AMTE Community Circles

Community Circles are a benefit of being a member of AMTE. The purpose of Community Circles is to do exactly what their title implies -- to build community among AMTE members while also having informal conversations centered around a topic or group of interest. Circles meet a minimum of four times across the academic year, but some Circles meet more frequently. An e-mail announcement is sent at the beginning of each month to members announcing the Circle schedule for that month.

For the Community Circle meeting schedule and Zoom links, click here

Name of Community Circle	Description
Anti-racist Teaching Practices in Mathematics Education	The AMTE antiracist community circle aims at addressing race and racism in K-12 schools and math methods courses by engaging MTE’s with (re)thinking their practices and research to advance an antiracist mathematics curriculum.
Early Career MTEs (including Graduate Students)	Welcome early career MTEs and graduate students. Our discussions will address topics and questions of interest such as finishing a dissertation, looking for a job, and responsibilities in different types of higher education institutions and departments. We will also share strategies for balancing life and the professional work of mathematics teacher educators.
Early Childhood MTEs	Mastering early math skills predicts later school success even more than reading ability does (Duncan et al. 2007). Thus high quality instruction of preschool mathematics using developmentally appropriate strategies should be paramount. Join us to support one another with pedagogical, research, and advocacy resources.
International Mathematics Educators	This Community Circle focuses on highlighting the experiences of international individuals in the field of mathematics education. We discuss our experiences about identity, culture, being second language learners, and inclusion. Further, we work on understanding the challenges of first-generation international mathematics educators in the USA and seek productive solutions that address these challenges. We also empower international educators in this community and highlight their productive and tremendous contributions in the field. In our community, we support and mentor first-generation international graduate students and early career researchers/faculty.
LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Mathematics Education	This Community Circle focuses on LGBTQ+ inclusion in mathematics education. We discuss various stresses that our community deals with in educational settings including issues like the Florida, "don't say gay" law and trans athlete bans. We also work to educate our colleagues on the importance of explicit LGBTQ+ inclusion in mathematics teacher preparation programs.
MTEs Rethinking Grades	This Community Circle focuses on practices related to grades and grading. We discuss alternatives to traditional grading (e.g., labor-based grading contracts, ungrading approaches) and provide space for participants to share methods, experiences, and ideas. Participants learn how other MTEs are humanizing grading within their context and ideas for implementing within coursework. We aim to build a community for MTEs seeking to change their grading practice that is encouraging, reflective, and supportive.
MTEs who are Sole MTE at Institution	This Community Circle brings together individuals who are the Sole MTEs at their University, College, or Institution. We focus on creating a shared space to collectively discuss and engage with ‘problems of practice’ that Sole MTEs face in their work. In doing so we have (1) shared specific strategies and challenges when working with students through (and beyond) a global pandemic, (2) gained expertise and support from colleagues across institutions who are Sole MTEs, and (3) created professional connections for mentorship, research collaborations, and teaching supports/tools. At the end of last academic year, our Community Circle focused on how to connect with and use AMTE as a resource. Led by Tim Hendrix, we learned the specifics about the structure of our organization and ideas/suggestions for how to serve AMTE across years and promotions in a career. This academic year, 2022-2023, we plan to increase our professional connections and focus on specific topics raised by Community Circle members, such as collaborations with intersecting departments (e.g., how individuals in math departments connect with ed departments), and research collaborations within our group.
Simulations to Support Pre-service Teachers develop Mathematics Teaching Practices	Simulations, such as rehearsals, are commonly used in mathematics methods courses to support pre-service teachers in developing effective teaching practices. This Community Circle focuses on discussing the various ways we utilize simulations. Our aim is to help build our capacity as MTEs to use simulations to develop pre-service teachers' mathematics teaching practices. Some of the topics we plan to discuss are: how to help pre-service teachers draw connections between the experiences from the university classroom and the K-12 classroom; how to help pre-service teachers consider issues of access and equity in meaningful ways when engaged in a simulation of practice; and how to provide thoughtful and comprehensive feedback during simulations with large numbers of pre-service teachers.
Statistics and Data Science Teacher Education	This community circle focuses on issues related to preparing teachers of mathematics to teach concepts and practices of statistics and data science. We are an open and welcoming circle for anyone interested in learning more related to our focus. We share resources and ideas as well as build community.
Wellness and Productivity	The ‘mystique of the professoriate,’ (Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2012), is an idealized expectation created for academics that does not allow individuals time out from their careers without being seen as non-productive. Furthermore, neoliberal practices of academic institutions increasingly lead to the never-enough façade of working all the time and continually increasing productivity expectations (Troiani & Dudson, 2021). This affects personal well-being and contributes to a leaky pipeline that specifically affects mothers (Crawford & Windsor, 2021). This Community Circle focuses on prioritizing Wellness while attending to Productivity needs within this larger context. Particular attention is paid to discussing the needs of parents (especially mothers) and individuals with chronic illness/disabilities (visible and invisible) and other intersectionalities that are not commonly addressed in discussions on Wellness and Productivity. This Circle is a place for openly discussing the challenges/tensions between job and wellness, sharing strategies for integrating wellness and productivity, and celebrating our successes in prioritizing wellness.

For the Community Circle meeting schedule and Zoom links, click here.