First Advisor
Eva Thanheiser
Term of Graduation
January 2026
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Language
English
Subjects
affect in mathematics education, critical mathematics education, mathematical identity, mathematics teacher education, preservice elementary teachers, real-world mathematics
Physical Description
1 online resource ( pages)
Abstract
Mathematics is often viewed, taught, and learned as an abstract, stand-alone subject, with an emphasis on procedures that are frequently disconnected from learners’ lived experiences. Within this framing, limited attention is given to students’ affect and identities in relation to mathematics. As a result, opportunities to engage with mathematics as a social, sociopolitical, and empowering tool remain rare. These patterns highlight an important implication for teacher education programs: when mathematics is framed primarily as abstract and procedural, preservice elementary teachers (PTs) may enter the profession lacking strong conceptual understanding, pedagogical flexibility, and the social and political awareness needed to effectively support diverse groups of students. This challenge is further compounded by the fact that many teacher preparation programs struggle to fully prepare future educators to meet the recommendations set by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. Teaching mathematics to children involves more than delivering content; it also requires supporting them in developing confidence and persistence as mathematical thinkers. This raises an important question for teacher education programs: how can we prepare novice teachers to develop strong mathematical understanding, enact effective instructional practices, build confidence in their own mathematical identities, and become socially aware educators? Hence, there is a clear need for an integrated approach to teacher education—one that attends equally to conceptual understanding, pedagogical practice, the development of positive mathematical identities, and critical awareness of the social and political dimensions of mathematics. This study employs a qualitative case study design examining 18 PTs enrolled in a ten-week mathematics content course for elementary teachers. Data sources include pre-course semi-structured interviews and post-course written reflections in response to the same set of questions. Data were analyzed using a thematic synthesis approach, combining deductive coding informed by prior research and theoretical frameworks with inductive coding to generate subthemes. To examine this phenomenon, the study first introduces the Mathematical Conceptualization & Empowerment (MCE) Framework, adapted from prior literature to explore PTs’ beliefs about mathematics. The framework conceptualizes mathematics as an abstract system, a tool for understanding the world, a human activity (or verb), and a sociopolitical, critical lens. While individuals may hold multiple views of mathematics simultaneously, the relative emphasis placed on each perspective can vary. Following participation in a ten-week course intentionally designed to develop conceptual understanding, pedagogical practice, positive mathematical identity, and critical social awareness through real-world mathematical tasks, PTs showed evidence of growth in viewing mathematics as socially situated, connected to identity, and potentially empowering. Next, by attending to PTs’ affect and identities in relation to mathematics and real-world mathematics lessons that highlight social and political hegemony, the second part of this study found a clear shift in PTs’ perspectives. Many moved from anxiety, avoidance, and negative mathematical identities toward more dynamic, positive views of themselves as learners of mathematics. In addition, PTs developed greater social and political awareness in their roles as both learners and future teachers. They attributed these shifts to a collaborative, student-centered, and inquiry-based learning environment that emphasized collective sense-making. The third part of this study focuses on the instructional design of the ten-week course, illustrating how a mathematics content course can intentionally integrate three core aims: supporting PTs in developing conceptual understanding, attending to children’s thinking and effective methods for teaching mathematics, and engaging PTs’ affect and identities—particularly in relation to socially and critically oriented mathematics lessons grounded in real-world data. This section demonstrates how these aims are translated into course goals and enacted through three example tasks that are tightly connected to real-world contexts and highlight social, political, and economic inequalities. Through their reflective responses, PTs showed evidence of growing critical awareness, including a strong rejection of deficit views about students’ learning capabilities and their social and cultural backgrounds. Some PTs proposed concrete ways to challenge these deficit perspectives, such as identifying policy-level changes or expressing a readiness to take a more active stance. However, many tended to favor more localized approaches, such as engaging in private conversations or explaining their viewpoints, rather than confronting these issues more directly. This suggests that fostering stronger development of PTs’ critical agency requires teacher education programs to more intentionally support and scaffold their capacity for advocacy. Taken together, this study demonstrates how PTs’ perspectives can shift from viewing mathematics as purely objective knowledge to understanding it as also subjective, humanistic, and a critical tool for examining social, political, economic, and cultural hegemonies. It shows how PTs’ attitudes and emotions toward mathematics can move from negative experiences—such as dislike, anxiety, frustration, and boredom—to more positive dispositions, including enjoyment, curiosity, pride, and excitement. Additionally, PTs’ identities evolve from fragile or negative views of themselves as learners and future teachers toward more confident, critical, and justice-oriented identities as sense-makers, as well as equity-oriented and culturally responsive educators. Their responses to inequity and deficit views of students’ learning also shift from avoidance to a growing willingness to take action and adopt more inclusive perspectives on student capability. These shifts are grounded in theory, supported by empirical evidence, and demonstrated through high-quality instructional practice. Together, they suggest that mathematics teacher education can move beyond a sole focus on conceptual understanding and pedagogical practice to also include reflective practices that attend to PTs’ affect and identities—ultimately supporting the development of critical mathematical consciousness, agency, and social responsibility.
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Recommended Citation
Pham, Autumn Thu, "Shifting Perspectives in Mathematics: Examining Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Evolving Conceptions of Mathematics, Identity, and Social Inequality Through Course Design" (2026). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 7144.