2023 Early Career Award Recipient
The purpose of the Early Career award is to recognize a mathematics teacher educator who, while early in their career, has made distinguished contributions and shows exceptional potential for leadership in one or more areas of teaching, service, and/or scholarship.
Megan Wickstrom
Montana State University
Associate Professor
Biography
Megan Wickstrom | Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences | Montana State University
Megan H. Wickstrom (she/her) is an associate professor of mathematics education at Montana State University. As a researcher, Megan is a reflective practitioner who seeks to understand teachers as learners and empower them as knowers and doers of mathematics.
Megan became interested in mathematics education as an undergraduate at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, while pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics with an emphasis in secondary education. During that time, working in local classrooms and tutoring in the mathematics department solidified her desire to explore how students think about mathematics. Following graduation, Megan taught middle school mathematics in Bloomington, Illinois while earning a Master of Science in elementary and middle level mathematics education and a Ph.D. in mathematics education from Illinois State University. Since joining Montana State University in 2014, Megan has taught a wide range of mathematics content and pedagogy courses for pre-service elementary and secondary teachers. She is also an instructor, designer, and advisor in MSU’s Master of Science program for middle and secondary mathematics teachers, and she actively supports students in her department’s Ph.D. program for mathematics education.
Megan’s research agenda is founded on her interest in mathematical modeling through the lenses of task design, mathematical understanding, and teacher development. Her recent work focuses on developing modeling tasks for pre-service and in-service teachers and exploring how teachers develop as modelers with respect to their mathematical knowledge, sense of agency, and engagement. She also explores ways in which mathematics teacher educators can support teachers in enacting modeling tasks and how teachers translate their knowledge, as learners, into practice. Through the tasks she develops, Megan strives to create spaces in which students feel a sense of community, are empowered as learners, and experience mathematics in creative and purposeful ways. She has written numerous articles on these subjects, appearing in journals such as The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Mathematics Teacher Educator, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PreK-12, and Equity & Excellence in Education. Megan also recently co-authored the book series Becoming a Teacher of Mathematical Modeling, published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and co-edited Exploring Mathematical Modeling with Young Learners, published by Springer. While she enjoys sharing her scholarship in a wide spectrum of publications, Megan is most proud of her collaborations alongside classroom teachers to conduct research and develop articles for practitioner journals. 