Advocacy as a Mathematics Education Community—The Time Is Now

April 2021

Advocating for high-quality mathematics teaching and learning for each and every student must be more than words. To be effective, advocacy must include thoughtful actions both individually and collectively across local, state, provincial, and national levels. As noted in the NCTM Strategic Framework, advocacy should raise awareness and influence decision makers and the public on issues to expand high-quality mathematics teaching and learning and provide access to every student, school, and community. Why should we advocate? What are effective ways to advocate in mathematics education? These are just some of the questions to consider as we examine our role in advocacy in mathematics education.

In my president’s address, “Advocating for Our Students, Our Colleagues, and Ourselves as Professionals,” on Friday, April 23, 2021, at the NCTM 2021 Virtual Annual meeting, participants were asked to share words that came to mind when they thought about advocating for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Responses included empowerment, equity, influence, making a difference, courage, voice, representation, multilevel, essential, hard, and student-centered action. The address engaged an amazing panel of classroom teachers, a mathematics teacher educator, a district mathematics coordinator, and an advocacy expert. Here are a few takeaways:

• All students deserve to engage in mathematics where expectations are high and instructional support is provided to reach them.
• Students should be valued and supported as advocates where their voice is heard as they understand and critique their world through mathematics.
• Teachers’ voices must be part of the conversation, and decision-making must be related to equitable structures and equitable instructional strategies in order to ensure student access to equitable mathematics opportunities.
• Although advocacy may seem scary, difficult, and time intensive, it is crucial for the field of mathematics education.
• Identify what is going on in your classroom, school, district, community, state, or province that decision makers need to know and be prepared to tell that story.

With the current COVID-19 challenges and continued injustices, we need to work together as a mathematics education community to examine the issues and the impact on mathematics teaching and learning with focused attention on underserved and underrepresented groups. We must challenge long-standing inequities in structures and practices, which have been exacerbated over the past year. There are many things to consider such as priorities in instruction, curriculum, assessment, professional development, and social-emotional learning.

On April 12, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics collaborated with NCSM: Leadership in Mathematics and the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics to host a briefing on Understanding and Reframing “Learning Loss” in Mathematics: Goals, Policies, and Practices for Strengths-Oriented and Equitable Solutions. Policymakers, leaders, teachers, and mathematics educators engaged with a panel of mathematics education leaders as they discussed organizing and defining goals for the coming year; opportunities to support teachers and students through effective, equitable structures and processes; and ways to create opportunities for student learning. The panel—which included Donna Leak, Superintendent at Community Consolidated Schools District 168 and Vice Chair of the Illinois State Board of Education; Levi Patrick, Assistant Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, State Department of Education, Oklahoma; and Zackary Champagne, Lead Elementary Teacher, Discovery School, Jacksonville Beach, Florida—provided insights into what we should advocate for right now. I would encourage you to view the recording of the briefing and identify areas that resonate with you in your role and work. The panel provided thoughts related to curriculum, elevating teacher voice, building relationships, grade-level learning, and connecting with students.

As states and districts review policies, NCTM is here with tools and resources that can lead to more equitable frameworks and pathways to learning. Brave and bold actions are needed, from all of us, to advocate for change to support each and every student. What can we do? I would urge each of us to examine ideas put forth in the NCTM Advocacy Toolkit, the Catalyzing Change series, the briefing, and in the president’s address; each one provides specific actions we can take. We have much we can engage in as an advocate in mathematics education. Consider this a call to action to advocate for high-quality mathematics teaching and learning for all students. Malala Yousafzai¹, an advocate and activist for the education of girls and women and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, said, “When the world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.”

Every voice matters in mathematics education. Just think what we can do by working together on this journey, advocating for high-quality mathematics teaching and learning for each and every student and supporting each and every teacher!

Trena Wilkerson
NCTM President
@TrenaWilkerson

¹Malala Yousafzi, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (New York: Little Brown and Company, 2013).