Belonging-Centered Instruction: An Approach to Establishing Inclusive Mathematics Classrooms

To challenge and extend previous discussions of belonging in secondary school settings, Dr. Matthews argues that both interpersonal and instructional supports for belonging are pivotal, particularly for historically marginalized adolescents who are often attempting to negotiate their sense of self in light of societal and academic stigma. He proposes two major analytic phases of the MET video observations: a qualitative and descriptive phase, followed by a quantitative scoring phase with prediction of student outcomes. Ultimately, he aims to validate a belonging-centered observation protocol that will serve as a practical resource for researchers and practitioners seeking to provide equity-focused feedback to mathematics teachers. This project addresses a practically-relevant knowledge gap at the intersection of mathematics education, belonging, and equity: the identification of vivid examples that highlight ways of supporting belongingness needs within the context of a fundamental but often threatening subject area, mathematics.