When does a difference make a difference? Teaching about language diversity in mathematics teacher education

There has been little attention in mathematics education research about how to include issues to do with language diversity in teacher education. This paper describes the process used by two teacher educators to examine their own practices of linking multilingual perspectives to mathematics education in their work with preservice teachers. By systematically analysing their discussion about a three-hour, mathematics-teacher-education workshop on proportional thinking, the teacher educators were able to identify a series of Discourses. They considered that these Discourses underlay their decision making about how language diversity could be raised with preservice teachers. The results highlight the complexity connected to raising language diversity issues in mathematics teacher education. For example, deciding what challenging content should be provided to preservice teachers is affected by the need to develop relationships with them as well as managing their learning. Joint reflection by the teacher educators was needed to ensure that the aim of challenging preservice teachers about how to deal with language diversity issues in mathematics classrooms could be achieved.