Equity In Mathematics Education Research Articles

From Home to Classroom: Investigating Girls' Participation in Secondary Level Mathematics

This study explores the nuanced journey of girls' participation in secondary level mathematics, investigating the influences of early experiences at home and dynamics within the classroom. Focused on Grade IX students in Gurbhakot Municipality, Surkhet, the research adopts a quantitative approach through a survey design. Five secondary schools were selected using a convenience sampling method, aiming for diversity in community and geographical locations. Data collection involved Likert Scale points, encompassing 30 statements related to girls' participation in mathematics. The analysis revealed key insights, including positive attitudes towards academic engagement, varied opinions on gender perceptions, strong familial support, favorable learning environments at home, and diverse views on societal and parental influences. The study's significance lies in addressing a critical gap in literature by examining the transition from home to the classroom, offering valuable insights for educators and policymakers to enhance gender equity in mathematics education. The findings suggest areas for improvement, such as addressing gender perceptions, improving communication between parents and teachers, and enhancing the appeal of mathematics classes. Recognizing positive aspects, like strong family support and student interest, can contribute to fostering a more inclusive learning environment.

Students’ participation in mathematics in inclusive classrooms: a study of the enacted mathematical and relational knowing of teachers

ABSTRACT Given the need to increase equity in mathematics education, this study draws on earlier research connecting the mathematical and relational knowing of teachers to determine how such combined knowing enables elementary school students’ inclusion in mathematics. Through a participatory perspective on learning based on social practice theory, empirical examples in the results illustrate how the mathematical and relational knowing of teachers enables diverse participation in communities of classroom mathematics. For students’ spatial, social, and mathematical inclusion in the classroom, the enactment of both mathematical and relational knowing of teachers is important. Further, the results indicate that this enactment of both mathematical and relational knowing can be made by one or two co-teachers. Thus, when advocating for inclusive and quality mathematics education for all students, the mathematical as well as the relational knowing of teachers ought to be considered.

Promoting epistemic agency and reinscribing boundaries in mathematics education

Epistemic agency has been named as key to supporting sense-making and equity in mathematics education. This study investigates how instructional practices that align with supporting students’ mathematical agency may both disrupt and simultaneously reinscribe boundaries that have historically governed who is valued and vice versa. Coordinating extant studies of institutional exclusion with observational data from a fourth-grade classroom, our analysis shows that sense-making activities that invite students to generate and share their own strategies for solving mathematics problems may function to elevate certain students while marginalizing others. This study calls into question prevailing discourses framing epistemic agency as a self-evident good and raises concerns about the danger of reinscribing values that have long operated to privilege some and exclude others.

Equity in mathematics education

This paper reviews research on equity in mathematics education (excluding gender equity) for the period 2017–2022. From the publications identified, five themes were distilled: conceptualizations and framing of equity in mathematics education; research methodologies and researcher positionalities; equity-focused practices, pedagogies and teacher education; equitable mathematics curriculum content, access and pathways; and equity in mathematics education at system levels, nationally and internationally. The review concludes by engaging some of the critique and suggests future directions for research. The research demonstrates that there is growing voice and visibility of equity-focused studies in mathematics education and that conceptualizations of equity have broadened and deepened through an increasing diversity of studies in this area. At the same time, the review also shows the dominance of the Global North in shaping equity discourses and the paucity of research on equity in mathematics education from the Global South.

Identity Work, Racialized Emotions, and Equity in Mathematics Education

This Research Commentary draws on the articles in the March 2022 issue of JRME, engaging with the notion of labor as a key concept to push the field toward novel understandings of equity in mathematics education. We introduce the concepts of identity work and racialized emotions to provide an alternative reading of the articles in that issue, arguing that attention to the interplay of these two concepts is vital to consider issues of equity because mathematics identity intersects with race, gender, class, and sexuality, among other social identities historically marginalized in the classroom. We argue that a focus on such interplay could help to revitalize the discourse on equity in mathematics education across the globe.

Equity in mathematics education in Hong Kong: evidence from TIMSS 2011 to 2019

AbstractThis study investigated the status of equity in mathematics education in Hong Kong based on data from TIMSS 2011 to 2019 and the changes in education equity across the three cycles. The effects of various student-, family-, and school-level variables on students’ mathematics achievement were examined and compared using multilevel modeling. Results showed that there were significant variances between schools in mathematics achievement in Hong Kong, especially for eighth grade students. Overall, boys performed better in mathematics than girls in these three TIMSS cycles in Hong Kong, except for eighth grade boys in the cycles of 2011 and 2019. The family and school socio-economic status (SES) related to the possession of traditional materials (e.g., desks and books) and parents’ highest education level had positive and significant effects on students’ mathematics achievement, and the effects of the predictors increased from the 2011 cycle to the 2019 cycle. SES related to the possession of home digital devices (e.g., computers and internet connection) also had positive but much less substantial effects. School location and resource availability did not have significant effects. In general, the mean levels of SES and school resource availability in Hong Kong is improving. However, the effects of some important student- and school-level factors on mathematics achievement increased. Suggestions for improving education equity in Hong Kong are discussed.

