M.Ed. alumna and faculty mentor recently published an article that advances equity in mathematics education through a learning unit.
Aaron Trocki, associate professor of mathematics, and Erika Hernandez, a 2023 graduate of the M.Ed. program, recently published an article in the fall issue of The Centroid, the official journal of the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCCTM).
Hernandez’s scholarly pursuit of action research methodologies to advance equity in mathematics education prompted her to engage in a comprehensive year-long independent research endeavor alongside Trocki, an esteemed faculty member in the M.Ed. program.
In their article, “Mirrors and Windows to Analyze Waste Production: A Fifth-Grade Teacher Promotes Equitable Learning with Applying Fractions,” the authors share the development, enactment and evaluation of a learning unit designed to promote equity in a fifth-grade bilingual mathematics classroom.
Unit lessons were written to encourage student voice and to use multiplication and division of fractions as analytical tools of empowerment. Evidence gathered during three major learning activities indicated growth along dimensions of access, equity, identity and power through the application of research-based teaching practices.
Erika Hernandez is a dual language (English-Spanish) elementary teacher at Stoneville Elementary School in North Carolina. “I believe and work for the transforming power of the education of children,” she said.
The full article in The Centroid can be found here.