Engaging Preservice Teachers with Equity-Related Cases to Make Visible the Inequities in Mathematics Teaching

Reform in teacher education seeks to engage preservice teachers (PSTs) in authentic classroom situations that explore equitable practices by connecting theory to professional practice. One way for PSTs to examine how equity and inequity operate in schools is with the aid of equity-related case-based instruction. This study reports on mathematics teacher educators using equity-related cases in their mathematics methods courses to encourage critical reflection on the various ways inequitable practices can create invisible barriers that have disenfranchised marginalized students from learning mathematics. Two cases are reviewed that were designed to prompt PSTs to examine implicit biases and school policies that reaffirm systemic inequities in mathematics education. Findings detail how mathematics teacher educators and PSTs used the cases to prompt PSTs to recognize and respond to inequitable practices in mathematics teaching. Particular attention is drawn to how PSTs made educational inequities visible, critiquing teachers’ assumptions and examining how such assumptions impact instructional decision-making. This study offers recommendations and a planning tool for designing and using similar equity-related cases in teacher education to strengthen professional practice that challenges and disrupts unjust beliefs that sustain educational inequities.