Between race-evasiveness and the pursuit of racial competence: Secondary mathematics preservice teachers’ understandings of race in an introductory methods course

Abstract

The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the ways that preservice teachers, in their first mathematics education course, understood race in mathematics classrooms. Through a qualitative document analysis of course assignments, we identify three ways students wrote about race: using race-evasive maneuvers to avoid discussion of race in mathematics education, skimming past racial issues in ways that reduced their importance, and directly engaging with race in the active pursuit of racial competence. Our results suggest ways that critical mathematics topics can encourage students to begin this pursuit and underscore the need for intentionally antiracist-oriented mathematics teacher education.