Using a Culturally Responsive Teaching Framework to Prepare Middle and High School Mathematics Teachers

University Of North Carolina At Charlotte, Charlotte NC

Investigators

Abstract

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Culturally Responsive Teaching (UNCC CResT) project will recruit undergraduate majors in mathematics and prepare them to become middle and high school mathematics teachers. The project will fund 24 scholarships over 5 years. In this project, UNC Charlotte will collaborate with Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District to develop and prepare scholars with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to engage culturally and linguistically diverse students in mathematics classrooms. The Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) framework will guide the development of the Noyce scholars by building on the knowledge and experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. This framework views the culture and experiences of diverse students as resources, rather than deficits that can be used to build higher interest in content. The CRT framework will better prepare the Noyce scholars to work with CLD students who form the majority of students in high-needs school in the Charlotte area and many urban and rural districts across North Carolina. In addition to completing content and pedagogy courses, the scholars will (i) learn about CLD students through professional interactions and reflecting on these experiences, (ii) develop and advance their understandings of CRT practices through seminars about CRT and teaching CLD students, and (iii) draw on personal experiences to develop and teach mathematics lessons that build on the cultural and lived experiences of CLD students.