Educate Magazine Spring 2019

Spring 2019 Volume Nine Number One

Inside: A New Way of Teaching Math Page 14 +

Edina: Meeting Students Where They’re At

+ Happenings in the College of Education

College of Education Dr. Jean Haar, Dean Departments Aviation Counseling & Student Personnel Educational Leadership Elementary and Literacy Education K - 12 and Secondary Programs Military Science and Leadership Special Education The Children’s House

DEAN’S MESSAGE

Centers Center for Engaged Leadership Center for Educator Support Center for Educator Partnerships and Student Support The vision of Minnesota State University, Mankato’s College of Education is to inspire lifelong learning and professional engagement through racial consciousness, social justice, and inclusion within a global context.

The mission of the College of Education is to prepare professionals through research and evidence-based practices who demonstrate excellence in their profession.

The purpose of Educate is to inform education stakeholders of the ongoing work of the College of Education and its impact on the education profession. Educate is published by the College of Education and distributed to faculty, staff, students, alumni, and education supporters. The College of Education welcomes ideas for feature stories and other content consistent with the mission of the magazine.

Please email story ideas to christina.hinz@mnsu.edu

Spring 2019 Volume Nine Number One College of Education Minnesota State University, Mankato 118 Armstrong Hall Mankato, MN 56001 Phone: 507-389-5445 Fax: 507-389-2566 Managing Editor - Christina Hinz Writer - Sarah Asp Olson Designer - Ian Deloney

Greetings, “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” Carl Jung The College of Education’s vision is to inspire lifelong learning and professional engagement through racial consciousness, social justice and inclusion within a global context. Led by these principles—and backed by commitment from faculty, staff and students—the College of Education has committed to fully engaging in issues of equity and accessibility on our campus, community and within the entire educational system.

This issue of Educate highlights stories of our vision in action. Start by taking a look at the ways in which our doctoral programs are moving critical race theory front and center, allowing students in Mankato and in our Edina facility to explore creative solutions to inequities in education. Our cover story, featuring Dr. Karen Colum, explores how a new way of looking at an old subject can shake up the classroom. Featured student, Monte Brown, gives us a glimpse into the power of engagement, persistence and resiliency. And Collaborative Urban and Greater Minnesota Educators of Color (CUE) grant recipients highlight the benefits of representation and mentorship within the College of Education. The issue concludes with a snapshot of donor Judy Dellinger, whose generous donations have helped students’ educational dreams become reality.

Photographer - Brandon Poliszuk Print Coordinator - Doug Fenske

Jean Haar

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4.

6.

8.

10.

12.

14.

LEADING FORWARD

A TEACHER IN THE MAKING

BY THE NUMBERS

A PATHWAY TO REPRESENTATION

THE HEART OF MANKATO IN THE TWIN CITIES

WHEN MATH ISN’T MATH

LEADING FORWARD

The College of Education’s two doctoral programs put equity and accessibility front and center.

Candace Raskin feels a sense of urgency when it comes to preparing leaders for the educational landscape of the future.

“If you look historically at schools, let’s talk about K-12,” she says.

“There’s a 47-year trend—a gap between how our white students perform and how our brown and black students perform. We have to do something different.”

It’s precisely why the College of Education has made equity a central focus of Minnesota State Mankato’s two Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) programs: Educational Leadership and Counselor Education and Supervision. Both are intentionally designed to meet the needs of educational communities in Mankato and beyond—specifically when it comes to issues of accessibility and equality.

“We are looking at how we lead differently in this current time

to ensure we disrupt structures, policies and practices that continue to marginalize our most marginalized students,” says Raskin. “If you want to change the trajectory of what’s happening in our educational landscape, we are the program.”

A Practitioner’s Doctorate

In April 2016, the department of Educational Leadership adopted a new mission statement. It reads, in part: “The Department of Educational Leadership is dedicated to the study of the intersectionality between race, cultural responsiveness and social justice. We prepare racially/ ethically conscious leaders who are resolute in serving ALL learners in a broad spectrum of educational settings.”

The commitment to meeting the needs of marginalized students was intentional, and it isn’t just lip service. The department is laserfocused on ensuring graduates understand how systems and organizations work and how to create policies and practices that work for all learners.

