Leveraging prospective teachers’ reflections to challenge spaces of marginality

Prospective teachers must have opportunities in teacher education to critically reflect on race and racism in mathematics education. Engaging preservice teachers in such conversations during methods courses can be challenging. This study uses a scenario specifically designed to encourage preservice teachers to talk about race, including their understanding of race and racism in an authentic mathematics classroom situation and how a teacher might respond to the situation. Findings show that most prospective teachers responded with complacency by completing the assignment without making connections to the historical marginalisation of women of color, while others responded with contempt towards engaging in the activity. Teacher educators need to be prepared for these reactions when they do the work of developing their prospective teachers’ critical consciousness.