Mary Q. Foote

Are We Supporting Teacher Success: Insights From an Alternative Route Mathematics Teacher Certification Program for Urban Public Schools

In this article we examine induction policies and practices for new alternatively certified mathematics teachers in the country’s largest urban school district, New York City. Our focus is on the support system for such teachers as it is legislated and as it is enacted. This includes the induction and general supports (e.g., mentoring, coaching, networks) that are available to mathematics teachers in the New York City Teaching Fellows Program (NYCTF). Data sources include a survey of one entire cohort of Fellows (N=167), as well as more in depth interviews and written reflections from 12 case study Fellows. Results indicate that the supports, while as espoused seem adequate, as delivered are inconsistent and in many cases inadequate. A key finding is that many teachers found that informal relationships, usually within their local school settings, provided more effective support to help them through their first years of teaching mathematics. This research has implications for the induction of alternatively certified teachers and more generally of all new teachers particularly those in urban schools.

Making Connections in Practice: How Prospective Elementary Teachers Connect to Children’s Mathematical Thinking and Community Funds of Knowledge in Mathematics Instruction

This study examines the ways prospective elementary teachers (PSTs) made connections to children’s mathematical thinking and children’s community funds of knowledge in mathematics lesson plans. We analyzed the work of 70 PSTs from across three university sites associated with an instructional module for elementary mathematics methods courses that asks PSTs to visit community settings and develop problem solving mathematics lessons that connect to mathematical practices in these settings (Community Mathematics Exploration Module). Using analytic induction, we identified three distinct levels of connections to children’s mathematical thinking and their community funds of knowledge evidenced in PSTs’ work (emergent, transitional, and meaningful). Findings describe how these connections reflected different points on a learning trajectory. This study has implications for understanding how PSTs begin to connect to children’s mathematical funds of knowledge in their teaching, a practice shown to be effective for teaching diverse groups of children.

Locating Praxis for Equity in Mathematics Lessons From and for Professional Development

In this article, the authors report on a study that contributes to a growing body of literature that considers professional development (PD) focused on mathematics and equity. The authors examined how lived experiences provide a foundation for the ways teachers take up equity in their mathematics teaching practice. The constructs of praxis and figured worlds are used to frame the study. In particular, teachers’ identities in the figured worlds of standards-based mathematics, multicultural education, and equitable mathematics pedagogy were explored with a focus on how they contributed to where the teachers located praxis for equity in mathematics. The teachers’ lived experiences and their participation in the PD were analyzed with an eye toward teachers’ evolving identities and how they contribute to where teachers located praxis.

I Have a Solution to Share: Learning Through Equitable Participation in a Mathematics Classroom

Student participation is an issue of equity. Without participation there can be no learning. This study focuses on the participation (and therefore learning) of struggling students (those with individual education plans [IEPs]) during the implementation of a relational thinking routine in a third-grade inclusion classroom. Students with IEPs often initially used direct modeling with linking cubes as a resource for presenting their thinking. In this way, they were able to demonstrate their ability to think relationally. As the year progressed, these students, who had earlier been reluctant to share and had done so only by using several of the resources that the participation structure of the routine provided, often showed a growth in their abilities to explain their thinking verbally.RésuméLa participation des étudiants est une question d’équité. Sans participation aucun apprentissage n’est possible. Cette étude est centrée sur la participation (et donc l’apprentissage) d’étudiants qui éprouvent des difficultés d’apprentissage (ceux qui font l’objet de programmes de formation individuelle), lors de la mise en place d’une séquence structurée pour favoriser l’expression de la pensée relationnelle dans une classe d’intégration de troisième année. Au début, les élèves suivant un programme de formation individuelle utilisaient plus souvent les cubes ou d’autres modèles directs comme ressources pour représenter leur pensée. Ainsi, ils étaient en mesure de démontrer leur capacité de penser de façon relationnelle. Plus tard dans l’année scolaire, ces élèves, qui auparavant s’étaient montrés peu enclins à s’exprimer, et l’avaient fait seulement par le biais des ressources fournies par les séquences structurées prévues, ont dans plusieurs cas manifesté une meilleure capacité d’exprimer verbalement leur pensée.

A Commentary on Supporting Teachers in Addressing the Needs of Marginalized Students

This chapter presents a commentary on the pieces in the book related to supporting teachers in addressing the needs of marginalized students.

Curriculum spaces for connecting to children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases

Abstract Elementary mathematics curriculum materials can serve as a lever for instructional change. In this paper, we promote a particular kind of instructional change: supporting teachers in learning to integrate children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases (MMKB), including children’s mathematical thinking and children’s home and community-based mathematical funds of knowledge, in instruction. A powerful means of supporting pre-service teachers in integrating children’s MMKB in instruction may be to scaffold teachers’ noticing of potential spaces in elementary mathematics curriculum materials for connecting to children’s MMKB and then developing practices for leveraging these spaces during instruction. We focus on existing and potential spaces in written curriculum materials, or curriculum spaces, so as to better support teachers in enacting curriculum that opens spaces for connecting to children’s MMKB.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Bringing Experiences of Race, Class, Language, Gender, and Culture to Research in Mathematics Education.

Through this performance ethnography the authors present the stories of emerging scholars who in their research identify an interest in equity issues in the field of mathematics education. The article is based on life-story interviews with 26 participants. Six composite characters were developed to represent the voices of the participants. Particular attention is devoted to issues of race and how other experiences can provide windows into the racialized experiences that exist in learning and teaching mathematics.