“Our program addresses how we look at leading differently so that we change that predictable trajectory for children. That starts with developing leaders who look at systems and policies and processes differently,” says Raskin. “We’re really looking to create leaders in the field. That’s our mission.”

The next Educational Leadership Ed.D. cohort begins in Mankato and Edina in Fall 2019.

Applications will be accepted through April 1.

Shaping Tomorrow’s Leaders

For Jacqueline Lewis, doctoral program coordinator in the Department of Counseling and Student Personnel, issues of equity aren’t just embedded into the program’s curriculum, equity and accessibility are foundations that extend to who is able to get in the door.

“People who have in the past been able to do doctoral programs are people who not only have the ability, but also the resources and support,” she says.

“As a result, you get a narrow sliver of people who are able to access doctoral programs.”

It’s a conundrum, she notes, because those with the degree in turn become leaders in the field, perpetuating a homogenous cycle.

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In Her Words: Antonia Felix Educational Leadership, Ed.D., 2018

“There has got to be diversity among future leaders as well,” she says. “The department makes an intentional effort to support students through graduate assistantships so that the program is accessible, and no one is unable to attend because they cannot afford it.”

The program currently has 25 candidates. Lewis says it is a perfect fit for professionals interested in becoming leaders in counseling education and student affairs, including those interested in mental health and school counseling.

And the field, she notes, is in desperate need of leaders.

According to a survey by Minnesota 2020 and the Minnesota School Counselor’s Association, despite a reported increase in mental health needs in schools, since the 20002001 school year, Minnesota’s student-to-counselor ratio has been second to last among all states.

“There is a strong need for people in the mental health field, in order for us to have mental health counselors you’re going to have to have people who can train those counselors and that’s where we fill a big very important role,” she says.

Applications for the Ed.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision are open. Find application information at mnsu.edu/csp/doctoral/.

knowing that Minnesota has the widest teaching gap in the country—I realized that focusing on racial equity in education could be a meaningful and challenging new trajectory for me. I had done quite a bit of research and writing in human rights, particularly women’s rights around the world, so I was primed to bring those skills to this area.

Author and educator Antonia Felix had already done quite a bit of work around issues of women’s rights when she entered the Educational Leadership program in July 2014. But it was the program’s focus on race issues in education, as well as members of her Edina cohort, that opened her eyes even more to the inherent biases in the educational system. Here, Felix reflects on her experience and the effect it’s had on her work.

“I was the typical white person who came into the program with little knowledge of how systemic racism impacts education, in spite of my former graduate training and higher ed teaching experience. I did a lot of personal processing to realize my lack of awareness. The program curriculum, expertise of the faculty, and insights of my black cohort members challenged a worldview that I was not even aware I possessed. As an educator and a scholar—and

My Ed.D. work informed my nonfiction writing career in a big way. During my final semesters in the program I was writing the biography of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

With my new lens on race, I was able to highlight the work she has done on racial inequity throughout her career as a law professor specializing in bankruptcy and commercial law. No one had been writing about that area of her expertise, and I was also able to bring in an analysis of her controversial claims to Native American family heritage.

Without studying critical race theory and exploring racism (and sexism) in education, I believe that those aspects of Warren’s life and work would not have been on my radar.

My courses and research had a direct impact on my professional work as a writer, and I’m excited about moving ahead in the field of racial equity in education.”

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A TEACHER IN THE MAKING

Monte Brown strives to look beyond students’ behavior and get to the heart of who they are.

Marlene Tappe, professor and chair of the Department of Health Sciences, first met transfer student Richard “Monte” Brown at student orientation in the fall of 2015. When she talks about that first encounter, she can’t keep the smile out of her voice.

in hand, Brown transferred to Minnesota State University, Mankato, “because I heard this is such a prestigious school in regards to teaching,” he says.

“So I was like, ‘man, if I want to be a teacher, I might as well go to [Minnesota State Mankato].’”

“He immediately stood out,” she says. “He’s got a smile the size of—I mean it overtakes his face. He’s got a smile that’s just engaging.”

