Attributions of Mathematical Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Teachers’ beliefs influence their instructional decisions and these decisions shape the mathematical learning opportunities for all students. This is particularly important when considering the learning opportunities for groups that have historically been marginalized in mathematics, including girls and students of color. There are few validated, mathematics-specific instruments that measure teachers’ beliefs about mathematics learning related to race, ethnicity, and gender. This project seeks to investigate teachers’ beliefs related to how they explain the systemic racial and gender differences in mathematics education outcomes by developing and validating a survey instrument and to explore how those beliefs might impact their teaching. The central hypothesis of the project is that teachers’ beliefs about attributions of mathematical excellence interact with students’ racial and gender identities to cause racial and gender inequity in the learning opportunities available to students in the same mathematics classrooms. The basis of these beliefs may be attributions to genetic, social, or personal characteristics that are based in biased and inaccurate conceptions of the sources of mathematical excellence.

In order to achieve the project's main aims, the project will conduct three interrelated studies. (1) The Attributions and Items study will use interviews with teachers, teacher educators, and researchers to write, pilot, and refine items to establish reliability and construct representation of the Attributions of Mathematical Excellence Scale (AMES). (2) The Structure & Relations Study will provide validity evidence of internal structure and relations with other variables, including established equity instruments, and a measure of implicit bias. Student test data linked with a subset of the sample will be used to compare AMES scores with race and gender equity in achievement. This study will be expanded to include samples of preservice and inservice teachers and use a variety of data sources including interviews, surveys and classroom observation. (3) The Classroom Study will compare AMES scores with direct observation of race and gender equity in classroom instruction. Through the development of the instrument and analysis of scores, the project team will be able to posit and design teacher professional learning opportunities that have the potential to address the sources of bias.