Kicking off Mathematics Teacher Educator’s Second Decade

With great deference to rock legend Nigel Tufnel, it’s time to turn it up to 11.

September marks the start of MTE Volume 11 and we (Associate Editor Kate Johnson and myself, Editor-in-Chief Mike Steele) are extremely proud to be the editorial team to inaugurate the second decade of the journal. The Volume 11, Issue 1 editorial contains a retrospective analysis of the impact of the journal’s first decade, which we found enlightening and, at times, surprising. We set out to describe the ways in which MTE articles have been used in the field – in what spaces are MTE articles cited, how are the ideas being built upon, and where are we strongly represented and where is there more work to do.

In the spirit of engaging in formative assessment, here’s a quick quiz before you read the editorial below.

Mathematics Teacher Educator’s goal as a journal is to build the knowledge base for mathematics teacher education by sharing tools and frameworks that show evidence of effectiveness in mathematics teacher education, whether they be about strengthening content knowledge, pedagogical practice, equity, or another facet of our work. Over the journal’s first decade, these tools and frameworks have been described at a number of levels. Some tools are activities that nest within a course or professional development intervention. Evidence of effectiveness in these cases centers on what teachers learned through engagement in that activity. Other tools are described at the level of the course or professional learning opportunity themselves, with evidence including both what teachers learned through the activities that constitute the intervention and the intervention itself. Still other tools operate at the level of a program, which could be a teacher preparation program or a long-term professional development initiative. Evidence in these cases is more broad and can include the impact of the innovation at the grain size of program and policy.

Being able to identify the tool, understand its conditions of use, and evaluate its impact is at the heart of an MTE manuscript. To better support authors, reviewers, and readers, future manuscript submissions will ask authors to identify the scope of their tool or framework as at the level of an activity, course, program, or theory. Keep an eye on the MTE website housed at NCTM for additional information about these categories along with examples of MTE articles that operate at each of the levels. We also continue to offer manuscript categories for theoretical work and the Perspectives on Practice call.

And as always, we welcome conversations about your ideas for an MTE manuscript. Kate and I are happy to spend time chatting with your author team about the components of a successful MTE manuscript and how you can shape the tools and data that you have into a manuscript for submission. Please reach out to us at any time in your workflow – never too early, and never too late! – for a discussion about your ideas and how they can be a part of the second decade of Mathematics Teacher Educator.

Mike Steele, Editor-in-Chief, Mathematics Teacher Educator