominator
Representations and Includes representations such as number Number lines; pie charts; ½
tools lines, manipulatives, and examples of
fractions
Teaching practices Includes examples of and concepts related High-level tasks; formal
to assessment, activities, tasks, and planning assessment; differentiation
Children’s Includes examples and concepts related to Problem-solving strategies;
mathematical students’ prior knowledge, solution seeing students’ thinking;
thinking strategies, common understandings and misconceptions
misconceptions
Children’s lives and Includes examples and concepts related to Funds of knowledge;
experiences children’s funds of knowledge: linguistic, culturally relevant; relate to
community, home, and cultural knowledge students’ interests

at a time with this initial coding scheme, identifying any concepts that did not seem
to fit well in any of the categories. Through multiple iterations, I refined my coding
scheme to include emergent categories based on patterns from my analysis.
Mathematical concepts remained a category, representations and tools emerged
as a new category, and I broadened the initial assessment category to include all
concepts related to teaching practices—examples of and concepts related to assess-
ment, activities, tasks, and planning. I decided to split the children’s MMKB cate-
gory (the shaded region in Table  17.1) to make a distinction between children’s
mathematical thinking and children’s lives and experiences because I wanted to
examine how PSTs represented both of these ideas in their maps. Finally, I used the
PSTs’ reflections as another source of data to examine how they saw evidence of
connections to children’s MMKB in their concept maps. After I analyzed each con-
cept map with my coding scheme, I analyzed each reflection corresponding to each
concept map to confirm some of the examples that PSTs saw as children’s mathe-
matical thinking or children’s lives and experiences. I used these PST reflections to
guide and frame the interpretations that follow.

Findings

In this section, I present examples of how PSTs linked concepts related to children’s
MMKB with the root concept of assessing children’s understanding of fractions in
their end of semester concept maps and reflections. Findings suggest that PSTs
made connections to children’s MMKB in their concept maps; however, these con-
nections used more general language as opposed to specific examples of children’s
MMKB. Furthermore, these connections did not draw attention to historically mar-
ginalized groups. Additionally, I discuss high-level tasks as a frequently linked con-
cept in PSTs’ maps and reflections.
296 L. D. Guzmán

Linking to (and Across) Children’s MMKB in Concept Maps

Across all 20 PSTs, there were 349 concepts in the end of semester maps before the
discussion about children’s MMKB and editing process. Fourteen PSTs linked con-
cepts related to children’s MMKB in their initial concept maps before the editing
process. I identified 41 concepts (approximately 12%) related to children’s MMKB
across the concept maps of these 14 PSTs. Of these 41 concepts, I coded 32 con-
cepts as children’s mathematical thinking (e.g., numerator, reciprocal, common
denominator) and 9 concepts as children’s lives and experiences (e.g., funds of
knowledge, culturally relevant, relate to students’ interests).
In comparison, examining the edited end of semester maps, there were a total of
448 concepts across the group, and I identified 131 concepts (approximately 29%)
related to children’s MMKB.  All 20 PSTs linked concepts related to children’s
MMKB in their edited concept maps, and 2 PSTs only included concepts related to
children’s mathematical thinking and not children’s lives and experiences.
Unsurprisingly, facilitating a concept-mapping activity in two parts with probing
for children’s MMKB increased their inclusion in the maps. Thus, in my content
analysis, I specifically investigated where PSTs linked these concepts in their edited
maps. Across the group, over half of all links (52%) connected concepts related to
children’s MMKB to concepts I coded as teaching practices (i.e., examples of and
concepts related to assessment, activities, tasks, and planning). In particular, 7 of the
20 PSTs made a direct link between children’s MMKB and high-level tasks, which
was the most commonly linked concept across all maps connecting to children’s
MMKB. For example, in Fig. 17.2 a PST connected using high-level tasks to solve
problems with a link to interests and activities as a concept related to children’s
MMKB. Only 8% of the links connected concepts related to children’s MMKB to
concepts I coded as mathematical concepts.
Although PSTs made connections to children’s MMKB, these connections used
broad language and did not specifically attend to marginalized students. For exam-
ple, Fig. 17.2 shows Harper’s edited end of semester map with added concepts (in
red pen written directly on the paper, not the sticky notes) acknowledging strategies,
interests and activities, students’ home life, students’ community, and personal expe-
riences. I selected Harper’s map as a typical example from the group of PSTs. It is
unclear from Harper’s concept map what these concepts mean with regard to math-
ematics and with connecting children to mathematics.
In Harper’s reflection about the concept map process, they wrote that they saw
evidence of concepts related to children’s mathematical thinking before editing the
map, such as number talks, seeing students’ thinking, and high-level tasks [using
high-level tasks to solve problems]. After editing the map, Harper added more con-
cepts related to children’s lives and experiences:
At first, the only discussion I had about mathematical thinking was in describing how we
can use number talks to see students thinking, and allowing them to explore different strate-
gies with high-level tasks [emphasis added]. Once I edited the map, I added things about
students’ home life, community, personal experiences, etc.
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 297

Fig. 17.2  Harper’s edited end of semester concept map

Harper does mention a shift to focusing on students’ funds of knowledge only

after the discussion and editing process. Other PSTs mentioned thinking about
funds of knowledge after discussion, which may be related to multiple ways of
thinking about assessment and its role in teaching and learning mathematics. Harper
initially highlighted eliciting students’ mathematical thinking about fractions
through number talks, an activity in which students participate in 15-minute conver-
sations about computation problems to communicate their mathematical thinking
(e.g., Parrish, 2010). Harper also described how high-level tasks may provide
opportunities for students to explore different problem-solving strategies, which is
also closely connected to students’ mathematical thinking. In the following section,
I provide examples of how PSTs reflected on how they thought high-level tasks
were related to children’s MMKB.

High-Level Tasks as an Entry Point

As previously stated, seven PSTs (35%) made a direct link between children’s
MMKB and high-level tasks to assess fraction knowledge. Avery, for example,
marked high-level task as a concept directly connected to assessing children’s
understanding of fractions with a cluster of concepts also connected to it (Fig. 17.3).
This concept was part of Avery’s map before the editing process. After editing the
map, Avery added problem-solving strategies to this cluster of concepts, which I
298 L. D. Guzmán

Fig. 17.3  Avery’s edited end of semester concept map

coded as a concept related to children’s mathematical thinking. Avery also added

connect to students’ experiences, use students’ names, and connect appropriate
funds of knowledge to this cluster, which I coded as concepts related to children’s
lives and experiences.
In the end of semester reflection, Avery wrote about seeing evidence of connect-
ing children’s MMKB to assessing children’s mathematical understanding by using
high-level tasks relevant to students:
I made the biggest connection between developing high-level tasks [emphasis added] with
relating students’ experiences and funds of knowledge. When assessing students and how
they think we need to make sure that all students relate to the problem and can understand
the context or background of a problem. The material needs to be relevant to every child so
that they can one day use their knowledge in the real world. Even something as small as
changing the names in a story problem will increase student interest and motivation.

While Avery primarily elaborates on their thoughts about why connecting math-
ematics to children is important, Avery makes a connection to creating high-level
tasks in this professional work. Avery also noted that it is important to acknowledge
students’ relationship to mathematical problems, including the problem context and
background. Part of this relationship may be related to student motivation, but Avery
focused on the potential utility of mathematics in students’ lives outside of the
mathematics classroom. It is worth noting, though, the specific example that Avery
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 299

Fig. 17.4  Morgan’s edited end of semester concept map

used of changing students’ names in word problems as a space to further explore

critical examinations of power and identity in mathematics curriculum materials.
That is, PSTs might critically examine messages in word problems about how to do
math, what math is for, and who it applies to (Felton, 2010), constructions of gen-
dered subjectivity with mathematics (Hottinger, 2016), and representations of
groups of people by race, class, gender, and ability (Sleeter & Grant, 1991).
Another example (Fig. 17.4) shows Morgan’s end of semester concept map with
connections to high-level tasks. In this edited map, utilize students’ funds of
­knowledge is the lead concept of an added cluster directly connected to assessing
children’s understanding of fractions, fraction vocab, number talks, exit tickets,
high-level tasks, and allow multiple representations. Additionally, Morgan added a
direct link between high-level tasks and allow multiple representations in the edited
map. In Morgan’s reflection, they explained that high-level tasks and multiple rep-
resentations connected to concepts related to children’s MMKB:
Creating high-level tasks [emphasis added] that provide students with multiple entry points
into problems allowing them to think and use strategies that makes sense to them will tap
into students’ prior knowledge of what they already know and what strategies they are
comfortable using. Allowing students to use multiple representations [emphasis added] also
connects to their experiences of what types of strategies they have used in school before and
what representations they prefer to use.

Morgan’s reflection speaks to connections between high-level tasks and a range

of students’ mathematical knowledge and strategies or children’s mathematical
thinking. It is not clear, however, in what ways Morgan is making connections
between high-level tasks and students’ funds of knowledge with attention to com-
300 L. D. Guzmán

munity, linguistic, and cultural knowledges. This example demonstrates, however,

how concept mapping, together with reflection activities, may have potential to pro-
vide spaces for PSTs to interrogate and clarify their thinking about teaching
practices.

How Are We Thinking About Assessment?

In the end of semester reflections, 19 of the 20 PSTs wrote about what they saw as
evidence of children’s mathematical thinking and children’s lives and experiences
in their end of semester concept maps. For example, one PST, Robin, wrote in their
end of semester reflection that “part of assessing involves applying the students’
funds of knowledge, experiences, and making math culturally relevant to them
[emphasis added]” and also noted how “[the concept map activity] was interesting
to see how I view assessing students in comparison to their lives and experiences.”
Additionally, Casey noted the lack of concepts related to children’s lives and
experiences in their map before the editing process. In Casey’s reflection, they men-
tioned a primary focus on students’ prerequisite knowledge and skills to learn
fractions:
When thinking about assessment I did not immediately think about things such as fund of
knowledge. I thought about what types of skills my students would need in order to under-
stand fractions. As an afterthought [emphasis added], things such as funds of knowledge are
crucial when touching on these skills. They should apply to every skill.

Casey’s reflection hints at the importance of funds of knowledge in understand-

ing fractions but does not elaborate on specific reasons for why funds of knowledge
matters for understanding fractions as a mathematical concept. In thinking about
assessment, Casey described funds of knowledge concepts as more of an ­afterthought
but, with discussion among peers, determined that these concepts are actually
important for practice and added these concepts to their map during the editing
process.
Taylor described a similar experience from the concept-mapping activities. After
thinking about children’s lives and experiences connected to assessing children’s
understandings during the small group discussion, Taylor added a chunk with lead
concept cultural relevance connected to both assessment and content concepts:
Once I started to think about students’ lives and experiences in connection to assessing I
realized that in my original map I did not include this. When I was able to add to the map I
added an entire new concept of cultural relevance that I believe connects to all of the other
ideas I already had on my map. I connected it to informal and formal assessments along
with connecting it to the content that is being assessed, fractions.

