Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Also, CRMT is a helpful lens for thinking abt equity, but many TCs may not choose to prioritize dimensions of power + social justice in math initially. Explicit focus on these aspects earlier on, esp. in authentic school environments, may be critical. Let us know what you think! 10/10 000
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026What did we learn? Exposure+experience may support TCs' concepts of EMT - exposure provides access + language while experiences give opportunities to put these ideas into practice. Frames like the CRMT2 can help TCs to articulate their experiences in relation to their T&L visions 9/10 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026For example, we describe "Hannah," who developed their conception of "math for real-life" at the start of the semester into a more robust into a centering of Rehumanizing math, which she also saw connected to dimensions of power & participation. See other TC examples in article! 8/10 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026What did we find? Well...TCs were all over the place! Different people found different activities as most impactful around their thinking regarding EMT. This told us that a variety of exposure/experience activities may benefit TCs who hold a variety of backgrounds/identities. 7/10 200
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026We wanted to know 1. What aspects of exposure/experience do teacher candidates (TCs) attribute to their evolving conceptions of EMT in elementary mathematics? 2. In what way do conceptions of EMT described by TCs in an elementary math course develop over the course of a semester? 6/10 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Activities focused on experience/exposure, with students moving from emerging -> refined perspectives on particular aspects of equity in math as the course progressed. We also emphasized the CRMT2 framework - each student chose a "deep dive" dimension for the semester 5/10 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Next, we focused our course activities around students' EXPOSURE to equity (framing and situating it theoretically in the classroom) and EXPERIENCES with these ideas (applying aspects of equity beyond the confines of the university classroom). 4/10 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026First, we dropped our previous course texts and adopted Zavala & Aguirre's Cultivating Mathematical Hearts and @mathematize4all.bsky.social 's Rethinking Disability and Mathematics as our core texts. This helped promote equity as an integral component of math teaching & learning in readings. 3/10 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026This work comes from our elementary math methods courses. We both held a commitment to center equity in our coursework, and collaborated to think how we might redesign our courses from the ground up with equity in math teaching (EMT) at the heart rather than as a periphery topic. 2/10 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 16/08/2026I'm excited to share a new article from Amanda Mohammad Mirzaei and myself, titled "Supporting teacher candidates’ conceptions of equitable mathematics teaching: Using exposure and experience in elementary mathematics methods courses" 1/10 doi.org/10.1007/s133...doi.orgClient Challenge 210
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 24/04/2026This is the most important advancement in mathematics since Terrence Howard's discovery that 1x1=2 000
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026This article was a lot of fun to create with my STaR collaborator Bea, and I hope that you all can find something meaningful to take away from it, too! DM me for a copy or access the article at doi.org/10.1080/1947...doi.orgDiscursive Drift in the Enactment of Small Group Elementary Mathematical Writing TasksIn this paper, we investigate the ways in which informative/explanatory and argumentative genres of mathematical writing (MW)—or an instructional focus in line with the goals of these types of MW—a... 010
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026Finally, MW genres may be positioned to promote inclusive language. It may stand that, since you are being asked to explain ideas or construct arguments, you may also be situated as having a more active role in the activity of mathematics compared to just rehashing procedures 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026The fact we saw so much drift also reinforces the importance of looking at teachers' setup AND enactment of tasks. Teachers may need support maintaining the focus of their tasks past setup. BUT, drift may also be GOOD at times (e.g., drifting from explanations to argumentation). 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026What are some implications? Well, teachers would engage in some informative/argumentative tasks, but often with just spoken expectations. Considering how spoken discourse can support mathematical writing and vice versa could be a productive approach to increasing teachers' MW use 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026We found that teachers tended to maintain their linguistic choices that they started with, but also we saw that most of our inclusive language drifts happened when teachers (re)focused students on informative or argumentative goals of the tasks. 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026But did the expectations "drift" at all? Yes! About 60% (20) of our coded lessons showed a drift in the discursive focus of the task. We actually saw a lot of drift toward informative/argumentative foci when a task started as procedural, for instance! 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026But when we ALSO include how teachers (re)focused students on tasks throughout the groupwork, the picture is more complicated. There's a lot more informative or argumentative focus (but still a lot of exclusive language with procedural writing expectations) 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026When we JUST looked at how teachers initially setup tasks during groupwork, we saw a lot of exclusive language, and a lot of focus on procedures. Most inclusive framing happened with (relatively few) informative or argumentative tasks. 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026What did we find? First, a lot of writing students were being asked to do during these tasks was procedural rather than mathematical writing. Many expectations were also ambiguous about whether students were to produce written work, or primarily engage in spoken discourse 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026I think that inclusive language matters because it positions the subject as an active participant in a creative process of “doing” mathematics (math=alive!), where exclusive language frames the subject as executing a defined set of actions to reach a predetermined conclusion. 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026I'm particularly interested in the framing aspect. Inclusive versus exclusive language entails linguistic choices such as interrogatives vs imperatives, pronouns ("we" versus "you"), and hedging language for inclusive ("how might we"). 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026For initial task setup and then implementation, we considered the genre of task (symbolic/procedural, informative/explanatory, or argumentative), the expectations for student participation (writing, speaking, ambiguous), and whether teachers used inclusive or exclusive framing... 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026We look at the extent that teachers' discourse includes inclusive language when framing different genres of symbolic or mathematical writing (MW) tasks, and how the focus of that discourse drifts over the enactment of the tasks during small group work... 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 13/02/2026#mathedresearch #mtbos I'm excited to share a new article from me and Bea Ellis, titled Discursive Drift in the Enactment of Small Group Elementary Mathematical Writing Tasks, out now in Investigations in Mathematics Learning! doi.org/10.1080/1947... 120
