Teaching Math Teaching Podcast · Eva Thanheiser, Dusty Jones, Joel Amidon, Jennifer Wolfe

Episode 77: Jonee Wilson: Aligning beliefs around teaching mathematics with the preparation of teachers of mathematics.

·40 min·4 clips

Jonee Wilson reveals how her research empowers historically marginalized students in math classrooms.

This episode features an interview with Dr. Jonee Wilson, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and former high school teacher from Baltimore. Hosts Jen Wolf, Dusty Jones, and Joel Amidon discuss her research on equitable mathematics instruction. Wilson's work focuses on empowering historically marginalized students in conceptually oriented math classrooms. She develops and validates classroom observation tools designed to measure equitable teaching and learning. Her projects aim to support teachers, instructional coaches, and district leaders in implementing these practices. Wilson combines insights from her teaching experience with her academic research to inform her methods. The conversation explores her journey into mathematics education research from being a classroom practitioner. She discusses the specific challenges of observing and quantifying equity in a classroom setting. Wilson explains the process of creating reliable instruments for classroom observation. Her tools are designed to attend to nuanced aspects of student participation and teacher facilitation. A key insight is that equitable teaching requires aligning a teacher's core beliefs with their instructional practices. Wilson argues that surface-level strategies fail without this foundational alignment. She emphasizes that honoring students' backgrounds is integral to conceptual mathematics learning. The development of her observation tools involves rigorous validation with diverse classroom videos. Wilson finds that many existing frameworks lack the specificity needed to capture equitable moments. Her work reveals that equitable practices are often identifiable through specific teacher moves and student interactions. She describes moving from identifying problems to creating practical, usable support systems for educators. The tone is professional, educational, and conversational, with a focus on academic research and practical application. The style is an interview format where hosts ask questions to draw out the guest's expertise. Mathematics teacher educators, instructional coaches, and researchers interested in equity frameworks would find this episode valuable. Listeners seeking a broad overview of educational trends without deep methodological detail might find it too specialized.

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