Engaging Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers in Online Mathematics Teaching and Learning: Problems and Possibilities

Many pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers have reflected vulnerabilities and unpreparedness for online teaching during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. They searched for supports and resources to enhance their knowledge, skills, and dispositions relative to online teaching and learning. However, there is no clear path towards reaching these goals. This qualitative and interpretive research focuses on 48 pre-service and in-service teachers’ online teaching and learning experiences; while they were engaged in a semester-long mathematics-method course. The findings of this study suggest that factors, like interactions, communication, and peer support impact the pre-service and the in-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs and practices toward online teaching and learning. The findings also suggest that social and cultural factors, such as knowing and understanding students’ cultural background, access and equity in mathematics education, learners’ social and emotional development, and parents’ involvement influence mathematics teachers’ practices regarding online teaching and learning. The findings indicate that the transformation from in-person to online learning requires the enhancement of pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers’ online preparations, particularly in the areas of technology, pedagogy, communication skills, and classroom management.

Teacher Candidates’ Silhouettes: Supporting Mathematics Teacher Identity Development in Secondary Mathematics Methods Courses

ABSTRACT In this paper, teacher educators located at three different universities across the United States share findings emerging from our collaboration around a suite of three activities that engage our teacher candidates (TCs) around their identities as future mathematics teachers. In particular, our TCs engaged in a suite of identity-based activities in order to promote reflexivity across dimensions in a way that we argue is not possible through a single activity. We implemented activities to promote our TCs’ reflexivity, as well as to engage in critical self-reflection on our own practice as mathematics teacher educators. We explore the relationship between multidimensional reflexivity and beginning teachers who hold commitments toward justice and equity in mathematics education. Three activities – a mathematics autobiography, a silhouette, and an identity card sort – were selected, modified, implemented, and reflected on across our secondary mathematics methods courses, with the goal of promoting reflexivity across dimensions. We refer to reflexivity across dimensions as one’s ability to explore one’s identity within various analytical frames. The autobiography, silhouette, and card sort offered opportunities for TCs to explore the dimensions of their narrative, discursive, and categorical reflexivity, respectively. We found that TCs engaged in continual questioning and perturbing of their positions in society in ways that contributed to their sense of self and promoted reflexivity across the dimensions of TCs’ mathematics identities.

Book Review: Keeping mathematics education real and fair: connecting the disconnections. Constantinos Xenofontos (Ed.) (2019) Equity in mathematics education: addressing a changing world

Book Review: Keeping mathematics education real and fair: connecting the disconnections. Constantinos Xenofontos (Ed.) (2019) Equity in mathematics education: addressing a changing world

A case for combinatorics: A research commentary

In this commentary, we make a case for the explicit inclusion of combinatorial topics in mathematics curricula, where it is currently essentially absent. We suggest ways in which researchers might inform the field’s understanding of combinatorics and its potential role in curricula. We reflect on five decades of research that has been conducted since a call by Kapur (1970) for a greater focus on combinatorics in mathematics education. Specifically, we discuss the following five assertions: 1) Combinatorics is accessible, 2) Combinatorics problems provide opportunities for rich mathematical thinking, 3) Combinatorics fosters desirable mathematical practices, 4) Combinatorics can contribute positively to issues of equity in mathematics education, and 5) Combinatorics is a natural domain in which to examine and develop computational thinking and activity. Ultimately, we make a case for the valuable and unique ways in which combinatorics might effectively be leveraged within K-16 curricula.

Toward Equity in Mathematics Education for Students With Dis/abilities: A Case Study of Professional Learning

This case study documents a professional learning community (PLC) comprised of urban elementary educators working toward equitable education for students with dis/abilities. We employ an equity-expansive learning frame to evoke and then examine tensions and contradictions that emerged during the PLC and mediated learning as evidenced by participants’ expanded notions of equity. We introduced equity-oriented mathematics education content and tools based on what emerged from the PLC, then utilized an interpretive approach to analyzing data through a multistage process. Results indicate identity and power tensions that worked against equitable practices. However, participants recognized several tensions and proposed to address them as contradictions that mediated learning, thereby expanding notions of equitable education.

Does student-centered instruction engage students differently? The moderation effect of student ethnicity

Student-centered instruction is featured in reforms that aim to improve excellence and equity in mathematics education. Although research on stereotype threat suggests that student-centered instruction may have differential effects on racial minority students, the relationship between student-centered mathematics instruction and student engagement remains understudied. This study examined the relationship between student-centered mathematics instruction and adolescents’ behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social engagement in mathematics and whether the relationship differed by ethnicity. The authors used a multilevel path analysis with data from 3,883 sixth- to 12th-grade students (52.1% girls, 38.2% eligible for free/reduced lunch, 66.1% Caucasian, 23.8% African American, 7.2% multiracial, and 2.9% Asian American). The results showed that student-centered instruction was positively related to all dimensions of mathematics engagement. However, the positive association between student-centered mathematics instruction and student engagement was weaker for African American students. This study provides empirical evidence for the benefits of student-centered instruction while suggesting differential effects based on students’ ethnicity.

