What Preservice Teachers and Teacher Educators Can Learn from Trajectories

By: Toya Frank, Ph.D., Associate Professor, George Mason University
Marvin G. Powell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, George Mason University
Jay Bradley, M.Ed., Doctoral Student and Research Assistant, George Mason University
Jenice L. View, Ph.D., Associate Professor, George Mason University
Chris Lee, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Co-Curricular Assessment, George Mason University
Asia Williams, M.S., Doctoral Candidate and Research Assistant, George Mason University

Dr. Gwendolyn Means, the most senior participant of the Trajectories study, began teaching in the 1950s and ended her career in the early 1990s in an upper-leadership position in STEM Education in the District of Columbia (DC) Public Schools. She taught three of the other DC participants in our study when they pursued their mathematics teaching credentials!

Teacher diversity is a contemporary issue in education circles that is prevalent in the current educational discussions. Few would discount the power and promise of diversifying the teaching force, especially in STEM fields; however, our research offers the field of STEM education new insight into the conversation. We counter that any discussions of teacher diversity in STEM education must include issues of how race and racism impact Black teachers’ experiences in the classroom as well as issues related to their recruitment and retention (Frank et al.). While our work centers on Black teachers, we have learned from fellow researchers and educators that much of what we will share in this blog resonates with other teachers of color as well (see Kohli, 2016).

Many of the tacit and overt ways that racism plays out in the careers and policies that affect practicing STEM teachers are mirrored in STEM preservice teacher education. Many of these issues are rooted in how STEM subjects are perceived. Those who work in STEM disciplines are often afforded unwarranted prestige (Vilson, 2017) simply because STEM disciplines are seen as attainable by an elite few. Just as students who achieve in STEM fields are lauded for their “brilliance,” STEM teachers are often revered for teaching a subject area that many find to be unapproachable. We have argued (Terada, 2021) that the maintenance of false perceptions about STEM disciplines, specifically mathematics, plays a role in Black teachers’ participation in the field, and as a corollary, Black preservice teachers.

The data we share here are from our four-year study funded by the National Science Foundation (DGE 1669733) entitled: Examining the Trajectories of Black Mathematics Teachers. We looked deeply at the role that race, and more specifically racism, plays in the teaching, retention, and recruitment experiences of Black mathematics teachers. We examined the issues both as contemporary concerns but also from a historical perspective, given the role of the Brown v. Board of Education decision in the pushout of Black teachers in integrated schools. We collected data from several sources: interviews with retired Black mathematics teachers who taught pre- and post-Brown (Figure 1), focus groups with currently practicing teachers, and a survey of over 1,000 Black teachers who are presently teaching mathematics. In this blog, we shift our lens to preservice STEM teachers and share our perspectives on what preservice STEM teachers and teacher educators can learn from our findings.

Figure 1. Dr. Christine Thomas, Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program principal investigator at Georgia State University, describes her experiences as a high school mathematics teacher for the Trajectories project.  

The Diversity Imperative

The desire to diversify the STEM teaching force is rife with “good” intentions. Arguments for teacher diversity, particularly when focused on Black teachers, are often grounded in several common arguments: (a) the teaching force is primarily white and female; (b) demographics of school faculty should match those of the schools where they teach; and (c) Black teachers are social and academic role models for Black students.

Similar to teacher diversity, STEM teacher recruitment is a longstanding issue in education. Secondary STEM fields consistently rank at the top of lists of critical teaching shortage areas. A leading argument for bringing more STEM teachers into the field is rooted in commodification. For instance, the desire for the U.S. to maintain global competitiveness foregrounds many conversations regarding STEM teacher recruitment with little thought as to how people shape the field. As Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez reminds us in her presentation, “Rehumanizing Mathematics:  A Vision for the Future” (Figure 2), mathematics needs diverse people as much as diverse people need mathematics.

Figure 2. Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez speaks at the Latinx in Mathematical Sciences Conference (2018).

Taken together the need for diverse teachers and the need for more STEM teachers taken collectively as an argument for STEM teacher diversity are still insufficient in their rationale for recruiting Black teachers and other teachers of color. Teacher education and educational leaders need more nuanced explanations for why diversifying STEM teaching is important to avoid slippery slopes of commodification of teachers’ labor.

The Tacit and Overt Ways that Racism Operates in STEM Teacher Education

When examining preservice STEM teacher education, we find that tacit and overt racist practices often underlie standard policies and practices. For example, teacher accrediting bodies require teacher education programs to set arbitrary metrics for the diversity of their programs while simultaneously upholding teacher testing policies and curricular mandates that have long histories of excluding Black preservice teachers from becoming teachers.

Tacit and overt practices in teacher education also show up in curricular decisions, or in many cases, curricular erasure. In focus groups across the country, Black mathematics teachers shared how they were not prepared to teach mathematics in culturally specific ways. In fact, one teacher noted how she had to do her own digging and research to know more about the contributions of Africans and African Americans in mathematics because this information was not part of her mathematics teacher preparation. In our findings, we also learned that many Black teachers felt their mathematics preservice education was better suited for non-Black teachers. For example, one teacher in our focus group data noted that when learning about working with families, the lessons in preservice education are often designed for an imagined white teacher who will work with families of color, particularly in programs geared toward working in urban schools. She queried what these lessons might look like for Black and other preservice teachers of color with shared cultural identities.

