Browsing by Author "Esmonde, Indigo"
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- ItemOpen AccessProfessional development as discourse change: Teaching mathematics to English learners(2011) Takeuchi, Miwa; Esmonde, IndigoThis study examines teacher learning from the perspective of cultural–historical activity theory, which emphasizes the creation of new environments and new artefacts. This study focuses on elementary school teachers' learning over the course of professional development (PD) sessions for equitable mathematics teaching. Within the PD, the teachers created a student project that investigated linguistic diversity in the school community. Thematic analysis reveals that teachers' discourse relating to teaching mathematics to English language learners (ELLs) changed after the implementation of the inquiry project. More specifically, the discourse shifted from focusing on ELLs' barriers and challenges to highlighting what ELLs can do. This shift was coupled with a change in the classroom mathematics learning environment.
- ItemOpen AccessSocial identities and opportunities to learn: Student perspectives on group work in an urban mathematics classroom(2009) Esmonde, Indigo; Brodie, Kanjana; Dookie, Lesley; Takeuchi, MiwaIn this article, the authors investigate group work in a heterogeneous urban high school mathematics classroom. Two questions are explored: How do students describe cooperative group work in their mathematics class? How do students describe the way their socially constructed identities influence the nature of their group interactions in mathematics classrooms? The authors present a case study of the ways in which race, gender, and other social identities might influence the nature of group work in reform-oriented high school mathematics classrooms. The analysis, based on 14 interviews with high school students, focused on students perceptions of group work and their theories about when cooperative groups work well and when they do not. Students named interactional style, mathematical understanding, and friendships and relationships as the most influential factors. Using an analytic lens informed, in part, by critical race theory, the authors highlight the racialized and gendered nature of these factors.
- ItemOpen AccessTowards culturally relevant and responsive teaching of mathematics(Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, 2011) Caswell, Beverly; Esmonde, Indigo; Takeuchi, MiwaTeacher learning related to the teaching of mathematics in a culturally relevant and responsive way was investigated across various professional development (PD) contexts. The research team examined which of the PD ideas teachers took up and what contradictions teachers faced across multiple PD contexts. This study focused on four major PD efforts in which five teachers participated during one year. Ethnographic methods of participant observation, document collection, and interviews were used, and three main ideas were identified: (a) the importance of developing awareness of students and their communities, (b) teaching strategies to scaffold students’ development of mathematical proficiency, and (c) strategies for structuring student-driven, inquiry based learning for mathematics. A significant research finding indicates that multiple contexts of professional learning presented contradictory messages. Thus, the teachers took up some ideas and left others behind, and they sometimes took up ideas that served conflicting goals of education. An outcome of this study indicates that future studies of teacher PD should focus on the teachers’ perspectives and on the role of individual PD programs within the broader context of multiple professional learning situations.