The Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE) stands in solidarity with Black Americans in the face of racial injustice. We are dismayed by the inhumane and unjust treatment of Black Americans by law enforcement personnel in recent months with the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. We acknowledge the inequities that the pandemic has illuminated related to health care, economic standing, and education. As an organization, AMTE believes that racism must be interrogated in this country. We cannot look at what is happening to Black Americans and other oppressed groups as problems that they alone need to solve.
As mathematics teacher educators, each of us must become cognizant of the lived experience of Black Americans by reading the history of the United States through a social justice lens. Next, we must learn ways to empower and provide access to students who often are judged by the color of their skin and not by their knowledge and abilities. We must ensure that we foster well-prepared teachers of mathematics who:
Through these actions, we as an organization strengthen our own ability to serve as advocates for those whose voices have been muted and prepare a generation of teachers who are willing to address the systemic problem of inequity in our schools, nation, and world.
In our lives as citizens, we must look to organizations whose mission is to respond to continued racial injustice and to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. We must stand with organizations like Black Lives Matter that seek to elevate awareness of the lived experiences of Americans of color and dismantle systems of continued racial oppression.
We must act. We (Mike and Megan) issue this call to action to white mathematics teacher educators, including ourselves. It is long past time that we assume the burdens that have been largely left to mathematics educators of color. All of us must affirm and support the lived experiences of our students and colleagues of color who are and have been suffering. We must actively work to be anti-racist in our acts of teaching, research, and service. Today we call on you to not simply express allyship, but to engage with a new resource to strengthen your own ability to see and to act in ways that are anti-racist and to critically examine your own practices and the potential biases implicit within them. A list of resources specifically related to our work as mathematics teacher educators is available on the AMTE Member Bulletin Board. We invite others to submit additional resources to this site to be shared with our mathematics education community.
To our colleagues of color, to our students, and to all who are suffering in this moment: we see you, we love you, and we support you. Together as mathematics teacher educators, we will bend the arc towards justice.
Yours in Service, Mike Steele, AMTE President Megan Burton, AMTE President-Elect
While the words in this statement were assembled and edited by President Mike Steele, President-Elect Megan Burton, and Executive Director Shari Stockero, they originate in large part from the lived experiences of educators of color within AMTE leadership who contributed their perspectives and wisdom. This statement includes contributions from AMTE Past Presidents Marilyn Strutchens, Christine Thomas, and Randy Philipp; AVP for Equity Carlos Lopez Leiva; AVP for Advocacy Zandra DeAraujo; VP for Professional Learning Jennifer Suh, and VP for Publications Babette Benken.
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