Taken together, these examples from Casey and Taylor suggest a space for PSTs and
teacher educators to explore connections between assessment and children’s funds
of knowledge and to strengthen these connections as more salient in our thinking
about teaching and learning mathematics than just an afterthought.
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 301

Fig. 17.5  Parker’s edited end of semester concept map

Out of all the PSTs’ reflections, Parker was the only participant who stated in
their reflection that they did not include concepts related to children’s MMKB in the
end of semester concept map (Fig. 17.5).
Parker’s reflection explained that they saw no evidence of concepts related to
children’s MMKB in the map because of the way they were thinking about assess-
ing and about using funds of knowledge in mathematics teaching:
I think there is no evidence because I thought of assessing in the pedantic sense. I thought
that experiences of the children would go more along with the actual teaching of concepts
[emphasis added] … I could add funds of knowledge to the concepts that I stated as being
a part of a formal assessment.

I highlight Parker’s reflection as an interesting case of being the only PST who
stated they did not see children’s MMKB in their map. While Parker was the only
PST who stated this in their reflection, they are not alone in that opinion. I heard
multiple PSTs voice similar thoughts from my field notes of small group discus-
sions where PSTs talked about whether funds of knowledge were more directly
302 L. D. Guzmán

related to the actions of teaching mathematics rather than assessment, which could
follow the act of teaching. These discussions point to another opportunity for using
concept mapping together with reflection activities to provide spaces for PSTs to
interrogate and clarify their thinking about teaching practices.

Discussion

In this study, I explored how PSTs linked concepts related to children’s MMKB
with assessing children’s mathematical understanding during concept-mapping
activities. Broad language was common across the group of concept maps, which
may be related to how PSTs engaged with the concept-mapping activity having a
focus on big ideas and less emphasis on specific attention to how race, class, and
culture interact with teaching practices that center equity efforts for historically
marginalized groups. To be clear, I am not claiming that these PSTs are not making
connections between children’s MMKB and school mathematics. I am only point-
ing out that the concepts and links in their maps do not explicitly attend to marginal-
ized groups of students, even though the PSTs in my study are part of a specialized
cohort that strives to address issues of inequity in mathematics education. While it
is possible that these PSTs have marginalized groups of students in mind, I make a
point to recognize the ways that teacher educators may work to make the invisible
more visible through invitations to attend to race, class, and culture in our thinking
about teaching.
Concept-mapping activities may provide a space for PSTs and teacher educators
to further explore these ideas in addressing the needs of marginalized students by
exploring the nuances and complexities of teaching mathematics. From PSTs’ con-
cept maps, high-level tasks might be a possible entry point to build and strengthen
connections between children’s MMKB and assessing children’s understanding of
mathematics. In reflections, PSTs in this study commented on how they saw high-­
level tasks connected to children’s MMKB, both in drawing on a range of students’
mathematical strategies and in efforts to make mathematics more relevant to stu-
dents’ lived experiences.
Each PST did not use the same terms in the same ways from what they wrote and
foregrounded in their reflections; while this might be framed as a problem, I see it
as a valuable learning opportunity that is available throughout the semester. Teacher
educators may support PSTs to critically reflect on their thinking about children’s
MMKB and the complexities involved with learning and teaching mathematics. For
example, whose funds of knowledge are represented in our maps: all students, stu-
dents with similar backgrounds and identity markers as us, or students with differ-
ent backgrounds than us? Additionally, how do (or could) we see funds of knowledge
as intricately connected to mathematical concepts?
Finally, I provided examples that suggest how PSTs may not initially consider
children’s MMKB as useful in assessing children’s understanding of mathematics
based on their own understandings of assessment. A possible explanation for this
17  Using Concept Maps in Teacher Education: Building Connections Among Multiple… 303

perspective is that although PSTs adapted existing tasks and curriculum materials,
they might have limited experiences in designing assessments at this point in their
program. One PST told me during the whole group discussion that they have experi-
ence adapting problems to align with students’ needs, although they have not cre-
ated summative assessments in the course. Consequently, this evidence made me
wonder about how PSTs made sense of the phrase “assessing children’s under-
standing” as the root of this concept map activity, and ultimately, how their under-
standings influenced the construction of their concept maps. Finally, how could
these different understandings of assessment constrain and support our efforts to
support the needs of marginalized students in mathematics classrooms? These ques-
tions may also provide learning opportunities in mathematics methods courses.

Implications and Directions for Future Research

Mathematics teacher educators must support PSTs to make explicit and stronger
connections among concepts related to children’s mathematical thinking, children’s
lives and experiences, and assessing children’s understanding of mathematics.
Concept-mapping activities could provide insight into how PSTs might link chil-
dren’s MMKB to specific mathematics content, assessing children’s understanding,
or other teaching practices. One entry point to better support these connections may
be emphasizing high-level tasks as a concept related to teaching practices that con-
nects to both children’s mathematical thinking and children’s lives and
experiences.
From my analysis of concept maps and brief reflections, I found evidence that
the PSTs in this study made connections between high-level tasks and children’s
mathematical thinking with more connections to children’s funds of knowledge
after focused discussions. Another implication for teacher educators is to be cogni-
zant of a possible perception that funds of knowledge, including children’s lives and
experiences, are not used or useful in assessing children’s understanding of mathe-
matics. I recommend a stronger focus on assessment as one of many teaching prac-
tices and urge critical examination of the role of assessment for equitable teaching
practices that serve the needs of all students, especially those who are historically
marginalized in the mathematics classroom. Furthermore, concept mapping,
together with reflection activities, may provide spaces for PSTs to interrogate and
clarify their thinking about equity-oriented teaching practices for mathematics
education.
Building on this work for further research, I would be interested in gathering
more information about how PSTs make sense of the concepts related to children’s
MMKB. More specifically, I would like to examine whose MMKB are represented
in these concept maps—in other words, examining who has capital and of what kind
(e.g., Yosso, 2006). Are particular racial or ethnic groups of students in mind when
we (both teachers and teacher educators) use the phrases funds of knowledge or
MMKB? That is, do we construct funds of knowledge as something that is only
304 L. D. Guzmán

important for students of color? Where do our understandings of MMKB come

from (e.g., course readings and activities, prior experiences with children)? As
teacher educators, what contexts and people do we use as exemplars in our mathe-
matics methods courses, especially in supporting teachers in addressing the needs
of marginalized students? These questions also have connections to philosophical
conversations and orientations to how we construct mathematics, which is most
often seen as a body of knowledge that is inherently factual, logical, and separate
from other subjects (Ernest, 1991). How might we disrupt this perspective on math-
ematics through our work with children’s MMKB?
As both a research and pedagogical tool, I found concept-mapping activities use-
ful as a method to examine and capture potential changes over time. PSTs actively
created these concept maps to communicate their thinking through a meaningful
representation. Teacher educators and PSTs may also use concept-mapping activi-
ties to focus on explicit connections and enter critical discussions that tease out
nuances and challenges in our efforts to disrupt and minimize inequities in mathe-
matics education. This work provides implications for supporting PSTs in recogniz-
ing their attention to race, class, culture, power, and social justice to address the
needs of marginalized students through their practice. Attention to equity work must
be intentional and not an afterthought. As teacher educators, we must support PSTs
in their growth by pushing for more specificity and criticality. Concept-mapping
activities can serve as a starting point to think about big ideas; however, comments
such as “we need to make sure that all students relate to the problem” may still
maintain inequities by not interrogating power or actively disrupting larger systems
of oppression, such as white supremacy (Aguirre et al., 2017; Larnell, Bullock, &
Jett, 2016; Martin, 2015; Martin, Gholson, & Leonard, 2010).

Acknowledgments  This material is based upon the work supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant No. 1020155. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or ­recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation. A previous version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting
of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics
Education, East Lansing, MI, November 7, 2015.

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Chapter 18
Using Ethnomathematics Perspective
to Widen the Vision of Mathematics
Teacher Education Curriculum

Nirmala Naresh and Lisa Kasmer

Abstract  In this chapter, we draw upon our collective professional and practical
knowledge bases to describe our efforts in fostering connections between ethno-
mathematics theory and practice. The theoretical field of ethnomathematics empow-
ered us to envision a dynamic and equity-oriented teacher education curriculum.
The enactment of this curriculum enabled us to create spaces wherein prospective
teachers came to bear on the significance of teaching mathematics to promote a
more just and democratic agenda. Prospective teachers explored and promoted
meaningful connections between mathematics content, context, culture, and society
in order to promote the development of empathy, consideration, and the skills nec-
essary to appreciate and educate all learners, in particular those that are marginal-
ized because of their social, cultural, economic, and political backgrounds.

Introduction

Academic mathematics education has failed for the majority of the people. This failure is
due in part to the conventional portrayal of mathematics as a prized body of knowledge that
is the property of an elite group of people. (Millroy, 1992, p. 50)

Traditionally, mathematics education has mostly been associated with the K–12
institutional context. The problem is that mathematics in school settings is mostly
perceived and presented as an elite body of knowledge stripped of its rich social,
cultural, and historical connections. It is far removed from the “lives and ways of
living of the social majorities in the world” (Fasheh, 2000, p. 5). We contest this view
and argue for countering a narrow vision of mathematics that confines it to the school.

N. Naresh (*)
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
L. Kasmer
Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 309

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_18
310 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

When thinking about mathematics, seldom does one consider culture, context, diver-
sity, history, or politics (D’Ambrosio, 1985; Powell & Frankenstein, 1997; Zaslavsky,
2002). Traditionally mathematics has been taught from a narrow perspective, and this
has resulted in the omission of “significant contributions of most cultures and other
groupings of people” from academic mathematics curricula, and this exclusion can
“have the consequence of devaluing and disrespecting many students’ cultural back-
grounds” (Mukhopadhyay, Powell, & Frankenstein, 2009, p. 65).
One way to address this issue is through teacher education, using it as a space to
transform a traditional mathematics curriculum and thereby to challenge many pro-
spective teachers’ traditionally held perceptions of mathematics and its pedagogy. The
constructs of a culturally responsive mathematics education (CRME) (Gay, 2000) and
a critical ethnomathematics curriculum (CEC) (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2009) lend them-
selves well to this cause. For a truly transformative mathematics education, it is impera-
tive that we continue to engage with and support teachers who are in a strong position
to realize the goals of a CRME in K–12 mathematics classrooms. In this chapter, we
describe ways in which we used tenets of a CEC within two teacher education courses
to promote an awareness of the importance of attending to the social and cultural
dimensions of mathematics education.

