GATE Fellowship Report 2011
Ann R. Edwards, EDCI
July 5, 2011
As a GATE Fellow, I proposed to pursue issues related to global education with two
efforts. The first focused on increasing awareness of and improving understandings
of Asian immigrants’ mathematics education experiences through research and
modification of my course on research on mathematics learning. The second
involved supporting preservice elementary teachers’ understanding of cross
cultural and transnational differences in beliefs about mathematics, mathematics
ability, mathematics learning and mathematics teaching. In this report, I will
address what steps I’ve taken this past semester toward these goals and how I plan
to further pursue them in both the near term and longer term future.
As I mentioned in our GATE Fellows seminars, Asian immigrants’ mathematics
education experiences are seriously underexamined in educational research, to the
grave detriment of large (and increasing) numbers of immigrants of Asian descent
to the United States. I have sought this past year to better understand both the
existing literature and the reasons for this lack of attention by reading the available
research and developing relationships with faculty here at UMD and at other
institutions who specialize in Asian American Studies, immigration history, and
Asian cultural studies. I am also working with two students on dissertation projects
focused on Chinese immigrant parental involvement in their children’s mathematics
education and on Korean immigrant students’ negotiation of identity in their school
experiences (particularly as related to their science learning). These experiences
have greatly informed my understanding of not only the educational issues facing
Asian immigrant students but also the broader landscape of immigration and
education in the United States. For example, I now more clearer see how
immigration history, race, class, culture and language intersect in how immigrant
students negotiate their identities as students in U.S. schools and the implications
for how they participate in school and for their learning. I will be bringing these
insights into my courses dealing with research and theory on mathematics learning,
particularly in terms of broadening the literature that the course draws upon to
more effectively address issues of identity (especially in relation to race, culture,
language and class) and the mathematics education of immigrant students.
Secondly, and perhaps more centrally addressing the mission of the GATE program,
I have been developing curriculum and activities for my elementary preservice
teachers designed to support their understandings of cross-cultural and
transnational differences in beliefs pertaining to mathematics and mathematics
teaching and learning. The goals are to expose them to alternate ways of
understanding mathematics and mathematics teaching arising in other cultural
contexts and to foster their examination of the prevailing discourses and beliefs that
structure how they themselves view and have experienced mathematics education
in the United States. This past year, I began this work with a new assignment and
activity in my elementary math methods course that involved readings related to
culturally-based notions of mathematics effort and ability, in particular comparing
those of East Asian countries and those in the U.S., and a related field-based
investigation of their students’ and/or mentor teachers’ perceptions of mathematics
effort and ability. I asked them to reflect upon their own perceptions of mathematics
effort and ability in light of what they had learned about how prevailing social
discourses about mathematics (e.g., only “math people” can do math; it doesn’t
matter how much you try if aren’t “gifted” at math) influence teachers, students, and
even curriculum, assessment, and issues like tracking. While the students clearly
learned about cultural or transnational differences in beliefs about mathematics and
some demonstrated a convincing grasp of how beliefs shape teaching, assessment
and curriculum, I felt that there was little translation of this knowledge into critical
reflection of their own perspectives and practices. The readings and discussions I
participated in as a GATE fellow this past semester convinced me of the importance
of direct contact with people and situations from other cultures around these issues.
My students treated the activities I designed as academic exercises (and did so very
well in many cases) but often failed to understand that these are real people and
places that do things differently with different consequences for students and their
learning. Indeed, the preservice teachers who chose to interview teachers and
students who immigrated to the United States as their field-based investigation
seemed to gain the most insight into their own biases and beliefs. So, in the near
term, I am pursuing how to facilitate direct connections between my students and
teachers and students from other countries, either through web-based social media
or even face-to-face. I am investigating possibilities with elementary and secondary
math teachers in Korea and as well as the potential use of pedagogical cases
(written or video-based) of mathematics teaching from other countries for use in
methods this coming year.