Shape the Course of Our Organization: Long-Term Goals 2024 – 2028
Organizational Commitment. AMTE is committed to furthering social justice and equity through our work as mathematics teacher educators. We recognize the longstanding structural inequities embedded in the teaching and learning of mathematics that have contributed to significant opportunity gaps for students and teachers with respect to mathematics. Our work as an organization must attend to the active support of more equitable and antiracist mathematics teaching and to the education and support of mathematics teacher educators in ways that provide meaningful opportunities to teach and learn for every mathematics student and teacher. —AMTE Long-Term Goals 2020 – 2024
AMTE was created with the mission of promoting the improvement of mathematics teacher education PK-12. While AMTE has had organizational goals since its inception, it was not until the Fall of 2019 that AMTE set out to improve its goal setting processes. After having worked with annual strategic priorities for many years, the AMTE Board engaged the membership in the development of long-term goals that would guide the work of the organization for a 4-year period. As we approach the end of the first period for AMTE’s long-term goals (2020 – 2024), it is important to reflect on what we have accomplished as an organization, and also contribute to shape the course of our organization by providing feedback both on what we have accomplished and on what our next set of long-term goals should be (2024 – 2028). AMTE is asking members to complete a brief survey to provide feedback on its long-term goals. This article provides highlights of what has been accomplished for each long-term goal. This summary is not meant to be exhaustive, as a lot of work has been taking place. More details on the yearly work on long-term goals can be found on the About AMTE page. As we embark on reflecting upon what we have accomplished and think about what the goals for the next 4 years should be, it is important to have in mind the organizational commitment quoted above that was developed to serve as a preamble for the 2020 – 2024 long-term goals.
Long-Term Goal 1: Provide resources and strategies for recruitment, retention, and diversification of the mathematics teacher pipeline.
One effort contributing to this goal has been AMTE’s involvement with the Get the Facts Out (GFO) project. The AMTE GFO Task Force has been doing a great job supporting faculty to promote the teaching profession. They have disseminated the GFO resources through webinars, conference sessions, and a website. They have trained “Champions” and presented to other organizations at the Conference Board for Mathematical Sciences.
Also contributing to this goal is AMTE’s work to support Elementary Mathematics Specialists. AMTE has been awarding scholarships to support teachers in their development as Elementary Mathematics Specialists. Further, AMTE issued a position statement with other organizations (NCTM, NCSM, and ASSM) recommending the use of Elementary Mathematics Specialists in PK-6 education, and created a task force to update the standards for these professionals.
Other activities include engaging in discussions regarding recruitment and retention with sibling organizations (TODOS, NCSM, NCTM) via the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, posting a list of resources on equity issues curated by the AMTE Equity Committee, hosting a webinar on recruitment and retention strategies through mentorship for LGBTQ+ preservice teachers, and having an opening session on the topic of advocating for teachers and the teaching profession.
Long-Term Goal 2: Provide resources and strategies for recruitment, retention, and diversification of the mathematics teacher educator pipeline.
One of AMTE’s long-standing efforts contributing to this goal is the early career STaR induction program. In the last few years AMTE has worked on enacting and refining this program, revising our financial systems to strive for sustainability, allocating funding for STaR Fellows from HBCUs, HSIs, and Tribal Colleges, and expanding STaR eligibility to clinical and instructional faculty.
AMTE also started Community Circles (CC) at the 2021 conference. AMTE members have used CC to network with others who have similar interests and backgrounds and to bring synergy to their work. To date, seven CC have continued their work, and we are implementing structures to make them self-sustaining.
Additional efforts contributing to this goal include developing and implementing an early career BIPOC faculty mentoring program, offering a virtual conference to support early career faculty, creating supplemental materials to support the AMTE Standards, publishing an issue of the Mathematics Teacher Educator journal focused on equity, and convening and enacting recommendations from the Membership Task Force and the Marketing Task Force.
Long-Term Goal 3: Engage mathematics teacher educators in opportunities designed to strengthen the research and research-based practices of mathematics teacher education, with a commitment to supporting understanding of how issues of social and racial justice undergird all of our work.
Related to this goal, AMTE provides opportunities for mathematics teacher educators to publish their research and disseminate their work through multiple outlets, including the website, Connections, Mathematics Teacher Educator, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education-Mathematics (CITE-Math), webinars, monographs, books, and two podcasts, including Teaching Math Teaching and Mathematics Teacher Educator.
Another way this goal has been addressed is by providing timely support and resources when needed. Some examples include providing professional development and resources during emergency remote teaching and responding to racial justice events with statements and press releases to our membership.
Additional work supporting this goal includes changing the name and mission of the Emerging Issues Committee to the Advocacy Committee, creating spaces to continue to discuss ways in which AMTE can attend to and support continued commitment to social and racial justice, presenting the first AMTE dissertation award, adding anti-racist resources to the website, updating the AMTE Technology statement, and soliciting submissions for Volume 6 of the Professional Book Series: Building Community to Center Equity and Social Justice in Mathematics Teacher Education.
Long-Term Goal 4: Develop systematic processes for studying progress towards and effectiveness of actionable items embedded in the long-term goals.
Work supporting this goal has included adding items to membership and conference registration forms to gather data about the AMTE membership that can help evaluate success toward Long-term Goal 2, beginning to use metrics to explore usage of resources provided, and organizing a Saturday discussion lunch at the conference to hear from membership.
While AMTE has accomplished a lot in the past few years and the long-term goals have helped provide focus and direction for our work, we need to recognize that there is also a lot that remains to be done and that we must continue growing as an organization. It is also important to keep in mind that we are an organization led by volunteers and that all this work has been carried out by our members who have volunteered to take on many tasks. This important work can only be possible thanks to your contributions, ideas, and feedback. I am excited to see where your work and ideas will take us in the next few years. Please complete the survey by Friday, September 15.
Enrique Galindo, AMTE President