Positionality

An educator’s pedagogical decisions and actions are greatly informed and influenced
by their personal, practical, and professional experiences (Kitchen, 2009). In light of
this, we situate this paper in the broader context of our personal and professional
backgrounds. Having been born and raised in a metropolitan city in a developing and
formerly colonized nation, the first author’s school and college mathematics learning
experiences were rooted in an imported curriculum that was devoid of any connec-
tions to the local context and culture. In retrospect, there was also a noticeable pau-
city of attention to the significance of and connections to culture, language, and
context in the second author’s undergraduate and graduate learning experiences.
Such experience perpetuates among many learners a narrow perception of mathemat-
ics that limits their ability to perceive and present mathematics as a human activity.
Through our collective mathematical learning and teaching experiences, we
have witnessed firsthand how educational institutions used mathematics as a “sub-
tle weapon” to “monopoliz[e] what constitutes knowledge” (Fasheh, 2012, p. 94).
Our perceptions and beliefs about mathematics and its pedagogy prevailed until we
began a self-study (Arizona Group, 1998) focused on ethnomathematics and its
pedagogy, which proved both an immersive and transformative learning experience
during which we became ardent enthusiasts of ethnomathematics and its theoreti-
cal and practical implications. Embracing an ethnomathematics perspective has
opened our eyes to a world of mathematics that exists and flourishes outside the
rigid boundaries of academia. Beyond that, it has enabled us to develop a renewed
perception of mathematics and its pedagogy, its status in the society, and the role
18  Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision of Mathematics Teacher… 311

that it can play in the advancement of mankind. We have come to realize that math-
ematics is a human endeavor and developed a “respect for the ‘other’ and the intel-
lectual achievements of all” (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2009, p. 4). This perspective
has deeply impacted both our teaching and research and has pushed us to re-envi-
sion the ways in which we enact these practices.

Theoretical Underpinnings

The research field of ethnomathematics serves as a broader theoretical base on

which a critical mathematics curriculum rests. Ethnomathematics represents a view
of mathematical thinking that incorporates the ways in which culture and mathe-
matics are intertwined (D’Ambrosio, 1985). Definitions of the term ethnomathe-
matics range from very specific, such as “the mathematics which is practiced among
identifiable cultural groups such as national, tribal societies, labor groups, children
of certain age brackets, and professional classes” (D’Ambrosio, 1985, p.  45), to
very broad: “Ethnomathematics is a research programme of the way in which cul-
tural groups understand, articulate and use the concepts and practices which we
describe as mathematical, whether or not the cultural group has a concept of math-
ematics” (Barton, 1996, p. 214). A grave concern with the exclusion of marginal-
ized groups such as women, and racial and ethnic minorities from the mainstream
mathematics curriculum resulted in researchers studying the ethnomathematics of
these groups. Thus, issues of social change, equity, and justice have served as a
foundation for the development of ethnomathematics.
Broadly speaking, we can classify ethnomathematics research into four strands
(Vithal & Skovsmose, 1997): (1) a study of non-Western mathematics, which
emphasized contributions from researchers who challenged the traditionally told
history of mathematics (e.g., Joseph, 1987; Selin, 2000); (2) an exploration of mul-
ticultural mathematics, through which researchers analyzed mathematics associ-
ated with little-known exotic cultures and groups of people (e.g., Ascher, 2002;
Gerdes, 2010; Zaslavsky, 1998); and (3) documentation of everyday mathematics,
which highlighted the mathematical practices of participants in everyday settings
(e.g., Carraher, Carraher, & Schliemann, 1987; Lave, 1988, Millroy, 1992). The
fourth strand articulates the implications of ethnomathematics for school mathemat-
ics education (e.g., Brenner & Moschkovich, 2002). Though the terms ethnomath-
ematics, everyday mathematics, and multicultural mathematics have been
interpreted in more than one way by researchers, they are guided by the belief that
the role of culture is significant in the learning and teaching of mathematics.
Mukhopadhyay and colleagues expand the scope of ethnomathematics to include
mainstream academic mathematics and school mathematics. From this perspective
“ethnomathematics is not proposed, as is often believed, as an alternative to either
academic mathematics or school mathematics” but could coexist and thrive within
the realms of academia (p. 70). We adopt this approach and in this chapter explicate
connections between various strands of ethnomathematics to address this question:
312 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

How can we use the tenets of ethnomathematics to develop an increased awareness

among educators of the significance of a culturally responsive mathematics educa-
tion and thereby address the needs of all students, in particular those that are mar-
ginalized in the mathematics classroom?
Marginalized students are those students who are considered to have low socio-
economic status and/or students whose cultural and linguistic backgrounds are dif-
ferent than their White peers (Garcia & Guerra, 2004). A traditional mathematics
curriculum offers teachers very little scope to understand, appreciate, and view
these students and their backgrounds as rich sources of mathematical knowledge.
Thus, many teachers treat “such students as blank slates, ignoring potential new
strategies, conceptual understandings or unique algorithms that they could offer in
a U.S. mathematics classroom” (Gutiérrez, 2008 p. 361).
We propose that an ethnomathematics curriculum with a critical perspective will
help address this issue and generate a meaningful dialogue centered on a CRME
(Gay, 2000), aimed to empower and transform all learners. The key tenets of a CRME
include (1) helping students connect academic mathematics to other forms of math-
ematics, (2) connecting school mathematics to the sociocultural-ethnical aspects of
home culture, (3) enabling teachers with equitable pedagogical practices that cater to
all learners, and (4) allowing both students and teachers to acknowledge and celebrate
their own and each other’s cultural background (Gay, 2000). A CEC draws on the
principles of a CRME and addresses the challenges that it poses to a traditional math-
ematics curriculum. It challenges the “Eurocentric narrative,” confronts “what counts
as knowledge in school mathematics,” and attends to the disconnect between “math-
ematics education and social and political change” (Mukhopadhyay et  al., 2009,
p. 72). In order to accomplish these goals, it is necessary to design and enact a cur-
riculum that will offer the maximum scope to empower all learners by broadening
their perspective of mathematics and its pedagogy. We draw upon our collective,
professional, and practical knowledge to describe ways in which we used key aspects
of a CEC to support preservice teachers (PSTs) in making meaningful connections
between mathematics content, context, culture, and society.

Self-Study Using Narrative Inquiry Methods

We share a common commitment to improving our own practice as mathematics

teacher educators and in particular as ethnomathematics researchers and practitio-
ners. To honor this, we engaged in a self-study with an emphasis on collaborative
learning. This approach helped focus the lens on our “own selves” and enabled us to
maintain focus on a more “diverse variety of selves.” Within the self-study, we have
used narrative inquiry (Creswell, 1998; Kitchen, 2009) to organize, present, and
analyze the qualitative data. In choosing this method, we “adopt a particular view of
experience as phenomenon under study” (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006, p. 375). In
the present context, we draw from our practical and professional experiences spe-
cific to two content courses for PSTs (phenomenon under study), immerse ourselves
in these lived experiences, and narrate our stories. The stories were extracted from
18  Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision of Mathematics Teacher… 313

two distinct professional experiences aimed to challenge and broaden PST views of
mathematics and teaching through (1) content-focused coursework offered in an on-
campus setting and (2) an immersive early field experience facilitated in a non-
Western developing country.
The two teacher education courses shaped the contextual setting, and the PSTs
enrolled in these courses are an integral part of the study. In our narratives, we con-
sciously chose and presented data that would best help us address the central goal of this
chapter and involve the “selves” who we wanted to know more about. The selves
include both MTEs (us) and PSTs (our students). PST-contributed data include their
solutions to mathematical tasks (SMT), course project artifacts (CPA), written reflec-
tions (WR), and summaries of their field experiences with middle school students (FE).
MTE-contributed data include positionality statements (PS) and personal philosophies
of teaching (PPT), course artifacts (CA), summaries of our interactions with PSTs (SI),
collaborative reflective journals (CRJ), and a shared understanding and analyses of
PST-contributed data (UA). Our narratives are structured around a chronology of events,
including (a) course design and enactment, (b) documentation of data, and (c) our anal-
yses and interpretation of data in relation to the chosen theoretical domain. In our nar-
ratives, we consciously choose and present data and episodes from our professional and
practical experiences that will best help us attend to the central theme of this paper.

University A: Content-Focused Coursework

The contextual setting for University A is a mathematics content course, Patterns and
Structures through Inquiry (PSI), for PSTs. This is a three credit-hour (38 contact
hours) course for PSTs pursuing licensure to teach middle school mathematics. PSTs
typically enrolled in this capstone course in their fourth year at the university.
Prerequisites for this course include successful completion of at least 9 hours of
mathematics education courses that address topics such as numbers and operations,
algebra, geometry, technology, and the history of mathematics.

PSI Course: Goals, Content, and Structure

This course is designed to foster critical thinking, engage PSTs in solving complex
problems and with other learners, and facilitate PSTs’ communication of their
mathematical ideas. The first author chose ethnomathematics as the focus theme. To
this end, the key course goals were to support PSTs’ examination, from sociocul-
tural, critical, and political standpoints, of the evolution of mathematical ideas. The
PSI course was designed in line with the principles highlighted in Presmeg’s (1998)
graduate course on ethnomathematics. Presmeg’s course required participants to (a)
adopt a sociocultural and a critical approach to view mathematics and its pedagogy;
(b) acknowledge and understand that different cultural groups and people in many
walks of life do, perceive, and explain mathematics; and (c) complete a course proj-
ect to design and accentuate an ethnomathematical activity specific to their unique
314 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

cultural background. The first author, having had an opportunity to participate in

such a course, saw firsthand a practical application of ethnomathematics theory in an
MTE course and its transformative effect on the participants. As an ethnomathemat-
ics researcher and practitioner, when provided an opportunity to teach a capstone
course, the first author readily embraced and adopted the principles of Presmeg’s
ethnomathematics course in the design and enactment of the PSI course.
In the PSI course, PSTs engaged in problem-solving activities in small groups
and shared their work with peers through formal and informal presentations. To
establish specific connections to the principles of ethnomathematics and a CRME,
participants were asked to think deeply about the types of tasks and activities that are
usually presented in a traditional mathematics curriculum by comparing and con-
trasting such tasks with those that were presented in the PSI course. For example,
while focusing on the algebra strand, particularly on pattern recognition and analy-
sis, three tasks chosen from different cultural and historical contexts were presented
to the PSTs: (a) the classic rice and the chessboard problem, (b) analyzing Kolam
patterns of South Indian women (Siromoney, 1978), and (c) Sona patterns of the
Chokwe people (Gerdes, 1997). In their written solutions to such tasks, PSTs were
asked to attend to and explore the connections between a given mathematical task
and the local and global contexts that framed the tasks (SMTs). Each week, PSTs
were asked to describe and reflect on their perceptions of mathematics and articulate
their beliefs on what constitutes a mathematical activity (WRs). The first author met
each participant once a week to discuss coursework, learn more about their views on
mathematics and the teaching of mathematics, and their emergent views on the role
of culture in the teaching and learning of mathematics based on which we wrote my
SIs. Course activities can be broadly classified into two major categories: (a) content
explorations (emphasis: local/global contexts and cultures) and (b) course project
investigations (emphasis: connections between everyday mathematics and academic
mathematics). Below, we highlight two activities drawn from course artifacts.