Teaching drew Brown to Mankato, but what drew him to teaching—and specifically health and physical education—goes much deeper.

Brown, 26, came to Minnesota State Mankato to pursue a physical education and health degree after completing an associates degree at Century College in St. Paul—but he almost missed out on college altogether.

Nearing the end of his senior year at North St. Paul high school, Brown still wasn’t sure if he would pursue higher education.

“I didn’t want to go to college because I thought I was dumb, but that wasn’t the real reason,” he says. “I was too scared I might fail and that’s gonna make me feel even more dumb.”

It wasn’t until his mom and his high school case manager pushed him to enroll at Century that he even considered higher education. Associates degree

“My network of people is what kept me together and pushed me to get here.”

“For me, I believe health is very important. When I say health, I’m talking about more so the mental aspect of health. I don’t think we all acknowledge it enough,” he says.

Brown had a difficult childhood. After moving to St. Paul from Chicago at the age of seven, he recalls moving around quite a bit, sometimes staying in shelters with his mom and siblings. Being the oldest of four, and with his dad largely out of the picture, he often shouldered outsized responsibilities for his age. Brown was also witness to traumatizing experiences, including physical and gun violence.

Those experiences as a child led to outbursts in the classroom, hospitalizations and even suicide attempts in his younger years.

“My network of people is what kept me together and pushed me to get here,” he says. “I think that’s why I’m so passionate about kids, because I feel like some people just don’t care. There were days where I was in class, visually frustrated, visually wrong. I’m banging my head on the desk and all my teacher could say was, ‘Hey, stop that.’ How about you ask me, ‘What’s up? Are you off today? What’s wrong?

You seem off today. Talk to me. What’s going on in your life?’ I feel like that would have helped tremendously because I was calling out for help.”

Brown believes that if he’d had a teacher who took notice and looked beyond his behavior, or if he’d

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TEACHERS OF TOMORROW

Marlene Tappe is proud to see Monte Brown thrive as a future teacher.

had lessons in middle school around mental health and trauma, he may have had an easier go of it.

“I think that would have benefited me a great deal,” he says. “Plus, just telling us about resources because like sixth graders, 11 year olds, 13 year olds, they still go through stuff. They’re still emotionally maturing and developing, so I think as teachers we’ve got to hone that and understand that and nurture that.”

Brown is on track to graduate this spring. Currently he’s student teaching at Prairie Winds Middle School. He’s already finding joy in being that teacher for his kids, and getting to the heart of who they are.

“I didn’t understand why sometimes I had the impulse just to flip out, to get really mad. But now when you understand that stuff, you can ingest it mentally, and

look where I am now,” he says. “That’s another reason I want to teach because I really understand that. I think that’s why the kids love me so much, because they’re all individuals to me. They’re not like, an eighth grader. You’re the person first, then you’re the eighth grader to me.”

Tappe, who has had a front row seat to Brown’s drive, empathy, kindness and natural leadership abilities, also has high hopes for his future in the classroom and beyond.

“I see Monte being, not only a leader for his students, but within his school system,” she says. “Hopefully he’ll look at himself as potentially a candidate for say being a principal or a leader within the school. … He has a lot, a ton, to contribute. And maybe his contribution will be for students in schools. But I also see, we really need people with his enthusiasm and grit and empathy, working here in higher ed as well.”

Since arriving on campus in 2015, Monte Brown has been a member of the campus group, Teachers of Tomorrow. The organization’s mission is “to serve all students but specifically students of color aspiring to become educators, as they navigate academic, licensure and graduation requirements.”

But, for Brown and other students involved in the organization, it goes beyond that.

“Just seeing a bunch of teachers that look like me, I think that’s very motivating. I have realized, and studies show it, once you get out in the field, it is dominated by pretty much white women. I feel like seeing teachers that look like me motivates me to get in there because I feel like I’m not alone.”

Being able to talk openly about shared struggles with peers who understand gives teacher candidates a support system while working toward a teaching degree and a built in network once they enter the classroom.

“For me the number one thing is building that social capital. I think it’s very important because once we all leave, that doesn’t mean we’re gonna lose contact with each other,” he says. “[We’ve built] a network. I think that’s very important.”

