Current Research

Currently, we mentor only a few of our students sporadically and informally outside of class by checking in, inviting them to lead presentations and otherwise participate in professional experiences, and writing reference letters. Because we do not reflect on whom and how we mentor, we may be supporting the systemic oppression that permeates our educational system and, more specifically, mathematics education. Intentionally mentoring our traditionally underserved students (e.g., students of color, students from low-income families, first-generation college students, students whose first language is not English) means systematically examining our practices to identify ways in which they implicitly raise barriers to equitable opportunities. By mentoring these students, we will be creating faculty connections with students in their first year or two at Georgia Southern which is a well-established strategy for student retention. Many of our students have majors in the College of Education; however, with mentoring and guidance in accessing COSM and university resources, we believe our students will be more likely to seek a mathematics minor or major, to support teaching in the middle grades or high school.

Nguyen, H., Maher, E.M., An, T., Chamblee, G. (March, 2022). Strengthening mathematical and professional identities of future K-12 teachers. Virtual presentation given for the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education 2022 Virtual Conference.