Activity 1: Teaching Geometry Using Cultural Artifacts

For content analysis, participants (re)examined mathematical topics that typically

lie outside the focus of the traditional K–8 mathematics curriculum. The tasks were
chosen to enable PSTs to make explicit connections to the sociocultural, historical,
and political dimensions of the evolution of mathematics. As part of content explo-
rations on geometry, the following activities were planned and offered: (a) creating
a timeline for the evolution of geometry (Lumpkin, 1997), (b) investigating the
Sona geometry of Chokwe tribes (Gerdes, 1997), and (c) exploring geometry and
technology through Native American cultural artifacts (Eglash, 2002).
A bead loom, which is used by many ethnic groups, including many Native
Americans, can be viewed as a pattern based on a Cartesian coordinate system and
can be used to explore transformational geometry. We used the cultural artifacts
(bead patterns) with our PSTs to support them in thinking deeply about the Native
American cultural context and the mathematical content implicit in the artifacts.
Using Virtual Bead Loom software (Eglash, 2002), PSTs replicated bead loom pat-
18  Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision of Mathematics Teacher… 315

terns while at the same time making connections to their knowledge of symmetry and
transformations. To ensure a successful enactment of the lesson, we suggested the
following steps: (1) visit https://csdt.rpi.edu/culture/legacy/index2.html, identify and
select the Virtual Bead loom tool, (2) read the cultural background section to better
understand the ­significance of the bead loom in Native American culture, (3) read the
“how-to” overview to understand the function and purpose of the different bead loom
tools (point, line, line iteration, triangle iteration, rectangle iteration) and how they
work, (4) choose a bead loom pattern and use appropriate tools to replicate this pat-
tern, and (5) write a brief summary describing the steps that you used to replicate this
pattern. Two sample PST responses are highlighted here (SMTs, Figs. 18.1 and 18.2).

Virtual Beadloom

I chose the following design for my pattern

Using linear iteration, horizontal and vertical

reflections I created a black X through the center.
First, I chose my starting point as (0,0). Then I
chose a line of 3 beads and iterated the line moving
down and left for 10 rows. Then I reflected the same
image down, left, and right to complete the pattern.

I was able to somewhat easily iterate the red beads

for the top and bottom but am struggling to do it for
the left and right. I can’t get it to line up in the row I
want it to go in.

I decided it may be easier to work vertically at first

and get all of those parts finished before trying to
figure out the horizontal pieces.

Working on the horizontal pieces, I’ve found that I

can still iterate in the positive and negative y
direction; before I was trying to do it in the x
direction and it was getting messed up.

Fig. 18.1  Technology-based construction of a bead loom

316 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

Fig. 18.2  Technology-based creation of a bead loom

Activity 2: Teaching Geometry Using a Sociocultural Art Form

All PSTs completed a course project requiring them to identify and investigate a per-
sonally meaningful practice, highlighting the fact that mathematics is a human activ-
ity. Each participant developed a mathematical activity and engaged in both content
and pedagogical explorations. PSTs explored in depth the mathematical ideas inherent
in the activity, and they drew upon their mathematical understandings, designed a
mathematics lesson, and completed a field experience with a group of middle school
students. Here is an example drawn from one PST’s (Sandy) course project (CPA, FE).
We chose this project to specifically highlight Sandy’s transformation and growth
through her participation in this course. At the beginning of the semester, when asked
to describe her cultural background, Sandy noted, “I am just from here... so I don’t
think that I have culture like you do... So I don’t know how to find a meaningful cul-
tural/everyday activity” (WR). Upon further elaboration, we came to realize that
Sandy associated the term “culture” with the other, a person from a different race,
ethnicity, or nationality. Gradually, through her participation in the course activities
and continued discussions with her peers, she came to realize that every individual
possesses a unique cultural background informed by their lived experiences.
Sandy developed a mathematical activity based on her “family art,” cross-­
stitching. Her late grandmother had taught her the art, and Sandy dedicated this
project to her. Sandy used this cultural art form to enhance her own understanding
of cross-stitching and graphing on a Cartesian plane using GeoGebra. Her project
report included two cross-stitched designs (University A logo and a five-pointed
star) and a geometry task based on GeoGebra that she eagerly and proudly shared
with her peers. During her field experience (FE), Sandy also shared her designs and
the activity with a group of middle school students. It is through these artifacts that
the middle school students were able to perceive connections between the art of
18  Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision of Mathematics Teacher… 317

cross-stitching and mathematics. The students created colorful and intricate patterns
on a Cartesian grid and uncovered many connections between their newly created
art forms and geometry. Below (Fig. 18.3) is a snapshot of Sandy’s description of
the mathematics of cross-stitching.
Here (Fig. 18.4) is Sandy’s (re)creation of a five-pointed star on GeoGebra. She
presented the art form to her peers and engaged in geometrical investigations on
coordinate geometry, congruence, similarity, transformations, area, and perimeter.
During our class discussion, many PSTs lamented about the paucity of curricular
resources that could be used to teach mathematics using a sociocultural lens.
Exposure to and engagement in the ethnomathematics of the Chokwe tribes, South
Indian women, nonacademic professionals, and Warlpiri tribe (Ascher, 2002) miti-
gated part of this concern and enabled PSTs to appreciate the contributions of
socially marginalized groups to the evolution of mathematical ideas. From an analy-
sis of PST reflections, we noticed that many PSTs saw a firsthand situation where
multicultural contexts became alive in a mathematical classroom and wanted to find
additional resources that may be available and were excited to incorporate such
activities in their own classroom. As one PST summarized,

When you are cross-stitching, you are

basically plotting points on a quadrant
plane. But instead of having the origin
marked out for you and the x and y
axis labeled and visible, you have to
find it yourself and know where it
falls within the pattern and on your
fabric (as seen in the picture below).

When starting a new pattern, you

always want to start in the middle
(origin) and either start off stitching
above the middle line (x-axis into
quadrants I and II) or work your way
below the middle line (x-axis into
quadrants III and IV). As you can see
in the picture, the origin is not always
defined and will have to found by the
students themselves, along with the
axis. Every box in the pattern is the
same thing as being a coordinate point
on the quadrant plane. You have to
know how many spaces to the left of
right of the y-axis to find the x-value
and then how many spaces above or
below the x-axis to find the y-value.

Fig. 18.3  Sandy’s description of the mathematics of cross-stitching

318 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

Fig. 18.4 Technology-­
based creation of a
five-pointed star

I have Native American heritage myself and this type of activity makes me think of my own
lineage and the legacy left to me by my ancestors – Moreover, I feel greatly empowered in
knowing that I can use this legacy to teaching mathematics and modeling hand in hand.

Many PSTs noted that they gained a greater appreciation for and better understand-
ing of the role of other cultures “within the study of [school] mathematics”
(Zaslavsky, 2002, p.  66). Furthermore, they were able to engage in a “two-way
dialogue in which [the different forms of] knowledge (community knowledge,
school knowledge) and their associated values are brought into the open for scru-
tiny” (Civil, 2002, p. 146). In the next section, we present a narrative of a course that
provided PSTs in University B, an immersive ethnomathematics experience in a
non-Western developing nation.

University B: Early Field Experience in a Non-Western Country

Currently, teaching in the USA remains a homogeneous profession; the majority of

teachers and PSTs are of European-American descent; PSTs tend to be cross-­
culturally inexperienced, live within 100 miles of where they were born, and desire
to teach in schools similar to those they attended, with fewer than 10% hoping to
teach in either an urban or multicultural setting (Cushner & Mahon, 2009). Heyl and
McCarthy (2003) suggest that experiences in international education have the
potential to be the most influential factor in developing cultural awareness in
PST education. They contend, “A key role for higher education institutions must be
to graduate future K-12 teachers who think globally, have international experience,
demonstrate foreign language competence, and are able to incorporate a global
18  Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision of Mathematics Teacher… 319

dimension into their teaching” (2003, p. 3). In order to gain a more global perspec-
tive, an early field experience was developed at University B to address the PSTs’
inexperience relative to a CRME.

Setting and Background

At this institution, mathematics majors seeking teaching certification are able to

fulfill their senior capstone requirement through a month-long field experience in
Arusha, Tanzania (the fieldwork is completed in 1 month, while the coursework is
completed over 8 months, 2 months prior to travel, and 6 months post travel). These
PSTs are a representative subset of the students enrolled as mathematics education
majors at the university. That is, the PSTs are typically White, middle class, juniors,
and seniors [3rd and 4th year university students] who have completed their math-
ematics content course requirements. They begin their student teaching within a
year after returning from Tanzania.
Prior to departure, students attended six orientation meetings in which they read
and discussed articles about Tanzanian culture, history, and education and learned
basic Kiswahili in preparation for the program. A Kenyan faculty member also
attended many of the orientation sessions to respond to questions from the PSTs and
assist in the Kiswahili instruction. During their month-long experience in Tanzania,
the PSTs taught mathematics in elementary and secondary English medium schools
for 60–75 hours. (English is the language of instruction, even though English is not
the native language in Tanzania.) The PSTs were responsible for developing the les-
sons, teaching the lessons, and designing assessments, often without textbooks, mate-
rials, or resources. The teaching day concluded with each PST individually
conferencing with the university faculty members, followed by a whole group reflec-
tion. During this individual conference, PSTs analyzed and reflected on the mathe-
matics lessons they taught and what struggles that both they and their students
encountered. It should be noted that the university faculty assisted the PSTs with
mathematical content and classroom management recommendations when needed but
did not offer suggestions pertaining to negotiating teaching mathematics; the PSTs
navigated these issues on their own or with one another. Data were generated and col-
lected from these conferences and teaching episodes. Field notes and audio recordings
taken by faculty of these discussions (CPA), observations of classroom visits (CPA),
and written documentation of instructional decisions and reflections (WWR) provided
a rich source of data to capture PSTs’ evolving attention to the principles of CRME.
The PSTs responded to reflection prompts posed by the faculty at the conclusion of
each teaching day. Prompts included questions such as “What did you do today in
your teaching that you hadn’t planned to do?”, “What surprised you today in terms of
your teaching and your students”, “What was something you learned today that you
didn’t know before”, “What did you notice is the same in your classroom here (in
Tanzania) as classrooms in the U.S”, and “Why do you think... ”. Next, we provide
examples of how this experience addressed some of the key tenets of a CRME.
320 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

Using Kangas to Teach Parallel and Perpendicular Lines

Over the course of the month-long experience, the PSTs had numerous opportuni-
ties to infuse African culture and mathematical context. At the onset of this experi-
ence, however, the PSTs, in an attempt to contextualize the mathematics they were
teaching, provided contexts which were unfamiliar or irrelevant to the Tanzanian
students. For example, one PST taught a lesson about parallel and perpendicular
lines. She provided the context of roads “that run parallel to one another” and roads
“that are perpendicular to each other.” It was evident to the PST that the students
were confused by her explanation, and she attempted to provide another context
that did not provide clarification for her students. When she debriefed with her
peers at the conclusion of the day, she came to realization that her attempt to con-
textualize the mathematics was a meaningless (and Western) context. That is, most
streets in Arusha do not run parallel or perpendicular; rather, roads were built based
on availability of long stretches of land. In order to make the concepts of parallel
and perpendicular lines meaningful to her students, she decided that it would be
necessary to provide a context that was familiar and relevant to her students. She
accomplished this by situating parallel and perpendicular lines with kanga fabric.
(Kangas are brightly colored, rectangular fabrics, often with geometric patterns
that African women wear as dresses, skirts, and headpieces.) Using a familiar con-
text to the students, they were easily able to see the meaning she was trying to
convey of parallel and perpendicular lines. The PST then realized the power of situ-
ating her instruction within a culturally relevant context. In this way, the PST con-
nected school mathematics to the sociocultural-ethnical aspects of her students’
Tanzanian culture.