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025In sum, CRMT cannot be achieved strictly through standardized curricula. But these materials ARE the framework for millions of students' experiences w/ math in the US, and warrant scrutiny. This analysis suggests urgency + paths toward greater attention to CRMT in such materials. (8/8) 010
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025We recognize the present political climate is explicitly hostile toward equity & cultural responsiveness. This sort of investigation not only calls attention to the current desultory approach to CRMT in curricula, but also provides tools for stakeholders to advocate for CRMT. (7/8) 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025To be clear, CRMT requires RESPONSIVENESS to a particular set of students, so standardized curriculum materials inherently require adaptation and to be balanced with other instructional resources and supports. But this is NOT an excuse for curricula to ignore attention to CRMT. (6/8) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025What does this tell us? Well...these materials are presenting SOME opportunities to attend to culturally responsive math teaching (CRMT), but their sporadic and siloed attention toward CRM suggests the need to adapt and supplement such materials to support CRMT. (5/8) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025There was greater attention toward promoting high cognitive demand, but CRM aspects such as disrupting status issues or using math to address social issues was pretty much nonexistent in the analyzed materials. (4/8) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025What did we find? Well...these curricula provide only brief attention toward culturally responsive mathematics (CRM), but there ARE differences across curricula. Perhaps unsurprisingly, curricula attend more to the dominant dimensions of equity than the critical dimensions. (3/8) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025We analyzed the middle school materials of six different widely adopted math curricula, considering how the materials present opportunities to attend to Zavala and Aguirre's CRMT2 framework. (2/8) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 22/09/2025#mathedresearch #mtbos I am excited to share the newly published article I cowrote with Riley Stone and Raisa Ebner, titled "Culturally Responsive Mathematics and Curriculum Materials: Present Realities and Imagined Futures." You can view the article here: mdpi.com/2227-7102/15... (1/8) 110
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025However, coaching is also social in nature--coaches are not merely vessels for implementing district policies. These findings also show the value in considering the perceptions of different participants in school policy. Teacher and coach perceptions of their shared work matters! 000
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025We discuss how this shows that coaches can play a positive role in fostering positive perceptions of district PL+curricula, but they also act as "cheerleaders" of these policies, with higher perceptions of their quality compared to their teachers. 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025What might be going on here? A few ideas: (1) coaches may be focusing on the curriculum BECAUSE their teachers are not (yet) bought into the materials. (2) Teachers may have lower perceptions BECAUSE they have engaged deeply with the curriculum - they know its strengths + flaws. 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025Interestingly we found that coaches who used curriculum materials MORE in their coaching worked with teachers who reported the PL+curriculum to be of LOWER quality. You might think greater focus leads to greater teacher buy-in/agreement, but we did not find this to be the case. 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025We also found that teachers who reported higher coach quality--both expertise and affective quality (e.g., “My coach is respectful and collegial”) also had higher perceptions of PL+curriculum quality. Perceptions of coaching quality matter! 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025However, teachers who had an instructional coach had stronger perceptions about the quality of their PL and curriculum. So coaching--or districts that use coaching and other supports--seemed to strengthen teachers' perceptions of PL and curriculum quality. 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025We found that coaches had more positive views about the quality of district-mandated PL and curriculum materials compared to teachers. True for specificity, consistency, buy-in, institutional authority. So coaches view PL+curriculum in meaningfully dift ways than their teachers 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 14/06/2025New #mathedresearch article alert! We investigated middle school math teacher+coach perceptions about quality of professional learning and the curriculum materials embedded in that PL, and considered coaching approaches that may have influenced teachers’ perceptions. doi.org/10.1007/s108...doi.orgCoach and teacher alignment in the context of educational change - Journal of Educational ChangeProfessional learning (PL) programs increasingly rely on the expertise of instructional coaches in supporting teacher learning and instructional change. To continue to improve the use of coaching as a... 130
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025If you are interested in reading and need help accessing the full article, please DM me! (10/10) 000
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025This process also underscores how a tool never “achieves validity,” but rather instrument users can gain new and valuable insights into the phenomenon, the tool, and themselves by remaining ever curious in considering the uses and implications of such instruments. (9/10) 101
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025These results indicate the value of using multiple raters and collaborative resolution mtgs when investigating complex phenomena like class instruction, as this approach allowed our team’s discussions to go beyond agreement/disagreement to instead focus on what counts as evidence (8/10) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025346 (85%) of disagreements occurred when raters observed different evidence which influenced their initial ratings. In essence, class instruction is COMPLEX, and having multiple coders helps capture nuances in instruction! (7/10) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025We also wanted to understand reliability beyond the context of agreement. So we analyzed 1050 resolution scores to see whether disagreements arose from reviewers seeing the same evidence and disagreeing, or one reviewer capturing additional evidence initially. (6/10) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025We had 15 rubrics on PEMTP-8 on academic support, 7 on social support. As a lead on the observation team let me assure you, this was a lot of data to capture and analyze! (5/10) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025We discuss our approach to coding instructional episodes in 10-min segments in comparison to coding entire lessons or shorter/longer time periods. We found the segmented approach to offer benefits in precision of the coding and retrieval of evidence for dissemination of findings (4/10) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025We describe the importance for researchers to share their process of establishing validity evidence and walk through our own approach. It is multifaceted (and sometimes messy) but important work! (3/10) 100
Ethan Smith @mathissippi.bsky.social · 05/01/2025We share about our process of establishing validity/reliability evidence for a classroom observation tool, PEMTP (Potentially Engaging Mathematics Teaching Practices). This comes from the SMiLES project with Jim and Mandy as PI & co-PI. I joined as research assistant my 1st year of PhD! (2/10) 100