Chapter 5: A Self-Study in Supporting Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Critical Teacher Noticing During Field Experiences in Diverse Schools: Background and Purpose of the Study

Preparing secondary mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) includes supporting them as they develop dispositions toward equity (Hand, 2012), particularly in schools that serve communities unfamiliar to PSTs, often identified as “high-needs,” a label that is problematic when students and their communities are labeled in ways that become limiting and narrowing of who they are and their potential (Rist, 2000). This label is typically a marker used to describe schools that have one or a combination of the following: a high enrollment of students of color, a high concentration of English language learners, and/or a high concentration of students from families experiencing poverty. In this work, we describe these schools as underserved, which we believe pushes back against deficit notions of children and highlights and foregrounds the need for schools to be of service to students and their communities.