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Interactional production of deficit talk in a professional development for mathematics teachers

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Abstract

In this paper, I examine deficit talk, utterances that depict students and/or families based on their perceived deficits, in an equity-oriented professional development (PD) setting. Researchers often attribute deficit talk by mathematics teachers (MTs) to their biased beliefs and perceptions. From an interactional approach, namely conversation analysis and discursive psychology, I offer an alternative perspective on how deficit talk is produced in PD interactions. The analysis shows the rhetorical functions of deficit talk, which are designed for MTs to manage their accountability with a range of potential issues and to portray themselves as competent teachers. The analysis also reveals the action-performing nature of deficit talk (e.g., refusing a request) situated in the social interaction. To conclude, this paper suggests that mathematics teacher educators need to attend to the micropolitical nature of deficit talk and their co-participation in the production of deficit talk as they formulate ways to respond to deficit talk in PD interactions.

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Notes

  1. All names are pseudonyms.

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Acknowledgements

I thank the A3IMS (Access, Agency, and Allies in Mathematical Systems) project team as well as the teachers and students who graciously allowed me time with them. The project team included: Joel Amidon, Tonya Gau Bartell, Sunghwan Byun, Missy D. Cosby, Michael Eiland, Mary Q. Foote, Victoria Hand, Frances Harper, Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, Brent Jackson, Sheeba Johnson, Durrell Jones, Courtney Koestler, Gregory Larnell, Carlos LópezLeiva, Oyemolade Osibodu, Timothy Roberts, Ashley D. Scroggins, Anita Wager, and Ayşe Yolcu. I also thank Beth Herbel-Eisenmann, Jennifer VanDerHeide, Christopher Dubbs, Lee Melvin Peralta, four anonymous reviewers, and the editor for their insightful comments.

Funding

This work is based upon work supported by National Science Foundation (US) under the Grant Number DRL-1417672. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.

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  1. Department of Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics Education, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Sunghwan Byun

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Byun, S. Interactional production of deficit talk in a professional development for mathematics teachers. J Math Teacher Educ 26, 53–78 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-021-09519-y

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