We offer congratulations to Dr. Catherine Schwartz on her recent promotion to associate professor and for securing grant funds to deliver professional development in mathematics education. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction has provided $481,518 for Dr. Schwartz to work on a three-year collaboration with teachers in Lenoir County. On another grant project, funded by Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, she is working with a group of beginning teachers from all over Eastern North Carolina to support their mathematics teaching during the first two years. Dr. Schwartz understands the impact that such programs can have. One such project led her from teaching in a elementary classroom to becoming a professor at East Carolina University. Dr. Schwartz explains:
Experience as a fourth and fifth grade classroom teacher has had a huge impact on my work with teachers. Early in my teaching career I was a participant in a five year statewide professional development program, (Teaching Excellence and Mathematics — TEAM II) focused on mathematics teaching. The connections I made and the knowledge I gained through that program led me back to graduate school and to doing my current job.
To further spotlight Dr. Schwartz, we asked her to reply to some questions. We present her answers in an interview format below.
What drew you to the field of Mathematics Education and what areas are of particular interest?
When I started teaching elementary school, I realized that while I was always successful in mathematics courses, I didn’t truly understand even simple mathematics conceptually. For example, why does long division work? I wondered as a first year teacher how I got so far without knowing mathematics in a deeper way and how I could help my students know it. So I started looking for professional development opportunities to learn more and ended up in the state-wide project I talked about above a couple of years later.
I am particularly interested now in how preservice and beginning teachers make sense of and develop their mathematics teaching over time as they move through multiple contexts during their preparation and early experiences as teachers.
What universities have you attended and what degrees did you earn?
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Curriculum and Instruction, Ph.D., 2008
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Curriculum and Instruction, M.Ed., 2005
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Elementary Education, B.A., 1997 – Elementary Education
What would you like to accomplish through your teaching?
I hope to provide opportunities for my students to engage in mathematics in new ways to deepen their understanding and to use these experiences and current research to enhance their mathematics teaching practices.
What do you hope to achieve through your research?
I hope to better understand the contexts and experiences that help beginning teachers develop competence, confidence, and agency in their mathematics teaching.
What would you like to accomplish with your service work?
I would like develop a strong network of elementary mathematics educators across Eastern North Carolina so that all our elementary students have opportunities to engage in rich mathematics problem-solving.
Dr. Catherine Schwartz
