**McClam, R. S., & Cruz, R. A. (2024). Beyond the math wars: Focus on teachers to improve instruction. https://kappanonline.org/beyond-the-math-wars-focus-on-teachers-to-improve-instruction/
These authors remind readers that the debates on how to teach math ultimately do a disservice to students in two important ways. First, it ignores that strong teaching and learning occur when there is a balance between procedural and conceptual ways of teaching, not one instead of the other. Second, the “math wars” distract from a much more critical issue that teachers often do not have the deep content mastery needed to teach mathematics well. The authors suggest that this is partly because most of the teaching workforce is a product of the same educational system (and therefore, has the same societal biases about who is or is not good at math) as their students. Instead of debating, the authors advocate for greater professional development opportunities for teachers and higher expectations for pre-service teachers.
Math Narrative Project. (2024, March). Math Narrative Project messaging guide. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. https://www.mathnarrative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Math-Narrative-Project_-Messaging-Guide-2024-1.pdf
Our beliefs about math are inextricably linked to how we teach and learn it. The Math Narrative Project seeks to understand and challenge common ideas about who is “good” at mathematics and what being “good” at mathematics means. This resource summarizes what the authors have learned about teachers’, students’, and parents’ beliefs about math and outlines strategies for changing cultural narratives to make math more accessible.
To focus your reading, we recommend pages 10–12 that capture students’ and teachers’ feelings about math and pages 19–23 that articulate the changes that might occur in students’, teachers’, and parents’ beliefs about math, but you are welcome to read the piece in full.
**This document is a priority reading.