Professor Vilma Mesa featured in Lathisms

Lathisms published a biographic sketch including information about Mesa’s research contributions:

Vilma Mesa investigates the role that resources play in developing teaching expertise in undergraduate mathematics, specifically at community colleges and in inquiry-based learning classrooms. Her overarching research goal is to understand how textbooks, instructors, and students interact in order to create opportunities for students to learn mathematics in post-secondary education. With that goal in mind, her work is located at the intersection of three fields of scholarly inquiry: undergraduate mathematics education, mathematics education writ large, and higher education. Through her research, she seeks to contribute theoretically grounded, empirically-based observations that provide the foundation for knowledge claims and insights that can guide reform of mathematics instruction in post-secondary institutions, with particular emphasis on the important and understudied area of community college mathematics education. Her work spans three areas of research: instruction, examining mathematics instruction in community colleges and other post-secondary settings; curriculum, primarily through analysis of textbook content and use; and institutional organization, investigating the way in which information is transparently communicated across stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, and administrators) regarding placement, curriculum, instruction, student data, student support services, and institutional ethos.

Mesa said, “To me, Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity for all U.S. residents to learn about the role that colonialism has played in the oppression of Latin America. I cherish our language, music, food, literature, festivals, dances, stories, sayings, and fiestas, and I take any opportunity to share them. I dream of a day in which we re-establish our deep connections to our Native American ancestors and rescue their wisdom to guide our future.”