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BY THE NUMBERS

The College of Education at Minnesota State Mankato boasts some impressive stats across departments. Here’s a look, by the numbers.

2019

2021

SUN COUNTRY DELTA

In the fall of 2018, the Office of Field & International Experience reported 705 field experience and student teaching placements, and nine global study experiences.

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To date, 16 students have gained early childhood special education (ECSE) licensure through the federally funded teacher preparation grant, Project PREP. The grant will cover expenses for an additional 34 students by 2021.

The Aviation department recently announced 2 new partnerships with Sun Country and Delta, giving students an accelerated career path into commercial piloting.

Among block field experiences, pre-student teaching and student teaching, education students gain more than 1,100 hours of hands-on experience prior to graduation.

The Children’s House, the only nationally accredited childcare center within a 40-mile radius, serves 73 children ranging from infants to preschoolers.

APPROXIMATELY

400 PRINCIPALS

HAVE COMPLETED

CUSTOMIZED

TRAINING THROUGH THE INSTITUTE OF The Center for Educator Partnerships supports 20 Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSAs) across 8 school districts in southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

COURAGEOUS

PRINCIPAL

LEADERSHIP

THE DEPARTMENT

OF K-12 & SECONDARY

PROGRAMS OFFER

PEDAGOGY

25 COURSES FOR

In 2018, the Maverick ROTC Battalion received a Douglas MacArthur Award, and was named among the nation’s top 8 ROTCs.

DIFFERENT CONTENT LICENSURE AREAS

S I N C E 2 017 THE OFFICE OF The College of Education awarded 158 scholarships totaling more than $293,000 during fiscal year 2018.

ASSESSMENT AND RESEARCH, IN COLLABORATION WITH FACULTY AND

S TAFF ACROSS

C AM P US, H AS SECURED AND ADMINISTERED

GRANTS FROM

THE MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF

EDUCATION TOTALING

$192,181 College of Education 9

CUE grant recipients participate in a Teachers of Tomorrow meeting.

A Pathway to Representation

Minnesota Department of Education grant aims to recruit and retain more teacher candidates of color.

In 2017, according to the Minnesota Department of Education, teachers of color made up just 4.23 percent of all teachers in the state. In a state where students of color make up about 31 percent of the classroom population, this imbalance results in a lack of representation at the head of the class.

It’s a problem that is not limited to Minnesota. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, while non-white students are now the majority in many classrooms, teachers of color comprise less than 20 percent of the teaching workforce. It’s a harmful disparity, says Timothy Berry, director of Educator 10

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Partnerships and Student Support at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and not only for students of color.

“The research shows that students of color generally do better even if they have one teacher along their journey that looks like them,” he says. “White K-12 students benefit as well by having teachers who don’t look like them to give them some counter stories or counter perspectives.”

A Pathway for Diversity

In December 2017, the College of Education was awarded a Collaborative Urban and Greater Minnesota Educators of Color (CUE) grant through the

Minnesota Department of Education that will bolster ongoing efforts to recruit, retain and support teachers of color at Minnesota State Mankato.

“It’s important for us to have a pathway for student teachers of color to get them into classrooms,” says Berry. “What led us to that particular resource was essentially looking at ways we could bolster or go deeper with some of our strategies to retaining the students we have and to recruiting more potential teachers of color.”

“

It’s important for us to have a pathway for student teachers of color to get them into classrooms. What led us to that particular resource was essentially looking at ways we could bolster or go deeper with some of our strategies to retaining the students we have and to recruiting more potential teachers of color.

Beyond funding, Minnesota State Mankato has expanded its CUE initiative to include a mentoring element for teacher candidates of color. This essential piece of the retention and recruitment puzzle came directly from interviews with students.

“When we first received the grant we actually invited students to come and tell us what would be helpful,” says Berry.

“

CUE enables the College of Education to award 16 $3,000 scholarships to students of color and American Indian students over the next two academic years. Dean Jean Haar also designated funding for an additional 16 scholarships to match those funded by the grant.

The first suggestion from students: have professional mentors working in the education community who look like them. The second was dedicated coaching time on how to navigate the steps to becoming a teacher.

“They need to and want to have conversations around being a teacher of color and what’s that like,” says Berry.

