Equity and multicultural education are explicit and implicit throughout the course. For example, I explicitly incorporate equity into the course by discussing issues such as ability tracking in P-12 mathematics classrooms. In particular, I am interested in highlighting the role that ability tracking plays to decrease access to higher-level mathematics courses for students of color. Another example of making equity an integral part of the methods class is that I have students complete an assignment in which they use a research protocol to rate lessons in terms of opportunities to learn for all students. The rating scales include considerations such as gender equity, the use of language scaffolding to support the learning of English Language Learners, and whether the teacher actively encourages a diversity of students to participate during the lesson.
Multicultural education is also a fundamental part of the course.
The culminating experience in the secondary mathematics methods course is that the prospective teachers visit an American Indian reservation in New Mexico during a feast day. Many of my students, most of whom are native New Mexican, have never visited an Indian pueblo. Several weeks before the trip to the pueblo, Dr. Joseph Suina, a Native American colleague from the Cochiti Pueblo, gives a presentation on pueblo cultures. He describes the dances the students will witness and their significance. He also discusses how having knowledge of Indian cultures can make them more effective teachers of Native American children.