What to Write - Mathematics Teacher Educator

Current call for manuscripts:  AMTE's Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics  

Editorial: So You Want to Be an MTE Author? A Tool for Writing Your Next MTE Manuscript

Download: MTE Writing Tool

The mission of the online journal Mathematics Teacher Educator (MTE) is to contribute to building a professional knowledge base for mathematics teacher educators that stems from, develops, and strengthens practitioner knowledge. The journal provides a forum for sharing practitioner knowledge related to the preparation and support of teachers of mathematics as well as for verifying and improving that knowledge over time. The journal is thus a tool that uses the personal knowledge that mathematics educators gain from their practice to build a trustworthy knowledge base that can be shared with the profession.

Therefore, all manuscripts should be crafted in a manner that makes the scholarly nature of the work apparent. Toward that end, manuscripts should contain a description of the problem or issue of mathematics teacher education that is addressed, the methods/interventions/tools that were used, the means by which these methods/interventions/tools and their results were studied and documented, and the application of the results to practice (both the authors’ practice and the larger community).

The nature of evidence in a practitioner journal is different from that in a research journal, but evidence is still critically important to ensuring the scholarly nature of the journal. Thus, authors must go beyond simply describing innovations to providing evidence of their effectiveness. Note that effectiveness implies that something is better and not just different as a result of the innovation. In addition, authors should make explicit the specific contribution to our knowledge. Findings should be reported with enough warrants to allow the construction or justification of recommendations for policy and practice.

We offer some examples of broad categories of manuscripts that might be appropriate for this journal. The categories are meant to be illustrative but not exhaustive.

Manuscripts that describe effective ways of influencing teachers’ knowledge, practices, or beliefs:  Manuscripts about these interventions might include a description of activities, tasks, or materials (e.g., cases, articles, software) that are used by a teacher educator to influence teachers in some way. These manuscripts would include a rationale for the intervention, a careful description of the intervention, documentation of evidence of the impact of the intervention (e.g., classroom transcript, teacher work, interview data, assessment results), a discussion of how this intervention might be used by others, and a clear statement of the contribution to the mathematics teacher education knowledge base.

Manuscripts that describe the use of broadly applicable tools and frameworks in mathematics teacher education: Such tools and frameworks are generally portable across a range of settings (e.g., grade level, preservice/in-service) and are not idiosyncratic to the instructor. Again, such manuscripts would include a careful description of the tool, what it is designed to capture/assess, its use (including modifications to the tool, changes in setting, etc., if this tool has been discussed previously in the literature), and evidence of the effectiveness of the tool, including reliability and validity (if appropriate). The constructs measured by the tool should be grounded in the literature, and the manuscript should include an explanation of how to interpret the results of the data captured with the tool. Although space might not permit the inclusion of the tool in its entirety in the manuscript, it could be made available online for other professionals to use, modify, enhance, and study. Examples of such tools might include a classroom observation protocol, a task analysis framework, a textbook analysis tool, assessment tasks, or framework for an entire teacher education program.

Manuscripts that address programmatic issues: These manuscripts should clearly situate the issue within the practice of mathematics teacher education and should contain a description of the problem or issue of mathematics teacher education that is addressed, including relevant background information, the impact of the issue/problem on practice (potentially both the authors' practice and the larger community), and/or relevant policy context. The manuscript should go beyond simply describing the issue to illuminating the trade-offs that would result from alternative solutions to the issue. For instance, an author might report the results of a survey of capstone courses for secondary majors with an analysis of the pros and cons of different models and a suggestion for a new model. Similarly, an author might elaborate on different models for elementary mathematics specialists in schools and note limitations and advantages of each model, providing examples from practice where available.

Manuscripts that address external factors that have an impact on mathematics teacher education policy and programs: Such manuscripts would articulate an issue and clearly identify the impact that this issue has on mathematics teacher education (e.g., factors that affect teacher education directly and factors that affect schools directly, which then affect teacher education, such as Title I, special education, English Language Learners, accreditation, Common Core State Standards, tracking). For instance, an author might review the literature on school practices with respect to equity and diversity and provide evidence of the impact of these various practices on mathematics teacher education. Additionally, the manuscript might describe effective ways of challenging such effects.

Review Criteria

Please consider the review criteria listed below in preparing the manuscript for review.  

The manuscript should:

• provide a rationale for the problem of practice that is addressed in the manuscript;
  
  
• be conceptually or theoretically grounded, with primary phenomena clearly defined;
  
  
• be connected to the existing knowledge base (literature) in mathematics teacher education.  

If the manuscript describes methods/interventions/tools, it should:

• describe the interventions or tools that were used to address the shared problem of practice for mathematics teacher educators;
• explain the context and methods used to collect and analyze data;
• provide evidence to support claims about the effectiveness of the interventions or tools;
• make explicit the specific new contribution to the existing knowledge base;
• report all claims with sufficient warrants that recommendations for policy and practice can be constructed and justified; and
• provide sufficient detail to allow for verification, replication in other contexts, or modification by other mathematics teacher educators.

If the manuscript is theoretical or philosophical in nature, it should:

• explain the impact of the issue of practice in mathematics teacher education. 
• describe the background of the problem/issue and/or describes the policy context that is relevant.
• go beyond simply describing the issue to illuminating the trade-offs that would result from alternative solutions to the issue.
• make explicit the specific new contribution to the knowledge base. Findings should be reported with enough warrants so that recommendations for policy and practice can be constructed or justified.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be no longer than 25 pages of text or 6,250 words (exclusive of references). For ease of reading by reviewers, all figures and tables should be embedded in the correct locations in the text. All manuscripts should be formatted according to the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition). Manuscripts not conforming to these specifications may be returned without review. Please submit manuscripts using the  online manuscript submission and review system.

Because MTE is published in electronic format, we encourage authors to take advantage of the possibilities of this medium by including items such as student work, videos, applets, hyperlinks, and other items that enhance the manuscript. Appropriate permission for such items must be submitted before such a manuscript will be accepted for publication. In addition, color can be used to the extent that it enhances the submission.

General Information

MTE uses a double-blind peer review process, is indexed in ISSN, and is available (from January 2013) through JSTOR. The first issue was published in September 2012, with two issues per volume planned for the foreseeable future.

Mathematics Teacher Educator is a joint publication of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The editor is Karen Hollebrands, North Carolina State University; the associate editor is Valerie Faulkner, North Carolina State University.