News & Events

Building on last year’s Math Education Speaker Series on the intersections of mathematics education and special education, this year’s series turns toward issues of mathematics education and policy. This presentation will feature Ilana Walder-Biesanz, CEO of National Math Stars, an organization that works to identify and support the needs of mathematically gifted students. In this first event, the speaker will share one group’s approach to addressing the learning and policy needs of mathematically gifted students, followed by a 30-minute discussion about the ideas presented and what they mean for our own work and contexts.

In this talk, Cathery will discuss the collaborative (re)development of a practical measure designed to capture embodied participation. Working alongside four mathematics and special education teachers who support students at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities—including students of color, emergent bilinguals, and students with disabilities—a classroom observation tool was redesigned to better capture embodied participation. This talk presents the theoretical and methodological approach, grounded in Disability Critical Race Theory and DisCrit Classroom Ecology, along with the outcomes of engaging teachers in the collaborative design and testing of research tools. By expanding beyond verbal-only measures, this research offers critical insights into student participation and contributes to the growing body of scholarship on equitable classroom measures.

Mathematics has been an inaccessible space for too long for too many students, including students with disabilities. In this talk, Dr. Lambert will explore her on-going work to create a math-specific version of Universal Design for Learning that centers the empathy and creativity of teachers. She will discuss the theoretical roots of her work, including critical disability studies and design thinking. She will present research on how math and special educators use empathy as a tool in design, particularly in shifting away from deficit thinking and towards trusting in the thinking of all learners. She will discuss an on-going project to develop mathematical interventions that work with the current emotional and material conditions of teachers and students in schools: non-digital Games Time.