The MTEP Equity and Social Justice Working Group, or ESJWG, is a community of stakeholders in secondary mathematics teacher education. They gather once per month to check in, share resources, and plan the ongoing work of the group. If you are passionate about working to achieve equity and social justice in mathematics teacher education, contact Brian Lawler at brian.lawler@kennesaw.edu for more information on how to join.
ESJWG was formed in 2018 to increase the attention given to equity and justice issues within MTEP work. For example, at the 2020 MTEP Annual Conference, the group encouraged each MTEP 1.0 Research Action Cluster to consider how their aim, drivers, or change strategies may reflect deficit ideologies.
At the 2023 Get the Facts Out/MTEP Pre-Conference to the AMTE Annual Conference, ESJWG encouraged each MTEP 2.0 team to examine their programs in relation to Special Education and Language Learners. Are the messages sent to future teachers of 6–12 mathematics about how mathematics is best taught and learned consistent across their experiences in university mathematics classrooms, general and content-specific methods courses, and clinical experiences? The focus on messaging was followed by NIC-Casts by Paolo Tan, Ph.D., lecturer in the John Hopkins School of Education, in Spring 2023 and Rachel Lambert, Ph.D., associate professor in the Gervitz Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Fall 2023.
In addition to running conference sessions and NIC-Casts with MTEP, ESJWG has collaborated on other items, including a chapter on equity and justice issues in the preparation of secondary mathematics teachers and an NSF-funded project to develop modules for use in methods classes to raise critical consciousness of math teacher candidates with the goal of countering anti-blackness and white supremacy culture.
If participating in conversations and projects such as these would be of interest, please consider joining ESJWG. Current members say benefits include opportunities to speak regularly with a group of people with similar interests; to find bridges between research, teaching, and service; to develop support to pursue funded research projects; and to engage in national presentations, publications, and leadership.
The first ESWG meeting of the year is on Wednesday, Jan. 24, from 4-5 p.m. EST. If you are interested or know somebody on your team who might be interested in attending, please contact or encourage them to contact Brian Lawler at brian.lawler@kennesaw.edu.