Melody Wilson

Date Approved

2019

Degree Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department or School

Teacher Education

Committee Member

Christopher Robbins

Abstract

An equity-based Statistics course for pre-service mathematics teachers could play a role in the development of pre-service teachers’ equity literacy, encouraging conversations about equity in education and illuminating structural factors that contribute to the educational opportunity gap in the U.S. In the Winter 2019 semester, a faculty team at the author’s university piloted such a course. The course included data explorations dealing with structural inequities by race – one of the most difficult topics to address productively in a teacher preparation course. For the present study, a survey of pre-service teachers’ views on educational equity was administered in a required Social Foundations course for pre-service teachers as well as in the Statistics for Teachers pilot section. Pre-post analysis of this survey, along with interviews and classroom observations in both courses, illuminated the ways in which each course contributed to pre-service teachers’ emerging views on educational equity. In this paper the results of the study are analyzed in the context of the history and sociology of American education as well as the existing literature on equitable teaching practices and teacher education.

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