Supporting School Administrators in Leading Towards Racially Just and Ambitious Mathematics Instruction

学校和地区领导在支持教师学习新的实践，特别是与公平有关的实践方面发挥着重要作用。研究人员和教育工作者都经常将促进种族正义的教育领导与数学教学分开。该项目侧重于发展反种族主义的数学教学实践，这些教学实践导致黑人、土著和拉丁裔学生的不平等学校经历。本研究是由来自一个地区的学校和中心办公室领导以及来自三所大学的教育领导和数学教育专家合作进行的。伙伴关系活动包括记录领导者如何学习和发展反种族主义领导实践，然后衡量对教师教学和学生经历的影响。该项目将形成一套完善的领导实践，通过培养黑人、土著和拉丁裔学生积极的种族化数学身份，将学生定位为数学学习社区的核心成员，并肯定他们的家庭和文化资产，支持反种族主义、雄心勃勃的教学和学习。此外，合作伙伴教育工作者开发和使用的工具、惯例和领导行动将有助于研究人员和教育工作者更好地设想和倡导学校系统和政策、数学教学和学习以及支持教师学习等领域的反种族主义领导。该奖项由探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）资助，该项目旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。这项混合方法的研究旨在记录领导者如何学习和发展领导实践，以支持学生的反种族主义和雄心勃勃的数学学习机会，并衡量这些实践与a)教师指导和b)学生经验之间的关系。在一个研究-实践伙伴关系（RPP）中，来自三所大学的教育领导和数学教育研究人员以及来自三所小学的领导实践者和一个地区的中央办公室团队将合作，了解反种族主义、雄心勃勃的数学教学和学习的领导如何以及是否成为创建更多种族公正学校的关键杠杆。从RPP和领导者的实践中对观察、访谈、文件和工件进行定性分析，将展示领导者正在发展的理解和实践。对课堂录像和人工制品、教师访谈、学生焦点小组和学生调查的混合方法分析将描述领导者行为、教师实践和学生学习经验之间的关系。通过解释这种类型的领导如何塑造特定内容的教学，研究结果将有助于以正义为中心的领导和数学教育领域，并将为希望在学校培养反种族主义教学、学习和领导的实践者提供急需的指导。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

School and district leaders play an important role in supporting teachers to learn new practices, especially those related to equity. Both researchers and educators have often treated educational leadership that promotes racial justice as separate from mathematics teaching. This project focuses on developing anti-racist mathematics teaching and learning practices that have led to inequitable school experiences for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students. This study is a partnership with school and central office leaders from one district and educational researchers from three universities with expertise in both educational leadership and mathematics education. Partnership activities include documenting how leaders learn and develop anti-racist leadership practices and then measuring the impact on teachers’ instruction and students’ experiences. This project will result in a refined set of leadership practices that support anti-racist, ambitious teaching and learning by fostering Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students’ positive racialized mathematical identities, positioning students as central members of their mathematics learning communities, and affirming their home and cultural assets. Moreover, the tools, routines, and leadership moves developed and used by the partner educators will help researchers and educators better envision and advocate for anti-racist leadership in the areas of school systems and policies, mathematics teaching and learning, and supports for teacher learning. This award is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This mixed-methods study aims to document how leaders learn and develop leadership practices to support anti-racist and ambitious mathematics learning opportunities for students, and measure the relationship between these practices and a) teachers’ instruction and b) students’ experiences. In a research-practice partnership (RPP), both educational leadership and mathematics education researchers from three universities and leadership practitioners from three elementary schools and a central office team in one district will collaborate to understand how and if leadership for anti-racist, ambitious mathematics teaching and learning is a key lever to create more racially just schools. Qualitative analysis of observations, interviews, documents, and artifacts from the RPP and from leaders’ practices will demonstrate leaders’ developing understandings and practices. Mixed-methods analyses of classroom video recordings and artifacts, teacher interviews, student focus groups and student surveys will describe the relationship between leaders’ actions, teachers’ practices, and students’ learning experiences. Findings will contribute to both the fields of justice focused leadership and mathematics education by explaining how this type of leadership shapes content-specific instruction and will provide much-needed guidance for practitioners looking to cultivate antiracist teaching, learning, and leadership in schools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.