Teaching Fractions with Ugali

For another PST, teaching fractions became a struggle as she attempted to demon-
strate equivalent fractions. While the context she provided was a familiar one to her
students (measuring ingredients to make ugali, a local dish), the vocabulary she used
was problematic. That is, terms such as renaming, numerator, denominator, and
equivalent that she did not know the Kiswahili equivalence for were difficult for her
to explain to her students. In order to acknowledge and celebrate the students’ cul-
tural background and facilitate understanding, she decided it would be important to
infuse Kiswahili terms when appropriate. For students who struggle with understand-
ing the language of instruction, code-switching is an important instructional strategy
teachers use to assist understanding the meaning of the concepts conveyed. In this
way, the PST also practiced equitable pedagogical practices, as she realized the lan-
guage barrier was impeding some of the students’ abilities to understand what was
being taught.
18  Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision of Mathematics Teacher… 321

Hisabati Katika Kazi (Mathematics at Work)

During the lesson planning session one evening, many of the PSTs decided to create
a lesson based on the mathematics adults used at work and home. Unbeknownst to
the PSTs, they were attempting to connect the academic mathematics to other forms
of mathematics. They were surprised by this connection and remarked that they
didn’t realize they were even attempting to infuse culture into mathematics. In this
lesson, the PSTs asked their students to interview an adult to gather information
about the mathematics they use at work. The PSTs’ motivation for this assignment
was to help their students see the value of mathematics outside of the classroom. The
PSTs were not explicitly considering the principles of a CRME; rather, this was
merely an assignment they created, “as an activity to do, that we think they will enjoy
and help them think about math in another context.” When debriefing their lessons,
the PSTs began to understand and realize the significance of providing opportunities
for their students to connect academic mathematics to other forms of mathematics, a
central tenet of a CRME. When the students shared their interview responses (e.g.,
“My mother is a seamstress and she said she uses a lot of math in her work; measur-
ing fabric, figuring out how much to charge, and what her costs are for making a
dress,” “My brother drives a cab. He needs to know how much to make people pay
for a route so he doesn’t short himself”), the children were intrigued and amazed at
how important mathematics is outside of the school setting. For the PSTs, they came
to the realization that “this was a very powerful lesson, and we didn’t even know it!”

Return of the Kangas: Transformations and Kangas

Using kangas also proved a useful tool to teach transformations. The PSTs came to
understand the importance of situating the mathematics in a meaningful context, as
evidenced in their reflections (WWRs) and our analysis of class discussions (CPA,
CRJ), and decided to deviate from the textbooks and create lessons that utilized
kangas. Below is an example of the introduction to the lesson the students created
about translations (Fig. 18.5). The PSTs took photographs of kangas from a local
market which highlighted the aspects of transformations they were teaching. By
recognizing the significance of the kanga in the Tanzanian culture, the PSTs were
able to make valuable connections to the students while celebrating an important
part of their culture.

Mathematics in the Street

The PSTs also had opportunities to interact with various Tanzanians outside of the
school setting and gain a broader perspective and appreciation of the importance of
a non-Western view of mathematics. For example, they came in daily contact with
the local touts (street peddlers), who attempted to persuade them to purchase their
wares. Most of the local touts do not have a formal education past primary school.
322 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

Fig. 18.5  Geometric transformations in kangas

Their ability to make transactions in their heads, however, both amazed and
impressed the PSTs. Many of the PSTs remarked that the touts often performed
complicated problems related to ratio and proportion with ease. They were also
surprised at how they calculated costs and change without a calculator or paper and
pencil. One PST remarked, “I am in awe of how easily the touts do mathematics in
their head, they are better at this than I am with a major in mathematics.” During a
whole group discussion, the PSTs came to the conclusion that “maybe we should
think about math differently, it doesn’t always have to be the way we think of math.”
This opportunity enabled PSTs to conceive, with the help of local citizens, an alter-
native view of doing mathematics and acknowledge the way these individuals come
to know and understand mathematics.

Reflections: Continuing the Self-Study

As proponents of ethnomathematics, we believe that the central purpose of mathe-

matics education is “to contribute to the development of our collective world, in the
direction of more justice” (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2009, p. 75). For quite some time
18  Using Ethnomathematics Perspective to Widen the Vision of Mathematics Teacher… 323

now, we have realized that “the record [dominant perspective] is wrong, and [real-
ized] how that wrong record is culturally disrespectful” (Mukhopadhyay et  al.,
2009, p. 74) and thus we are better positioned to understand the need and the poten-
tial for engaging PSTs in mathematical activities that offer a counter narrative to the
dominant perspective.
Thus, in both courses, it was a key priority for us to support PSTs in broadening
their perspectives of mathematics and its pedagogy so that they can better attend to
the needs of all of their students. The narratives we presented above, and the embed-
ded examples, illustrate ways in which we provided opportunities for PSTs to think
deeply about the constructs of ethnomathematics and a CRME. We provided many
opportunities for PSTs to acknowledge that much of the so-called Western mathe-
matics “originated in the ad hoc practices and solutions to problems developed by
small groups in particular societies” (Katz, 2003, p. 557) and that traditionally told
histories of mathematics have neglected the contributions from the non-European
cultures and have presented a Eurocentric view of mathematics (Joseph, 2000).
In both courses, we introduced PSTs to the social constructions of mathematics
through course readings that highlighted the contributions of people who were not
necessarily from the mainstream academia. For too long, academic mathematics has
presented our students with only European, so-called “refined,” version of mathe-
matics, only taught to regurgitate whatever processed form to which we have lim-
ited academic mathematics. We wanted PSTs to think deeply about community
knowledge and draw upon funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez,
1992) that existed in rich cultural settings. Thus, we encouraged them to look for
connections to mathematics in their own cultural backgrounds and the immediate
social backgrounds. PSTs learned about, and engaged with, the mathematics inher-
ent in the sociocultural activities of groups that they barely knew.
It is our hope that, in light of their exposure to the mathematical activities outlined
in the two courses, this group of PSTs will be willing to look for and acknowledge
other forms of mathematics that exist outside the realms of the academia. We have
presented one example through Sandy’s project. In her final course reflection journal,
she noted: “I see that I have been oblivious to [their] expertise. Upon reflection, I see
that I have been oblivious to [their] expertise because I truly did not believe that
[they] can be authentic sources of knowledge.” We believe that Sandy and many
PSTs who took these courses have begun to notice how individuals from many walks
of life can become co-constructors of mathematical knowledge. In their final course
reflections, many PSTs remarked that they will continue to be mindful of the differ-
ent connections and ideas that students might bring into the classroom and the impor-
tance of connecting mathematics to a culturally relevant context. As a result, we hope
that these PSTs will begin to embrace the meaning of learning as “a truthful collabo-
ration in which all parties come both as learners and as resource” (Civil, 1998, p. 7).
In retrospect, we acknowledge that striving to develop and implement a mathe-
matics content course on CRME or ethnomathematics is no easy task. Often times
there are neither context, nor content, for such a course in a traditional teacher edu-
cation program, and at times some resistance from students occurs (Naresh &
Poling, 2015). Nevertheless, we believe that if we failed to produce meaningful
324 N. Naresh and L. Kasmer

dialogue, or if it is absent, change cannot occur, and we cannot provide a transfor-

mative learning experience for our students. In order to prepare culturally respon-
sive mathematics teachers, it is necessary to “[deconstruct] the aura of incontestability
and status that now surrounds mathematics, and certain notions about what consti-
tutes quality instruction” (Gay, 2000, p. 194).
During class discussions and field experiences our PSTs examined questions such
as: What is mathematics? If and how is informal mathematics different from formal
mathematics? How are mathematical ideas exemplified in the activities of just plain
folks? What is the role and purpose of mathematics in their everyday lives? From a
dominant Eurocentric view, which forms of mathematics are acknowledged and val-
ued? Why might this be the case? What can we do about this? Many of the course
activities were geared toward helping them think deeper about plausible responses to
such questions. We hope that, in their quest for deeper answers to these questions,
PSTs will further broaden their perceptions of mathematics and its teaching.
Our self-study is specifically focused on explicating ways in which we can use
the principles of ethnomathematics to question, understand, and reevaluate the
meaning of mathematics and its pedagogy. MTEs’ efforts to address practice-­
oriented problems “may rarely result in tidy answers... when viewed through the
lens of self-study” (Berry, 2009, p. 1312). However, this lens enabled us to explic-
itly model key components of CRME to our PSTs.
Moving forward, we will continue to engage in this self-study and find ways to
purposely infuse the principles of ethnomathematics and a CRME into all of the
mathematics education courses we teach. In future, we hope to develop a framework
to share with our mathematics education colleagues, so they can understand the
importance and impact of threading culturally responsive mathematics teaching into
all of the courses they teach. As a community of learners, we have come to realize
that it is important to “empower students, through broadening, not narrowing their
knowledge of mathematics; through inspiring their participation and creativity in
contributing to the development of mathematical knowledge, and, for teachers,
through the creation of a culturally responsive mathematics teaching”
(Mukhopadhyay et al., 2009, p. 72).

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Chapter 19
A Commentary on Supporting Teachers
in Addressing the Needs of Marginalized
Students

Mary Q. Foote

Abstract  This chapter presents a commentary on the pieces in the book related to
supporting teachers in addressing the needs of marginalized students.

