In this episode, we explore a recent article, titled “Engaging in Equity-Oriented Mathematics Teaching Together: A Tool to Support Mentor and Teacher Candidate Learning”, from Volume 14, Issue 2 of the Mathematics Teacher Educator journal. In this discussion we will focus on the problem addressed in the article, the work behind it, and what it means for practice. This discussion includeds article authors, Taylor Stafford, Heather Fink, and Melinda Knapp . The article was also authored by Ruth Heaton and Torrey Kulow.

Stafford, T. E., Fink, H., Knapp, M., Heaton, R., & Kulow, T. (2026). Engaging in Equity-Oriented Mathematics Teaching Together: A Tool to Support Mentor and Teacher Candidate Learning. Mathematics Teacher Educator, 14(2), 121-134. Retrieved Apr 6, 2026, from https://doi-org.umiss.idm.oclc.org/10.5951/MTE.2025-0024

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Special Guests: Heather Fink, Melinda Knapp, and Taylor Stafford.

This article details the development of design principles to support teachers in planning for a Community-Based Mathematical Modeling task with a focus on social justice in the elementary grades. By reflecting on the dilemmas we encountered in the design and enactment of the tasks, we developed five design principles that allowed us to address issues of social justice as well as attend to powerful mathematical ideas to bring awareness and take action around a local problem. Through our article, we hope to share with mathematics teacher educators
design principles to help plan for tasks with pre- and in-service teachers that prioritize connecting mathematics to social issues and empower both teachers and students to take action to make a positive impact in the community.

Special Guests: Holly Nicole Tate and Jennifer Suh.

The authors began this work with the understandings that (a) there is no “neutral” when it comes to the teaching of mathematics, and (b) mathematics teacher educators need to do something to help produce teachers of mathematics that develop students’ relationships with mathematics and push against the inequities that exist both within and outside of the classrooms in which they will teach. In response, the authors created, deployed, and studied a learning module in an attempt to enact antiracist mathematics teacher education. The learning module activities, the findings about the learning from the prospective teachers who engaged in the module, and messages for mathematics teacher educators who want to engage in this work are shared.

Special Guests: Anne Marie Marshall, Joel Amidon, and Rebecca E. Smith.

We introduce a teacher learning practice called EQUIP-ing, which aims to foster sociopolitical noticing by leveraging EQUIP, an equity-oriented classroom observation tool. We detail our iterations of EQUIP-ing to a field-based Number Talk experience in a secondary mathematics methods course with 25 White prospective teachers (PTs). We offer empirical accounts of how EQUIP-ing empowered PTs to connect their teaching practices with racialized and gendered patterns of student participation; as a result, PTs began to reconsider taken-for-granted practices. However, we also found that PTs demonstrated potentially detrimental ways of attributing marginalizing patterns to minoritized students without actionable plans to redress the inequity. We conclude by inviting mathematics teacher educators to apply EQUIP-ing while emphasizing purposeful support for asset-based noticing.

Special Guest: Sunghwan Byun.

Learning to teach mathematics is a complex endeavor, requiring sustained focus and time. Yet time is especially scarce in elementary teacher education programs, where preservice teachers (PSTs) learn all content areas. Through a collaborative self-study, five teacher educators identified three time-related tensions in elementary mathematics methods courses: (a) teaching mathematics content and pedagogy; (b) connecting theory and practice; and (c) promoting social contexts in teaching mathematics. To address these tensions, we offer three design principles and illustrative examples: (a) addressing multiple goals for each course component; (b) developing PSTs’ dispositions over time; and (c) building on PSTs’ strengths to develop understanding of mathematics. We present a reflection tool to assist mathematics teacher educators in designing their courses to maximize their instructional time.

Special Guests: Brette Garner, Claudia Bertolone-Smith, Evthokia Stephanie Saclarides, Gladys Krause, and Jen Munson.

This article explores one novice mathematics teacher educator’s initial use of the Mathematical Quality in Planning Protocol, an innovative tool that was developed to assist in providing feedback on the mathematical quality of novice mathematics teachers’ lesson plans. The protocol was devised to help mathematics teacher educators bridge the gap between prospective teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and their mathematical content knowledge for teaching. Results of our analysis on an initial use of the protocol point to its potential as a tool to help mathematics teacher educators direct their feedback from being overly focused on the pedagogical aspects of the lesson (e.g., timing, planned activities) to the mathematical content prospective teachers are attempting to teach (e.g., anticipated student solutions, problem-solving strategies).

Special Guest: Kevin Voogt.