Recontextualizing Practices: Learning to Teach Rigorous and Accessible Mathematics in the High School

Ilana Horn

Educational innovations require tremendous work to be implemented successfully. I conceptualize the problem of implementation as a problem of teacher learning and seek to describe the process of that learning in fine-grained detail. Using a comparative case study design, I will examine how 8 high school mathematics teachers learn to use equitable teaching practices as they move from formal training into their school and classroom settings. The research builds on data from two longitudinal ethnographic studies, one focused on the pre-service teachers’ learning and another on in-service teachers’ learning. Although differently structured, the formal training for both groups focuses on practices known to increase students’ mathematical achievement. The varied success of the teachers allows for analysis of the individual and contextual factors that support the implementation of novel and complex teaching practices. This study will contribute to educational research by specifying the different outcomes for the teachers in both their understanding and application of these practices, and by detailing the way teachers transform the practices as they move from formal educational settings into their school and classroom contexts. A close analysis of this process will contribute to our theoretical understanding of adult learning and inform the design of professional education.

About Ilana Horn

After graduating with a bachelors degree in mathematics from Swarthmore College, Ilana Horn returned to her home state of California to teach math in an urban high school. She enjoyed teaching her students, but felt perplexed at the organizational features of the school that seemed to erode progressive teaching practices. Horn attended graduate school at UC Berkeley, puzzling over ways to make rigorous and engaging mathematics and progressive pedagogies a part of diverse public schools. Her research aims to understand this problem, arising out of a concern about the underperformance of students in school mathematics. One line of her research seeks to specify the practices (both in and out of the classroom) of ambitious and equitable teaching. What exactly do teachers need to do, both within and beyond the classroom, to teach their students effectively? Of course, identifying these practices is not enough. Teachers need support in incorporating these into their work. Thus, a second line of work inquires into preservice and inservice teacher learning, with an eye toward making teacher education at both levels more effective for teachers and their students. Currently, she is an assistant professor at the University of Washington.