The chapters in this section are set in the context of university course work in math-
ematics education for prospective teachers (PSTs). In the case of three of the chap-
ters (Chaps. 15, 16, and 17), the context was mathematics methods courses. In one
chapter (Chap. 14), the study was set in the context of an intensive field experience
focused on work with a single English learner. The fifth chapter (Chap. 18) included
two studies, one of which was conducted as part of a mathematics content course
and the other of which was conducted during an intensive field experience in an
African country. The variety of settings, as well as the variety of activities that form
the bases of the data collection, allow us the opportunity to engage with many ways
of supporting PSTs to work with and address the needs of marginalized students.
Through the activities detailed in the studies, we see PSTs engaging in what the
literature has shown are needed experiences with racially, culturally, linguistically,
and socioeconomically diverse students (McDonald, 2005).
As is the case in the USA more generally, the PST participants in these studies
were by and large White, middle-class, monolingual women (Goldring, Gray, &
Bitterman, 2013). The studies share a common goal of engaging their participants
in activities that afford them the opportunity to engage in some way with, or with
issues concerning, marginalized students. Furthermore, ideas for engaging these
PSTs from largely dominant backgrounds in developing more equitable instruc-
tional practices are presented in a variety of ways in these studies. Nonetheless,
there are commonalities across some of the studies. These include (a) the use of
whole class discussion to broaden PSTs’ understanding of attending to biases they
bring to analysis of classroom practices (Chap. 16) and ways in which they need to
include out-of-school knowledge in their assessments (Chap. 17), (b) attention to
the needs of English learners both domestically and in an international setting

M. Q. Foote (*)
Queens College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 327

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_19
328 M. Q. Foote

(Chap. 14 and one study in Chap. 18), and (c) the use of specific tools for focusing
PSTs on improving their equitable instructional practices: a Curriculum Spaces
Analysis Tool (Chap. 15), vignettes (Chap. 16), and concept mapping (Chap. 17).
After a brief overview of each chapter, I will return to a discussion of the common-
alities identified across the studies.
The authors of Chap. 14 examined instructional strategies employed by PSTs
when working with a single English learner. The authors were interested in which
strategies PSTs would “intuitively” employ since they had had no previous course-
work in pedagogies for working explicitly with English learners. The authors used
a framework developed by Chval and Chávez (2012), who describe effective strate-
gies for working with English learners; they examined to what extent their partici-
pants used these strategies in their work with the English learners with whom they
were working.
As part of the Teach Math project (Turner et al., 2011), the authors of Chap. 15,
engaged PSTs in an activity focused on adapting curriculum materials to reflect
children’s mathematical thinking and the out-of-school knowledge and experiences
that students might bring to the elementary classroom in an attempt to “open spaces”
in the curriculum to accommodate this knowledge and these experiences. As well as
looking at the features of the curriculum that PSTs attended to and how their per-
sonal experiences impacted their thinking, the authors examine the extent to which
a tool developed by the Teach Math project (the Curriculum Spaces Table) sup-
ported PSTs in their curriculum analysis.
In the study described in Chap. 16, PSTs were afforded the opportunity to exam-
ine a vignette of a student with demonstrated competence in mathematics who had
also been labeled as disruptive in the mathematics classroom by the teacher. Small
groups of PSTs examined the same vignette with each small group being given a
different student demographic: African-American male, African-American female,
White male, and White female. The study examined whether instructional sugges-
tions as to how to support the student varied depending on the race and gender of the
student.
In Chap. 17 the author examined, through concept mapping, how PSTs link vari-
ous concepts to the root idea of “assessing children’s understanding of fractions.”
The hope was that PSTs would link the various multiple mathematical knowledge
bases (MMKB) that students draw on in their mathematical thinking to this assess-
ment of fractional knowledge.
Chapter 18 presents two studies which are conceptually linked through the use of
a critical ethnomathematics curriculum intended to support PSTs in attending to
social and cultural dimensions of learning. In the first study, as part of a mathemat-
ics content course, PSTs studied mathematics content through engagement with
activities drawn from a variety of cultural and historical contexts. In the second
study, an intensive field experience in an international setting, PSTs confronted cul-
tural knowledge bases that were required for accessing particular academic content
as well as the challenges involved in learning mathematical content in a language
that is not the home language.
19  A Commentary on Supporting Teachers in Addressing the Needs of Marginalized… 329

In two studies (Chaps. 16 and 17), authors found that whole class discussions
that followed initial attempts to engage in the activity were an effective tool that
supported PSTs in revising their thinking in some important way. In Chap. 16 this
discussion raised PSTs’ awareness of biases they were bringing to their analysis; in
the case of Chap. 17, PSTs were supported in thinking about out-of-school funds of
knowledge that might be related to understandings of fractions.
Needs of English learners were examined in two studies (Chap. 14 and the sec-
ond study in Chap. 18). Through their work with the students in these cases, PSTs
became aware of particular needs of English learners in the mathematics classroom
that they might not have encountered if not afforded the opportunity to work with
this population.
Effective tools for use by PSTs in developing their equitable practice in mathe-
matics were introduced in several of the studies (Chaps. 15, 16, and 17). In Chap. 15
authors employed the Curriculum Spaces Analysis Tool developed by the Teach
Math project (Drake et al., 2015) to focus PSTs on how they can adapt curriculum
to meet the needs of marginalized students whose knowledge bases might not be
present in the written curriculum. The authors of Chap. 16 used vignettes as a tool
to focus PSTs’ attention on particular biases they might be bringing to analysis of
classroom practice and to make suggestions for supporting students from particular
non-dominant backgrounds. In Chap. 17, concept maps were used as a tool for
examining the incorporation of various MMKBs in assessing children’s fractional
knowledge.
The greater understandings of the needs of marginalized students that PSTs were
able to develop across the multiple experiences in university classes support them in
developing more equitable instructional practices that can in turn support the aca-
demic achievement of some of our most vulnerable students.

References

Chval, K.  B., & Chávez, Ó. (2012). Designing math lessons for English language learners.
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 17(5), 261–265.
Drake, C., Land, T. J., Bartell, T. G., Aguirre, J. M., Foote, M. Q., Roth McDuffie, A., & Turner,
E. E. (2015). Three strategies for opening curriculum spaces. Teaching Children Mathematics,
21(6), 346–353.
Goldring, R., Gray, L., & Bitterman, A. (2013). Characteristics of public and private elementary
and secondary school teachers in the United States: Results from the 2011–12 schools and
staffing survey (NCES 2013-314). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National
Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch
McDonald, M. A. (2005). The integration of social justice in teacher education: Dimensions of
prospective teachers’ opportunities to learn. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(5), 418–435.
Turner, E.  E., Drake, C., McDuffie, A.  R., Aguirre, J., Bartell, T.  G., & Foote, M.  Q. (2011).
Promoting equity in mathematics teacher preparation: A framework for advancing teacher
learning of children’s multiple mathematics knowledge bases. Journal of Mathematics Teacher
Education, 15(1), 67–82.
Index

A A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for

Adriana’s sensemaking, 72 Educational Reform, 5, 14
Advanced Placement (AP), 27, 28 Anti-deficit perspective, 64
Agenda for Action, 14
Algebraic reasoning, 111, 119, 121
Algonquin community, 108 B
Allies and allywork ‘Back to basics’ reform movement, 13–14
act of oppression, 91 Bilingual learners
actions, 86 BCTF, 174
awareness, 85, 86 ELL, 173
challenges, 90 intra- and international movement, 174
characterization, 92 mathematical thinking, 176
community’s skills and strengths, 92 methods, 177–179
develop self-comfort, 90 multilingual classrooms, 174, 187
disempower to empowered, 91 multilingual contexts, 174
episodic actions/personalization, 85 NCTM, 174
healing process, 91 proficiency-based approach, 187
IAM, 86 vignette, 179–180, 182, 184
intergroup relationships, 93 area, 181
member of the ‘dominant’/‘majority’ Katie’s gestures, 183
group, 84 negative area, 182
members of target groups, 91 rapid dragging, 184, 185
MTEs and MTs, 83–85, 87, 88, 93 transcript of Jay and Katie, 180, 185
PAR, 93 Black Lives Matter (BLM), 9
PD, 92 Bolt problem, 64
politicized trust, 87 British Columbia Teachers’ Federation
positive social change, 92 (BCTF), 174
privilege and oppression, 85, 86, 90, 91 Brown v Board of Education of Topeka,
processes, 88–90 Kansas, 8, 9
social and cultural group, 91
SOS spaces, 84–88, 90, 91
systemic oppressions, 84 C
target and nontarget groups, 93 Calculus, 61–63
teaching, talking and working, 87 STEM, 175
Alternative financial institutions (AFIs), 154 Cartography, 158

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 331

T. G. Bartell (ed.), Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education,
Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1
332 Index

Children’s learning Conservative perspectives, 99, 100

assessment of, 290–291 Content-focused coursework
Children’s mathematical literacy, 137–139 PSI course, 313–314
Children’s mathematical thinking PST education, 318
and children’s FoK, 243 teaching geometry
and community and cultural FoK, 244 cultural artifacts, 314–316
cultural and community resources, 257 sociocultural art form, 316–318
and FoK, 243, 250, 254, 258, 259 Contradictory class location, 82
home- and community-based Cosmopolitan space, 49
knowledge, 242 Counter model
mathematics instruction, 243 epsilon, 70
PSTs’ tendency, 258 error and error bound, 70, 71
Children’s MMKBs, 289–299, 301–304 error bound, 71
Class sessions function slots resource, 70
dates and description, 158, 159 functional dependence, 69, 71
CNN to Fox News, 99 infer error bounds, 70
Cognition KiP posits, 71
framework, 61 misconception, 69
share the power, 61 quality control, 69
and sociopolitical contexts, 63 tracking, 71
Collaborative reflective journals (CRJ), 313 Counting
Commentary, 327–329 activities, 212
Common Core State Standards for Mathematical dry beans, 212
Practice (CCSSM), 290 Course artifacts (CA), 313
Communication skills, 218 Course project artifacts (CPA), 313
Competitive argumentation, 67 Critical agency, 154
Concept image and concept definition, 60 Critical ethnomathematics curriculum (CEC),
Concept maps 310, 312
activities, 302 Critical geography, 47, 48, 170
assessment, 300–302 Critical literacy, 155
assessment of children’s learning, 290–291 Critical mathematics, 158
children’s mathematical thinking, 288 Critical race theory (CRT), 8–10
children’s MMKBs, 289–290 Cueing priority, 67
culturally responsive teaching, 290, 291 Cultural validity, 291
data analysis, 294–295 Cultural ways of reasoning, 63
data generation Culturally responsive mathematics education
edited concept maps, 294 (CRME), 310, 312, 314, 319, 321,
end of semester concept maps, 293 323, 324
pilot activity, 292–293 Culturally responsive teaching, 290, 291
drawing, 288 Curriculum adaptation, 244
funds of knowledge, 288 Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for
group of, 302 School Mathematics (CSSM), 3, 4,
high-level tasks, 297–300, 302 14, 15
implications, 303–304 Curriculum Spaces Analysis Tool, 328
linking to (and across) children’s MMKB, Cyclical approach, 108
296–297
mathematics teacher educators, 288
PSTs (see Prospective teachers (PSTs)) D
research tool in teacher education, Deficit perspectives, 60, 61
291–292 Demarcate students’ intelligence, 61
researchers, 289 Design process, ethnomathematics
sociocultural, 288 Algonquin activity, 113
teacher educators, 302 diagonal loom pattern, 112–114
Conscious healing, 89 Ella’s five-column pattern core, 117
Index 333

