Developing Community Teachers of Mathematics in Mathematics Teacher Preparation Programs

In recent years, mathematics teacher education has acknowledged the central role of the funds of knowledge and assets of minoritized communities in learning mathematics. Despite efforts to reorient mathematics teacher education, preservice teachers (PSTs) struggle to engage in this work. In this conceptual piece, we combine Murrell’s (2000, 2001) definition of a community teacher with existing research in mathematics education to build the profile of a community teacher of mathematics. Specifically, we propose that programmatic attention to developing asset orientations, positionalities, and mathematical knowledge for community teaching could prepare PSTs to honor and build on K–12 students’ strengths and funds of knowledge. We end by proposing data and evaluation methods to gather evidence of the effectiveness of those changes.