Mathematics Teacher Leaders’ Responses to Equity in Turbulent Times

Abstract

Well-intentioned people of privilege can position themselves as powerless to disrupt inequity. In this article, we aim to show how K–12 STEM teacher leaders and district leaders attempt to overcome paralysis in combating systems of oppression. Drawing on a larger set of K–12 STEM teacher leader interviews, we used poetic transcription to extract their noticings related to social unrest, focusing on teacher leaders’ responses to systemic inequities during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to center the voices of teachers and district leaders who reflect on their leadership work as a means of generating further discussion and understanding of the tensions they grapple with and ways they feel empowered to move beyond inaction. District leaders and teacher leaders can work with teachers to center critical axes in combating systems of oppression, particularly by addressing deficit thinking toward students and in eliminating systems of tracking.