extended flower pattern, 116 Ella’s five-column pattern core, 117

flower pattern, 115 Empirical-constructing space, 48
individual bracelet designs, 117 Empirical-space element, 51
inevitably, 112 English language learner (ELL), 173, 174
Jack’s chevron, 118, 119 English learners (ELs)
9 × 9 Luke’s array pattern core, 117, 118 academic language, 237
“occluders”, 113, 114 field experiences, 219
student-generated inquiry, 115 groups of students, 218
template, 112 language, 236
three “sub-cores” in a nine-column pattern language development, 237
core, 117, 118 language preferences, 236
three-bead five-color chevron, 115 low numbers, 218
three-color three-bead chevron, 114, 115 low proportion, 219
two-bead five-color chevron, 115 mathematical and language
two-bead four-color chevron, 115 understandings, 236
two-color two-bead chevron loom pattern, mathematical learning, 219
114, 115 in mathematics, 218
Wyhatt’s four-column pattern core, 118, 119 method, 220–222
Diagonal loom pattern, 112–114 performance and utilizing strategies, 237
Digital maps, 157, 212 population, 218
Disrupt oppressive systems, 89 research-based instructional strategies, 235
Diversity in Mathematics Education strategies, 220
(DiME), 24 students’ writing, 235
Dynamic geometry environments (DGE), 177, teaching strategies, 219
178, 181, 186, 187 in whole-class settings, 218
Epistemic privilege, 78
Equitable mathematics education systems, 78,
E 87, 94, 95
Early field experience allies and allywork (see Allies and
CPA, 319 allywork)
CRME, 319 MTEs (see Mathematics teacher educators
development, 319 (MTEs))
Hisabati Katika Kazi (Mathematics at Equity, 4, 267, 268
Work), 321 in mathematics education, 289
homogeneous profession, 318 equity-oriented practices, 292
mathematics in street, 321, 322 equity-oriented teaching practices, 303
orientation meetings, 319 and social justice, 288
parallel and perpendicular lines, kanga Equity and diversity, 235
fabric, 320 Ethnomathematics, 105, 112–121, 145, 312,
PST education, 318 313, 322–324
PSTs, 319 Algonquin Language, 109, 110
teaching certification, 319 Algonquin teachers, 108
Teaching Fractions with Ugali, 320 CEC, 310, 312
transformations and kangas, 321, 322 classify, 311
WWR, 319 community members, 108
Ecological rings, 50 concept of mathematics, 311
Economy of exclusion, 201 co-planning phase, 109
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of CREM, 312
1965, 9 CRME, 310, 312
Elementary mathematics cultural knowledge, 107
instructional modules, 242, 244 cultural revitalization, 108
teaching and learning, 243 culturally responsive mathematics
Elementary mathematics education, 292, 293 education, 107
Elementary school education, 220 curriculum, 312
334 Index

Ethnomathematics (cont.) F
cyclical approach, 108 Field experience (FE), 218–221, 224, 225,
data analysis, 110–111 230, 235, 236, 316
data collection, 110 Flower pattern, 115
definitions, 106, 311 Formal definition, 62–66
designing patterns in the classroom Formative assessments, 290, 291
(see Design process) Function slots resource, 70
everyday mathematics, 311 Functional dependence, 65, 67, 69, 71–73
Grade 6 classroom, 106 Funds of knowledge (FoK)
indigenous (see Indigenous mathematics) Casey’s reflection, 300
indigenous community members, children’s mathematical thinking, 243
122–123 community-based mathematical, 288, 289
instruction, 106 connect appropriate, 298
K–12 institutional context, 309 cultural, 289
lesson designs, 109 economic power, 139
Loom beading, 109 family and community, 145–148
marginalized students, 312 in mathematics teaching, 301
mathematical practices, 106 insurrection of subjugated knowledges, 139
mathematical thinking, 106, 107, 311 interviews, 139
(see Mathematical thinking) mathematical reasoning, 139
mathematizing, 107 MMKB, 252, 254, 303
multicultural mathematics, 311 power structures, 139
non-native researchers, 108 and sociocultural theory, 129–130, 139
non-Western mathematics, 311 sociopolitical turn, 140
outcomes, 112 students, 297
positionality, 310–311 utilize students, 299
PSTs, 312
reflections, 322–324
research, 106 G
research and culturally responsive Generalizing language, 4
education, 106 Globalization and diversity, 128
research field, 311 Grocery store access task, 163
revisiting, 123 Gross domestic product, 156
rote memorization and symbol
manipulation, 109
self-study, 313 H
content-focused coursework Healing, 89
(see Content-focused Healing process, 91
coursework) High school education, 154, 158
early field experience (see Early field Higher education
experience) male-oriented hierarchical space, 80–81
MTE-contributed data, 313 High-quality instruction, 25
practical and professional Hispanic teachers, 79
experiences, 312
PST-contributed data, 313
reflections, 322–324 I
teacher education courses, 313 Image space/visual artifacts, 48
unfreezing the mathematics, 106 Immigrant parents, 147
Every Student Succeed Act Immigrant women, 148
(ESSA), 9 Implicit racial attitudes
Everyday mathematics, 311 African American students, 36
Expert-apprentice modeling, 146 behavior and academic aptitude, 28–29
Explicit racial attitudes, 23 characterization, 23
Extended flower pattern, 116 deconstructing whiteness, 37
Index 335

definition, 22 Knowledge resources

DiME, 24 competitive argumentation, 67
embedding, 32–35 context sensitive, 67
instructional quality, 22, 23 and counter-models, 67
internalization of deficit ideas, 37 cueing and reliability priority, 67
low-quality access, 35 functional dependence, 67
mathematics PD, 36 glossary, 66
microaggressions, 30–32 p-prims, 67, 68
MKT, 37 proportional variation, 66
negative consequences and attributes of unpacking ideas, 67
whiteness, 37 use and articulation, 67
prejudiced views, 23 utility, 67
psychological study, 36 K-12 teaching, 82–83
quality of mathematics instruction, 24–26 K-university levels, 79
racism, 22–24
role in African American students, 22
scholars, 24 L
spontaneous and unconscious behaviors, 23 Language repertoires, 196
teachers expressing, 36 Language strategies, 197, 198, 200, 205, 207
teachers’ views, 36 Learning of mathematics
teacher-student relationships, 22, 26–28 sense of place to, 157–158
Improving America’s School Act of 1994, 9 Learning opportunities, 59
Indigenous Action Media (IAM), 86 Liberal perspectives, 99, 100
Indigenous mathematics Limit
in mathematics classroom, 122–123 formal definition, 61–64
Individual bracelet designs, 117 of functions, 63, 65
Infer error bounds, 70 Logical structure, logical implication
Instructional quality, 22, 23 statements, 65
Insurrection of subjugated knowledges, 139 Loom beading, 109
Intentional policies, 6 Lower-quality mathematics instruction, 25
Interactive digital maps, 154 9 × 9 Luke’s array pattern core,
Interactive-connective space, 48, 52 117, 118
Interest-convergence principle, 9–10
Intergroup relationships, 89, 93
International currency conversion M
children’s mathematical literacy, 137–139 Male-dominated academy, 83
interview, 138–139 Male-oriented hierarchical space
power structures, 135 higher education, 80–81
and time differences, 132, 135 Mapping
values, 132, 135 participatory, 154, 159
workshops, 135–137 tools, 170
Marginalized learners, 5–8, 16
Marginalized students, 312
J Math Wars, 15
Jack’s chevron, 118, 119 Mathematical discourse
Joint productive activity, 146 diachronic lens, 179
Journal of Urban Mathematics Education linguistic and non-linguistic feature, 179
(JUME), 45 synchronic lens, 179
Mathematical knowledge, 5
Mathematical language
K dialectical relations, 194
K–12 education, 100 network, 194
K-12 institutional context, 309 positioning theory, 194
Knowledge in pieces (KiP), 61, 62, 65, 67, 71 power, 194
336 Index

Mathematical language (cont.) Mathematizing, 107

SFL Microaggressions
ideational metafunction, 195 instruction and experience, 35
interpersonal metafunction, 195 mathematical ability, 23
textual metafunction, 195 in mathematics classrooms, 30–32
Mathematical literacy, 5 responses to, 34
Mathematical thinking, 107, 311 Micro-politics of counting
and engagement, 121–122 counting something not present, 200–202
patterning and algebra, 119–120 counting something present, 202–205
proportional reasoning, 120, 121 counting beans, 203
spatial reasoning, 121 mathematical problem-solving contexts,
Mathematical-socio-spatial dialectic, 49 191, 198
Mathematics education methodology
and spatial justice, 156–157 benchmarks selection, 197
approaches, 193 language repertoires, 196
in democratic society, 5 language strategies, 197, 198
DiME, 24 problem-solving contexts, 198
embedding, 32–35 research data, 196
learning, 25 rice-counting tasks, 196
numbers micro-political moves, 191
cardinal, 193 number and power, 195–196
ordinal number, 193 numerosity, 193
pedagogical orientation, 193 politics of (Mathematical) language
policy and reform, 100 (see Mathematical language)
quality, 25 reciting numbers, 198–200
research, policies and reforms, 5 reflection, 207–208
researchers in, 218 research on counting, 193
Mathematics education history, 11–12 mathematics education research
Mathematics education policy, 5, 10–12, 16 (see Mathematics education)
Mathematics instruction strategies
quality of, 24–26 communication strategy, 191
Mathematics knowledge for teaching (MKT), language strategy, 191
25, 26 subitization, 193
Mathematics learning subordinated counting
technology, 212 articulation of numeric operations, 206
Mathematics PD, 36 pattern recognition and prediction, 205
Mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) sampling and prediction involvement, 207
and allies and allywork (see Allies and Misconceptions and students’ intuitions
allywork) Adriana’s sensemaking, 68, 69
anti-racist teaching confronted whiteness, 78 anti-deficit perspective, 64
community, 94 calculus, 63
demographic patterns, 79 characterization, 60
epistemic privilege, 78 cognition, 61
equitable mathematics systems, 78 cognition and sociopolitical contexts, 63
higher education, 80–81 concept image and concept definition, 60
Hispanic teachers, 79 counter model, 69–71
identities, 94 deficit perspectives, 60, 61
identity and work, 94 formal definition, 62–64
K-12 classroom, 78 functional dependence, 72
K-12 teaching, 78, 82–83 implications, 72–74
in mathematics education, 95 informal knowledge, 60
multiple actions and relations, 94 instructional design, 64–66
self-privileges, 94 intellectual capacity in learning
Mathematics-instructional triad, 47–50 mathematics, 61
Index 337