Opportunities to learn: Mathematics textbooks and students’ achievements

This study explores how textbooks function in education. It asked whether opportunities provided in math textbooks to engage in tasks demanding different levels of understanding correlate with students’ achievements on tasks demanding equivalent levels of understanding on a standardized exam. The textbooks evaluated were two 8th grade mathematics textbooks used by students in the Arab community in Israel, showing that Textbook A makes more cognitive demands than Textbook B. The study correlated textbooks’ cognitive demand with the scores of all 8th grade students in the Arab community who completed the national math test in 2015 and studied in schools using either Textbook A or B (N=4040), while attending to mediating variables. The findings show that if a textbook provides the opportunity to engage in tasks demanding higher levels of understanding, students using this book will have higher scores. The study shows that gender and SES play an important role in how opportunities provided in textbooks interact with students’ scores. Many factors influence variations in mathematics achievements within and between nations. The findings illuminate textbooks’ ability to provide opportunities to learn mathematics. As a result, they raise new questions about how teachers use textbooks and about the role of textbooks in promoting access and equity in mathematics education. Although the work explored specific textbooks, its findings shed light on how learning opportunities relate to achievements more generally.

Women and mathematics: a course and a scholarly investigation

This article describes an interdisciplinary course on women and mathematics and a scholarly investigation of its impact. Grounded in the biographies of ten women mathematicians (Hypatia to Emmy Noether), the course engages students in mathematical topics related to the women's mathematical work and addresses gender equity in mathematics education and mathematics-related careers in the USA. Many of the themes that emerge from examining the lives and work of these historical figures remain relevant today. The course encourages students, many of whom are future K–12 teachers, to move away from seeing mathematics as a study of numbers and to adopt a richer, more expert view. The students also learn about twenty-first-century role models for women doing mathematics, gain knowledge of equitable classroom practices, and–in the case of future teachers—resolve to incorporate these into their teaching. Potential implications for undergraduate teaching practice and teacher preparation programs are noted.

Socio-economic and cultural mediators of mathematics achievement and between-school equity in mathematics education at the global level

This paper aims at identifying and understanding how and to what extent socioeconomic and cultural factors mediate mathematics achievement and between-school equity in mathematics education among countries. First, under the assumption that equity and quality of education are independent constructs, the construct of equity-in-quality in mathematics education is developed. Second, the 18 countries that were identified in the previous work of the author Jurdak in (Toward equity in quality in mathematics education. Springer, New York, 2009) as being diverse in mathematics education will serve as study cases to illustrate, compare, and contrast the mediatory role of socio-economic and cultural factors in mathematics achievement and between-school equity in mathematics education. The results show that the differences in mathematics achievement and between-school equity in mathematics education at the country level are associated with, and can be accounted for in some cases, by socioeconomic and cultural factors.

“All for One and One for All”: Negotiating Solidarity Around Power and Oppression in Mathematics Education

In this essay, the authors, as participants of the Privilege and Oppression in the Preparation of Mathematics Teachers Educators conference, reflect on tensions inherent in standing with and speaking on behalf of communities in an attempt to build and signal solidarity with them. They describe this tension in relation to their membership in the community of researchers who study equity in mathematics education. A particular exchange that arose during whole group discussion at the conference seeded a conversation around other situations they have encountered in this community, and led to the development of a set of “cautionary tales” for the field.

Towards Equity in Mathematics Education. Gender, Culture and Diversity

Towards Equity in Mathematics Education. Gender, Culture and Diversity

Neoliberal Urbanism, Race, and Equity in Mathematics Education

Neoliberal Urbanism, Race, and Equity in Mathematics Education

Reviews

Bankrupt Education: The decline of liberal education in Canada by Peter C. Emberley and W.R. Newell, reviewed by L.M. Findlay.
 International Education and the University edited by Jessica Kingsley and James Callej, reviewed by Wayne Ingalls.
 Higher Education: The lessons of experience by The World Bank, reviewed by Wayne Ingalls.
 First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds edited by Marie Battiste and Jean Barman, reviwed by Douglas Smith.
 Heritage Languages and Education edited by Marcel Danesi, Keith McLeod and Sonia Morris, reviewed by Jo-anne Lee.
 Aboriginal Languages and Education: The Canadian Experience edited by Sonia Morris, Keith McLeod, and Marcel Danesi, reviewed by Marie Battiste.
 Educational Management and Leadership: World, Spirit, and Deed for a Just Society by D.J. Thom, reviewed by Merla Bolender.
 Literacy and Power: The Latin American Battleground by David Archer and Patrick Costello, reviewed by Susan E. Smith.
 The Future of Literacy in a Changing World edited by Daniel Wagner, reviewed by J. Kachur.
 New Directions for Equity in Mathematics Education edited by W.G. Secada, E. Fennema, and L.B. Adajian, reviewed by B.S. Randhawa.

Announcement: Equity in Mathematics Education

A listing is given of current online offerings for Equity in Mathematics Education, the special issue of JRME that explores the subject of equity.