Multidimensional Noticing for Equity: Theorizing Mathematics Teachers’ Systems of Noticing to Disrupt Inequities

Abstract

Teachers’ noticing of classroom activity shapes who is invited to participate, who is valued, and whose forms of knowing are included in mathematics classrooms. We introduce a framework for multidimensional noticing for equity that captures the stretch and expanse of teachers’ attention and sense making of the local, sociocultural, and historical aspects of mathematics classrooms. We use data from two teachers’ classrooms to illuminate how their noticing of students’ sociocultural selves, of the history of mathematics and schooling, and of students’ potential futures informs enactment of culturally sustaining instructional practice. We discuss this framework in relation to calls in mathematics education to create more equitable and affirming classroom spaces for youth.

Noticing instructional challenges in artifacts of teaching

“…These findings also extend prior research on teachers' noticing by demonstrating the integrated nature of teachers' awareness of multiple features of classroom interactions. While there is value in distinguishing the objects of teachers' noticing – such as noticing epistemic affect or noticing student thinking (Jaber, 2016; Luna, 2018) – research also finds that teachers who enact equitable and responsive teaching attend to a variety of aspects of their students and classroom interactions (Kang, 2021; van Es et al, 2022). With a greater imperative to move mathematics and science instruction toward equitable teaching and learning, important questions for future inquiry concern how teachers' noticing of student thinking is integrated with other features of classroom interactions, such as how students come to be positioned to have agency in their learning as teachers come to interpret students' thinking from anti‐deficit, strengths‐based perspectives.…”

Prospective science teachers' noticing: An exploration in an authentic practical context

“…In this setting, PSTs' noticing exhibited a broad pattern of focusing attention on multiple types of events. In their recent work, van Es et al (2022) also documented classroom teachers' wide range of attention. This result is also similar to the findings of research which used wearable cameras to investigate teachers' in‐the‐moment noticing during instruction.…”

Supporting mathematics preservice teachers in noticing for equity

“…Stretch refers to how teachers frame what they attend to and make sense of in the context of prior events and histories (stretching back), as well as the implications of their actions in identity development (stretching forward). Expanse is the multitude of phenomena that teachers attend to at a given moment in the classroom (van Es et al, 2022) The experimental course studied, the MPC, focused on equitable practices in teaching and learning mathematics.…”

“…Josie's comment about designing activities around student interests related to increasing access (dominant axis). Her response about multiple ways to engage in a lesson indicated she noticed participation, a focus on the lenses and equitable practices (Roth McDuffie et al, 2014), approaches emphasized in complex instruction (Cohen & Lotan, 2014), and CSPs related to discourse and participation (van Es et al, 2022). Josie also attended to the specific needs of students with disabilities and provided multiple ways to engage with content (dominant axis).…”