Berry hopes that programs like the ones the College of Education is implementing will ultimately have the most impact on the education community and kids in the K-12 system statewide.

“That’s the whole crux of why we want to prepare all educators well but particularly students of color is to have impact in their classrooms,” he says.

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THE HEART OF MANKATO IN THE TWIN CITIES Jinger Gustafson and Teresa Kruizenga share their experiences teaching and learning on Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Edina location.

In 2009, Minnesota State University, Mankato opened the doors to a new learning experience. The school held a grand opening to showcase its Edina location, situated in an office building near the intersection of Interstate 494 and France Avenue. Over the past eight years, the modern, efficient facility has offered students—from undergraduates to doctoral candidates—Minnesota State Mankato’s high value programming in the heart of the Twin Cities.

We asked two College of Education faculty members to give us the inside scoop on the COE in Edina.

Jinger Gustafson,

Department Chair Specialist Program/Administrative Licensing Coordinator Q: How is this satellite location expanding the reach of what the College of Education is able to do?

A: The primary reasons behind Minnesota State Mankato’s suburban push was simple: it is where the University sees both opportunity for growth and need. For students, the addition of the Minnesota State schools in the metro area provides more economical higher education 12

Educate Spring 2019

options and more choices for working adults and for traditional college students who want to live at home.

Q: How does Minnesota State Mankato’s Edina location serve students, including adult learners?

A: Minnesota State Mankato’s convenient Twin Cities metro space at 7700 France Avenue features a dozen classrooms, three computer labs, high-speed wireless internet, Telepresence interactive classrooms, quiet study spaces, printing and copying stations, offices, and free parking.

Q: What opportunities are available in Edina for Twin Citiesbased students?

A: The Department of Educational Leadership offers the following degree programs: Master of Science in Experiential Education, Master of Science in Educational Leadership, Specialist Degree with Administrative Licensure, Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership. The Department also offers training toward the following administrative licenses: K-12 Principal, Superintendent, Director of Special Education, and Director of Community Education.

Q: Beyond degree programs, what other opportunities exist for students in the Edina location?

Jinger Gustafson enjoys teaching at Minnesota State Mankato’s Edina location.

A: The Department of Educational Leadership also houses the Center for Engaged Leadership at the Edina campus. The Center for Engaged Leadership provides comprehensive noncredit continuing education credits surrounding professional development (customized training and continuing education) and programming for Minnesota P-12 principals that seamlessly bridges theory, research, and practice from pre-service to “in the field” professional engagement.

Teresa Kruizenga,

Associate Professor in Teaching and Learning, KSP Q: What is the Edina location like?

A: We are on the fifth floor, which is like the penthouse suite of the whole building. It’s designed beautifully with lots of natural

Edina students participating in class discussion.

light, lots of windows. The set up has nice areas that work well for adult learners. There are a lot of places to collaborate and several rooms that have telepresence so it’s easy to contact the Mankato campus. They have a really nice kitchenette area that’s free for the students to use and free copying [services] for students.

Q: Who is being served?

A: There’s quite a diverse group of students. Students range from people trying to earn their master’s degree or even their doctorate degree, but elementary education has a separate cohort up there. Some students do generals at the Mankato campus and [then] have to do internships and want to live at home, so they can move back home in the Twin Cities. We have people who have PhDs coming back to get a teaching degree. There’s a nursing program that shares space there. It’s very eclectic.

Q: What makes the Edina location an essential part of the COE’s offerings to students?

A: A lot of people are really attracted to Minnesota State Mankato’s reputation. We have a great reputation especially in the area of education. We have a stellar reputation with different schools and principals in all different areas, but they want to stay in the Twin Cities area.

It allows them to tap into the expertise that we have. The other thing we have going for us at Minnesota State Mankato is that we are a really hands-on campus.

I don’t think you’re going to find a group of professionals that care more about their students than you are at Minnesota State Mankato, so it allows them to tap into all of those strengths we have but to live within the Twin Cities area.

Q: What opportunities beyond degree programs does Edina offer?

