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Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education pp 263–285Cite as

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

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Part of the book series: Research in Mathematics Education ((RME))

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 students’ access to high-quality mathematics instruction. As mathematics teacher educators, 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 everything constant in the vignette except the student’s race and sex, we examined prospective 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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Christa Jackson

  2. Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Millersville, PA, USA

    Cynthia E. Taylor

  3. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Kelley Buchheister

Authors
  1. Christa Jackson
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  2. Cynthia E. Taylor
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  3. Kelley Buchheister
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Correspondence to Kelley Buchheister .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Teacher Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

    Tonya Gau Bartell

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Jackson, C., Taylor, C.E., Buchheister, K. (2018). Seeing Mathematics Through Different Eyes: An Equitable Approach to Use with Prospective Teachers. In: Bartell, T. (eds) Toward Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Education. Research in Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92907-1_16

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-92906-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-92907-1

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