Connecting Mathematics Teacher Education to Real World Contexts: Attracting and Retaining Diverse Mathematics Teachers

This project aims to serve the national need of increasing the ability of mathematics teachers from diverse communities to teach effectively in high-need school districts. Research demonstrates that traditional teacher preparation programs continue to fall short in recruitment, preparation, and retention of secondary mathematics teacher candidates from communities that have not historically been well represented in the teaching profession.

The project seeks to prepare graduates to enact culturally responsive teaching practices and to showcase mathematics as a human activity that can be applied to address issues of equity and social justice, such as income inequality, climate change, and racism. The project seeks to increase the diversity and number of secondary mathematics teachers who adopt human perspectives and practices to meet the needs of learners in high-need schools.

This project at Washington State University includes partnerships between the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Education, two campuses (Pullman and Vancouver), two regional Educational Service Districts (ESDs), Washington State Mathematics Fellows as virtual mentors, and mentor teachers from nine high-need local school districts. Project goals include: (1) recruiting 24 undergraduate mathematics majors over three years to pursue teacher certification; and (2) preparing mathematics teachers who will persist in teaching and can effectively meet the needs of students in high-need school districts.

The project features both an undergraduate (Pullman campus) and a graduate (Vancouver campus) pathway. Grounded in theoretical perspectives of mathematics and mathematics teaching as humanizing activities, project activities will promote asset-based perspectives of students, mathematics learning environments that intellectually challenge all students and foster positive mathematical identities, and the use of mathematics to connect to the community and to promote social justice.

Institutional data, edTPA scores, surveys regarding critical thinking and diversity preparedness, course artifacts, and focus group interviews will to be used to generate understanding of how programs can inspire prospective mathematics teachers to embody core humanizing principles. Broadly, the project hopes to serve as a model for humanizing mathematics teacher preparation as it promotes policies and narratives in mathematics and mathematics teaching that serve the needs of individuals from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM fields.

This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.