Abstract

Many prospective teachers make assumptions about their students before they actually begin teaching. Many of these assumptions can be rooted specifically in students’ races, cultures, classes, religions, genders, and sexual orientations. In order for prospective mathematics teachers to challenge these biases, some mathematics teacher educators have provided tasks to support these prospective teachers in becoming aware of their own biases. I chose to analyze a group of five prospective mathematics teachers discussing topics of teaching for social justice to examine more closely the kinds of biases they carry, and more specifically, how those biases came about in their conversations. My analysis also involved looking specifically at whether or not these prospective mathematics teachers were challenging their own as well as others’ biases that came out during the discussions. The results of this study display the ways in which these biases were illuminated during the group discussions as well as the lack of prospective teachers challenging the biases that came out.

Degree

College and Department

Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Mathematics Education

Rights

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