Exploring mathematics coaches' opportunities to engage with equity during professional development

Purpose Mathematics coaches are positioned as catalysts to foster equitable teaching practices at their school sites. Yet there is a lack of research that explores how mathematics coaches' own professional development might prepare them to enact such complex work. Hence, this study uses Gutiérrez's (2009, 2012) dimensions of equity as an analytic lens to better understand mathematics coaches' opportunities to engage with equity while “doing the math” during their own district-sponsored professional development sessions. Doing the math is a professional development activity structure in which participants engage in guided investigations of disciplinary content. Design/methodology/approach This instrumental case study primarily utilizes video data and accompanying transcripts and field notes for six full-day professional development sessions. Through the qualitative coding process (Creswell and Creswell, 2018), a code-by-committee approach (Saldana, 2012) was employed where both authors jointly coded the transcripts, searching for instances in which participants discussed each dimension of equity (access, achievement, power, identity) as it might be related to supporting teaching and learning at their school sites. Findings Overall, findings indicate that coaches had many opportunities to engage with access while doing the math. Specifically, they chiefly discussed modifications that could be made to the mathematics task they were working on to provide an entry point for students. Findings also reveal that coaches had strikingly fewer opportunities to engage with identity and power. Examples of such rare conversations included a talk about the coaches' own identities as learners and doers of mathematics, as well as critiques of traditional mathematics teaching methods. Originality/value This study offers implications for mathematics coaches and administrators to consider the ways in which the dimensions of identity and power can be emphasized while doing the math during professional development.