Sorting and filtering processes like testing, the isolation in STEM programs, and little to no acknowledgement of alternative ways of knowing and doing mathematics among Black preservice teachers are just a few of the barriers noted among teachers in our study. As teacher educators, we must do the difficult work of reflecting upon how our practices and policies perpetuate the very inequities we intend to dismantle. We must do this reflection across all aspects of our work, including how we conceptualize STEM and its purposes, how we present content, and how we acknowledge the cultural nuances of pedagogical practice.

Ways to Amplify the Voices and Needs of Black Preservice Teachers and Other Preservice Teachers of Color

Survey, interview, and focus group data from the Trajectories project illuminated the many ways race and racism permeate the experiences of Black mathematics teachers. Based on what we have learned, we offer the following suggestions as ways to translate research findings into actionable shifts for Black and other preservice teachers of color.

It is our position that STEM teacher retention often begins with STEM teacher preparation. If STEM teacher educators can examine the STEM teacher diversity dilemma through a lens of race and its role in access and belonging for preservice teachers, we believe we can get to the root of many issues related to low enrollment among Black students in STEM education programs. Further, we assert that looking at STEM preservice teaching issues through the lens of race sheds new light on longstanding teacher education policy and practice issues.

Closing

We are excited that our project has generated conversation about teacher diversity in mathematics and other STEM disciplines. We also encourage other researchers to extend this research in ways that explore how race and racism impact teaching force participation. Such avenues include examining the lived experiences of non-Black teachers of color, continuing to collect oral histories of retired mathematics teachers, and investigating issues of racism in other STEM disciplines. Ultimately, developing a workforce that mirrors the richness and diversity of our student population calls for new questions and new modes of inquiry.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) (DGE #1660733).  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

Toya Frank, Ph.D., Associate Professor, George Mason University
tfrank4@gmu.edu

Toya Jones Frank is an associate professor in the Mathematics Education Leadership and Secondary Education programs. Her research focuses on understanding how race impacts mathematics teacher education and enhancing advanced mathematics learning spaces for historically marginalized students. Frank is the Principal Investigator of Examining the Trajectories of Black Mathematics Teachers, a mixed-methods project that explores racialized experiences of Black teachers of mathematics as well as the sociocultural and sociopolitical influences that impact their recruitment and retention. She is a collaborator with mathematicians, mathematics teachers, and teacher leaders in developing math circles for teachers of color that are affirming, supportive, and transformative spaces. Frank is a former high school mathematics teacher, department chair, and educational consultant. She is currently a Program Officer in the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings at the National Science Foundation.

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Marvin G. Powell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, George Mason University
mpowel11@gmu.edu

Marvin G. Powell is an assistant professor of quantitative methodology in the College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University. Powell teaches quantitative methods courses, focusing on measurement development and validation, and statistical applications. He conducts research in the assessment of the psychometric properties of educational and psychological instruments using a range of latent trait analyses including, structural equation modeling and item response theory. He is also interested in answering quantitative questions through a critical lens.

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Jay Bradley, Doctoral Student and Research Assistant, George Mason University

Jay Bradley is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics education while teaching mathematics at the middle school level in Fairfax County, Virginia.  Jay completed his B.A. in Political Science and M.Ed. from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include the teaching and learning practices of marginalized communities, equity in mathematics education, and mathematics education as related to democracy and development.

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Jenice L. View, Ph.D., Associate Professor, George Mason University
jview@gmu.edu

Jenice View is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Education. Prior to joining the George Mason University faculty in 2005, she spent more than twenty years working with a variety of nongovernmental organizations to create space for the voices that are often excluded from public policy considerations: women, people of color, poor urban and rural community residents, and especially youth. She has also been an educator in classroom and community settings, including as a middle school humanities teacher at a DC public charter school, as the education and training director of a national environmental justice and labor organization, and as a professional development trainer of in-service classroom teachers. Dr. View’s research interests include history education, critical teacher professional development, civil rights and labor education, and teaching for social justice.

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Chris Lee, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Co-Curricular Assessment, George Mason University
cleen@gmu.edu

Chris Lee provides support in the areas of annual assessment and planning, survey consultation, survey research, and program review for the division of University Life. Prior to coming to George Mason University, she was a mathematics resource specialist.  Her scholarly research interests are in culturally responsive assessment, program evaluation, and the development and validation of psychometric instruments used in higher education.  She earned her Ph.D. in Education, Research Methodology from George Mason University.

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Asia Williams, Doctoral Candidate and Research Assistant, George Mason University

Asia Williams is a doctoral candidate with a Specialization in Multicultural Multilingual Education. Her research interests include using qualitative methods to understand the impact of in-school and after school STEM programs for students of color in grades K-12. As a graduate research assistant for the Trajectories study, she has been able to add an important dimension to her understanding of the “M” in STEM. Asia earned an M.S. in Educational Psychology from George Mason University. She graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in English.