PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
Do Prospective Elementary Teachers Notice Cultural Aspects of Mathematics in a Teaching Scenario?
Page: 1684
Many teachers view mathematics as culture-free, which can result in difficulty attending to and valuing the cultural backgrounds of their students. We asked 23 prospective elementary teachers (PTs) to respond to a case that describes a teacher dismissing a third-grade student’s solution to a multi-digit subtraction problem, due to the child’s use of a nonstandard algorithm. Through a process of open-coding, three themes emerged in the PTs’ responses: (1) the PTs would have responded differently/the teacher should have responded differently (22 PTs), (2) the PTs focused on the mathematics and/or on children’s mathematical thinking (22 PTs), and (3) the PTs focused on the child’s background/culture/family (3 PTs). We examine the differences in response levels between the first two themes and the third. Additional data has been collected and preliminary results show a strong focus on the first two themes, as well as a higher incidence of the third.