Integrating Professional Development on Mathematics and Equity

Abstract

Research commonly finds that urban teachers bring deficit views about students of color with them into classrooms, and professional development efforts focused on this critical problem have been met with limited success. Therefore, scholars have called for work that integrates content and equity as a way to challenge teachers’ deficit views at the same time as they transform content instruction. However, few examples exist that describe how to do this. This article helps to fill this gap. Rather than a research paper, it conceptually details one perspective on integrating mathematics and equity within professional development for urban elementary teachers. The focus is to support teachers in gathering counter evidence to challenge dominant deficit narratives about students of color. This builds a teacher community that tells different stories as they develop their mathematics teaching. The authors use three vignettes from this work to illustrate the professional development perspective in action.