Embracing Mathematics : On Becoming a Teacher and Changing with Mathematics

This alternative textbook for courses on teaching mathematics asks teachers and prospective teachers to reflect on their relationships with mathematics and how these relationships influence their teaching and the experiences of their students. Applicable to all levels of schooling, the book covers basic topics such as planning and assessment, classroom management, and organization of classroom experiences; it also introduces some novel approaches to teaching mathematics, such as psychoanalytic perspectives and post-modern conceptions of curriculum. Traditional methods-of-teaching issues are recast in a new discourse, provoking new ideas for making mathematics education meaningful to teachers as well as their students. Co-authored by a professor and coordinator of mathematics education programs, with illustrative contributions from practicing elementary, middle, and high school mathematics teachers, this book is a unique collaboration across all pre-college grades, making it ideal for teacher discussion groups at any level.

Embracing Mathematics:

• integrates pedagogy and content exploration in ways that are unique in mathematics education
• features textboxes with reflection questions and suggested explorations that can be easily utilized as homework for a course or as discussion opportunities for teacher reading groups
• offers examples of teachers’ action research projects that grew out of their interactions with the main chapters in the book
• is not narrowly limited to mathematics education but incorporates curriculum studies – an invaluable asset that allows instructors to find more ways to engage students in self-reflexive acts of teaching

Embracing Mathematics is intended as a method text for undergraduate and master’s-level mathematics education courses and more specialized graduate courses on mathematics education, and as a resource for teacher discussion groups.

Peter Appelbaum is Associate Professor, Arcadia University, Pennyslvania, where he teaches Mathematics Education, Curriculum Theory, and Cultural Studies, and is Coordinator of Mathematics Education Programs, and serves on the University Undergraduate Academic Programs Committee; University General Education Task Force; University Intercultural Committee. Secondary Education Committee; and Elementary Education Committee. His publications include Popular Culture, Educational Discourse, and Mathematics (SUNY Press, 1995); (Post) Modern Science (Education): Frustrations, propositions, and alternative paths, coedited with John Weaver and Marla Morri (Peter Lang, 2001), Multicultural and Diversity Education (ABC-CLIO, 2002), Children’s Books for Grownup Teachers (LEA/Routledge, in press), and numerous chapters in edited volumes and journal articles.

David Scott Allen teaches 7th, 8th, and sometimes 9th grade math at Pennbrook Middle School in North Wales, Pennsylvania.