KiP, 62 presses for explanation and meaning,

knowledge resource, 66–68 225, 226
learning, 59 speaking, writing and drawing, 223
learning opportunities, 59 task’s requirement, strategic reasoning, 223
limit in calculus, 62 visual supports, 224, 225
limit of function, 63
proportional variation, 72
scholars, 59 N
sensemaking episode, 62, 63 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 7
sociopolitical perspective, 61–62 National Association for the Advancement of
temporal order, 64 Colored People (NAACP), 8
theoretical frameworks, 61 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
types of knowledge, 60 (NCTM), 3, 14, 15, 45, 174
undergraduate mathematics education National Defense Education Act (NDEA), 12
research, 60 National Science Foundation (NSF), 6
Multicultural mathematics, 311 NCTM annual meeting, 51
Multiple mathematical knowledge bases NCTM Research Committee, 47
(MMKBs) New math reform, 12–13
analysis and synthesis, 249 No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 9
children’s home- and community-based Non-dominant students, 129
knowledge, 242 Non-Western mathematics, 311
children’s mathematical thinking, 243 Noticing levels
Classroom Practices Module, 244 attention
content, 246 achievement, 275
context, 248 identity, 275
curriculum materials, 246 power, 275
Curriculum Spaces Activity, implementation actions
245–246 access, 278
Curriculum Spaces Table, 256, 258–260 achievement, 279
data sources, 245–246 identity, 279, 280
diverse K-12 student, 259 instructional/pedagogical strategies, 278
elementary mathematics methods, 244 power, 280
evaluation, 246, 248 interpretation
field placement classrooms, 258 access, 276
funds of knowledge, 243, 252, 254 achievement, 276, 277
lesson features, 250–254 identity, 277
mathematics learning, 243 power, 277
multicultural- and community-based teaching and learning, 276
approaches, 257 Number and power, 195
personal experiences, mathematics justifying an action, 196
teaching, 254–255 macro-level processes
preK-8 PSTs, 243 exponential-based number systems, 195
PSTs, 250–252 technologies of counting (quantification), 195
PSTs’ development, 257
school-based mathematics, 242
self-awareness, cultural differences, 260 O
TEACH Math project, 242 Occluders, 113, 114
utility, 249 Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Multiple modes of communication, PSTs Development’s (OECD), 137
checks for understanding, 226, 227
definition, 223
drawing, 224 P
ELs’ ability, 224 Parental involvement, 128, 134
gestures and manipulatives, 224 Participatory action research (PAR), 93
338 Index

Participatory mapping, 154, 159 Preservice teachers (PSTs)

Patterns and structures through inquiry (PSI) communication skills, 218
course, 313–314 curricular reforms, 218
Percent ELs (see English learners (ELs))
Common Core State Standards in English-speaking, 218
Mathematics, 155 facilitate, 218
common errors, 155 field experiences, 218, 219, 235
conceptual understanding, 160 Hwa-Young’s use of Hannah’s drawing, 234
decimal-based strategies, 160 instructional strategies, 219, 235
link procedures, 156 in learning to teach mathematics, 218
pervasive role in mathematics mathematical tasks and practices, 218
curriculum, 155 method, 220–222
procedural methods, 156 multiple modes of communication
and proportional reasoning, 155 (see Multiple modes of
ratio table tool, 160, 161 communication, PSTs)
student work, 161–162 opportunities to work, 218
Personal philosophies of teaching (PPT), 313 sociocultural perspective, 219
Place space, 48 Space Creatures Task
Policies and reforms excerpt of Ho-Min’s work, 229, 230
decentralizing whiteness, 16 Hannah’s question plan, 230–233
economic, technological and security, 16 Hwa-Young’s written work, 233, 234
marginalized learners, 16 Morgan’s modified, 227–229
nationalistic position, 16 strategies, 219, 236, 237
Political ideologies, 99, 100, 102 students’ understanding, 237
Political nature of mathematics, teachers and teacher educators, 237
211–212 visual supports, 236
Politicized trust, 90 Principles and Standards for School
Politics of authenticity, 49 Mathematics (PSSM), 15
Positionality statements (PS), 313 Privilege and oppression, 83, 85, 86, 89–91
Positioning, 195 Professional development (PD), 92
Power Programme for International Student
analytic lens, 130 Assessment (PISA) test, 137–139
dynamics, 130 Proportional reasoning, 111, 119–121
economic, 139 Prospective teachers (PSTs)
examining, 130 challenging mathematics, 264
group’s consolidated and homogenous children’s mathematical thinking, 243,
domination, 130 250, 251
and identity, 140 children’s MMKBs, 288
imbalance, 140, 141 Classroom Practices Module, 244
macro-level processes, 194 classroom vignettes, 269
micro-level processes, 194 Community Exploration Module, 244
and parental involvement, 134 concept mapping, 291
self-monitoring and self-control, 130 concept maps, 294, 302
and social stratification, 140 connections and concepts, 291
and societal structures, 140 content, 246
structures, 135, 139 contexts, 248
Power and authority in K-12 schools, 83 cultural, 281
P-prims, 67, 68 Curriculum Spaces activity, 245
Predictions, 207 data analysis, 271, 272
Pre-K–12 mathematics classrooms data collection, 271
political nature, 211–212 design tasks and activities, 282
recognizing and challenging normalization, disparities, 281
212–213 encourage and support, 289
Preservice teacher education, 312 engagement in mathematical practice, 290
Index 339

equity (see Equity) pre-assessment, 162

equity-centered paradigm, 265 predesigned maps, 165
equity-oriented teaching practices, 303 procedural methods, 156
ethnicities and cultures, 265 purple pair, 167
evaluation, 246 qualitative/less precise, 163
field placement classrooms, 254 reasoning, 163
framework, 281 in relation to converting the currency, 133
high-level tasks, 296 skewed distribution, 164
implications, 282 students participate in embodied
learning and teaching, 290 distribution activity, 163, 164
learning tool, 289 Reliability priority, 67
level of noticing (see Noticing levels)
maps and reflections, 295
mathematics education, 242 S
MMKB, 244, 246, 260 Science, technology, engineering and
opportunities, 289, 293 mathematics (STEM) reform, 6, 7,
participating, 292 10–12, 175
pilot activity, 293 Self, others and systems (SOS) spaces, 84–88,
preK-8 PSTs, 243 90, 91, 94, 95
PSTs, 264–266, 269 Singapore dollars (SGD), 137
reflections, 258, 295, 301 Social goals, 4
role models, 282 Social injustices, 4
school-based mathematical thinking, 242 Social-signification axis
stereotypes, 281 applying, 52
students color, 264 markers, 49
teacher-led mathematical sensemaking, 252 urban-as-authenticity, 49
Public intellectuals, 99, 102 urban-as-pathological, 49
Public school teaching, 82 urban-as-sophistication, 49
Sociocultural perspective
PSTs, 219
Q Sociocultural theory
Qualitative analysis software, 133 and funds of knowledge, 129–130
Qualitative methods, 221 Sociopolitical context, 73
Quality control, 65 Sociopolitical perspective, 61–62
Quality of mathematics instruction, 24–26 Sociopolitical turn, 140
Socio-spatial dialectic, 48
Socio-spatial framework
R analyzing opportunity initiatives, 51
Racial bias, 28, 32, 34, 37 ecological rings, 50
Racism, 22–24, 36 mathematics-instructional triad, 49–50
Ratio reimagining research, 52–53
in digital map, 166 social-signification axis, 48–49, 52
floor map, 165 spatial axis, 48, 51–52
fractions, 155 theory-moment axis, 49
green pair, 166, 167 urban mathematics education scholarship,
income and spatial inequalities, 164 46–48
knowledge of international currency Solutions to mathematical tasks (SMT), 313
conversion and, 139 South African rand (ZAR), 137
link procedures, 156 Spatial axis
motivating, 163, 164 applying, 51–52
orange pair, 166 conceptions of space, 48
parents’ knowledge, 132 Spatial justice
pawnshops and banks, 164–165 AFIs, 154
post-assessments, 163 context and methods, 158–159
340 Index

Spatial justice (cont.) The Mathematical Education of Teachers II

financial awareness, 154 (MET II), 290
floor map, 169 The National Council of Teachers of
interactive digital maps, 154 Mathematics (NCTM), 264
literature, 155 The Pancake story, 62, 64–66, 68, 72, 73
and mathematics, 156–157 Theoretical ideologies, 99, 100, 102
oriented ratio table, 168 Theory-moment axis
percent (see Percent) interpretivist-constructivist, 49
ratio (see Ratio) mathematical-socio-spatial
scale of transaction, 167 dialectic, 49
school mathematics learning, 168 process-product, 49
sense of place to learn mathematics, social turn, 49
157–158 sociopolitical turn, 49
student thinking, 155–156 Three-bead five-color chevron, 115
Spatial reasoning, 111, 121 Three-color three-bead chevron, 114, 115
Spatial turn, 47 Tool-and-result methodology, 130, 131
Sputnik, 5, 12–13 Touchscreen technology, 175, 177–179,
Standards movement, 14–15 181, 186
Student thinking Transnational families
percent and ratio, 155–156 data analysis, 133
Subjugated knowledges, 140 data sources, 132–133
Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) description, 128
ideational metafunction, 195 everyday practices involving mathematics,
interpersonal metafunction, 195 134–135
textual metafunction, 195 funds of knowledge, 129–130
global population mobility, 128
in mathematics learning and teaching, 128
T international currency conversion (see
Teacher education, 100 International currency conversion)
cultural, 267 limitations, 140
integrating equity, 259 linguistically and culturally non-dominant
mathematics, 242, 243, 257 students, 128
programs, 264, 265, 282 non-dominant families, 128
research tool in, 291–292 parental involvement, 128
social justice, 259 pedagogical implications, 141
Teachers Empowered to Advance Change in power and parental involvement, 134
Mathematics (TEACH Math) sociocultural theory, 129–130
project, 242–244, 257, 292, 328 study and participants, 131
Teacher-student relationships, 22, 26–28, 34 and students in Japan, 128
Teaching mathematics tool-and-result methodology, 130, 131
procedures and skills, 13 Two-bead five-color chevron, 115
Teaching practice, 226 Two-bead four-color chevron, 115
Technologies of counting (quantification), 195 Two-color two-bead chevron loom pattern,
Technology 114, 115
supporting equity, 212
Technology-mediated learning
gestures and touchscreen dragging, 175, 177 U
tactile and kinesthetic modes, 175 Urban authenticity, 52
touchscreen interface, 186 Urban mathematics education
touchscreen technology, 175, 177–179, arrangements of spatial geography, 54
181, 186 collective cognition, 54
Temporal order, 64 distribution of social opportunity, 54
Index 341

equity, 45–46, 54 V
practice, 44 Visual mediators, 176, 182, 186
practice community, 54 Visual supports, 222, 224, 225, 235, 236
reconceptualization, 44 Vygotsky’s theory, 129
scholarship, 44–45
social consideration, 44
social justice, 45–46, 54 W
social justice discourse, 54 Written reflections (WR), 313
socio-spatial framework (see Socio-spatial Wyhatt’s four-column pattern core, 118, 119
framework)
Urban planners, 158
Urban sociology, 47, 48 Y
Urban systemic initiatives (USI), 51–53 Youth geography, 170
Urban-as-authenticity, 49
Urban-as-sophistication, 49
Urban-pathological view, 52, 53 Z
Urban-sophisticated sensibility, 52 Zone of proximal development (ZPD), 129