En/countering Inclusive Mathematics Education: A Case of Professional Learning

Abstract

Despite the push for inclusive mathematics education, students with disabilities continue to lack access to, and achievement in, rich mathematics learning opportunities. We assert that mathematics teacher educators have a central role in addressing these contradictions. This role includes enacting facilitative moves during mathematics teacher professional learning to encounter and counter social forces, which we denote in this article as en/counters. As part of a larger study, we explored the extent to which the use of an inclusive education-oriented tool, developed and introduced during a teacher learning program, elicited en/counters that mediated participants' learning toward inclusive mathematics education. We discuss shifts in participants' conversational content and focus on surrounding practices that involved students with disabilities and features of the tool and processes that supported these shifts, including specific facilitative moves that helped redirect deficit-focused conversations.

Facilitating en/counters with special education’s cloak of benevolence in professional learning to eliminate racial disproportionality in special education

“…Within the professional learning community I convened as part of the aforementioned study (see also Tan & Thorius, 2018a, 2018b, we focused on inclusive mathematics education for students with disabilities and where many students were of color and educated in self-contained classroom settings. Educators described their cognitive figuring of themselves as patient and expert helpers on the basis of their knowledge of the relationship between students' disability labels and skill-deficits.…”

Situating my positionality as a Black woman with a dis/ability in the provision of equity-focused technical assistance: a personal reflection

“…In this essay, I reflect on how the presence of a TA practitioner who possesses intersectional minoritized social identities is in a unique position to introduce tension in the TA activity system, disrupt marginalizing dominant narratives about difference, and affect educators' development of inclusive ideas about difference (Engeström, 2011;Tan & Thorius, 2018). As a Black woman with a dis/ability, I discuss the socio-historical context in which I experienced public K-12 education to consider how these experiences inform my current interactions within the TA experience.…”

“…In other instances, micro-aggressions manifest in different ways such as when educators approach a White or non-disabled subordinate staff member on my team with questions rather than seeking support from me, signaling their questioning of my expertise or the legitimacy of my role. treatment of difference I experience as a TA practitioner, which connect to my own educational history as a Black woman with a dis/ability, along with equity-expansive (Tan & Thorius, 2018) (re)mediating (i.e. countering) moves I use to disrupt these impacts.…”

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

“…Consequently, professional learning with a focus on equity is an important component to address systemic inequities (Waitoller & Artiles, 2013). Teachers with opportunities to engage in equity-oriented professional learning opportunities are more likely to hold beliefs of high-quality mathematics education (Clark et al, 2014) and attune to problematic practices involving students with dis/abilities (Tan & Thorius, 2018). Yet research on this area of equity-oriented teacher education remains sparse (Lambert & Tan, 2017).…”