A: There are trainings that we offer to our partnership schools, what we call our friendship schools. I’ve done AVID trainings there on a Saturday that are open to our students but also any principals or teachers within the schools we’re serving. The Educational Leadership does two amazing trainings every year in relation to social justice and racial equity that are open to the public. Because of the location we’re able to draw from a lot of expertise in that area as well.

Q: How have you seen students benefit from the services and offerings of the Edina location?

A: I don’t think we’d have those students if we didn’t have the Edina location. Because we offer a lot of alternative type programs, it allows the students to continue to work and maintain their lifestyle while continuing their education.

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When Math Isn’t Math Karen Colum is cutting through the notion that math is neutral and reframing the subject with an eye toward equity.

Back in 2002, when Karen Colum was in her second year of teaching fifth grade, she had an a-ha moment. She calls it a happening.

problems done, and he wouldn’t get it. Joshua, in turn, tried in vain to explain to his teacher how he was coming up with the right answers.

“There was a particular happening that set me on the path that I’m [on] today,” she says.

“And his name was Joshua.”

“We had this tension for a little while and it was really frustrating,” she says. “But I realized that he’s doing something that I don’t know mathematically and I am holding him back That’s when I realized I need help.”

As a second-year teacher, Colum was teaching long division the way she’d learned it. She explained the steps to students and helped them walk through the process. But, Joshua wasn’t catching on. No matter what Colum did, how she explained it, he just didn’t understand those basic steps. The real puzzler, though: “He could get the right answer every single time,” she says.

So, Colum would try to show Joshua the way she wanted the

Colum decided to dig deeper into math pedagogy so she enrolled in a professional development course that next summer. She eventually became a trainer for her district, and earned a master’s degree in Math Education from Minnesota State Mankato. Colum recently completed her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota while teaching full time in Mankato. She now serves as an associate professor and chair for the Department of Elementary and Literacy Education.

In her current role, Colum is committed to dispelling some of

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math’s most common myths for her pre-service teaching students.

Chief among them: that math is neutral.

“I hear that often, there’s right and wrong answers, right?” she says. “It’s culture free, it’s a universal language, those kinds of things. I do math autobiographies with the pre-service teachers here, and that often comes up in their autobiographies and their beliefs, what math is.”

Dissecting Math Education

In his 1984 work, “The Foucault Reader,” French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault notes: “knowledge is not for knowing, it is for cutting.”

It’s a precise analogy, and one Colum has adopted—and expanded upon—to inform her math pedagogy.

“I’m interested in the action of a knife and what a knife does and how it cuts,” she says. “I want to cut through singular truths of what math is. And when you cut through something you create multiple pieces.”

There isn’t one singular way to know or understand math, Colum says. Just like Joshua— who Colum later discovered had been reversing the equation and multiplying to get his correct answers on long division problems—there are also different ways to be mathematical. It’s her goal to help teacher candidates understand this and carry it into

the classroom. Often, though, it feels like an uphill battle.

“Without that understanding of what math is, teachers … reproduce ways that marginalize a lot of students,” she says. “[For example], if you are a good memorizer, you’re going to do well. If you’re not a good memorizer, you do get marginalized, you’re pushed off to the margins or the sides. You get lost.”

Traditional math instruction can go as far as depersonalizing and dehumanizing learners who don’t fit the traditional status quo for math instruction. Colum explains with an example from William Tate’s book “Race, the Retrenchment, and the Reform School of Mathematics:” Students participating in a study were given a story problem from a standardized math exam. The question was about a bus ticket.

Students were to calculate the best rate.

“[When] they gave it to a predominately black student population, it was really interesting, they chose the ‘wrong’ answer compared to their white counterparts,” she says. “Well the black students who answered that question had a totally different lived experience. They talked about how you’re going to use that bus ticket on the weekends where a white child just thought [it would be used] for work. What the black students answered was mathematically sound.”

Examples like these have led Colum to the big questions: Who is creating curriculum?

Who is setting the standards?

How is math marginalizing and dehumanizing learners who have vastly different lived experiences than the gatekeepers?

Creating Equity Mindedness

The big questions that began with a fifth grader who saw long division just a bit differently has led Colum to her life’s work. It’s her aim to arm teacher candidates with core knowledge and conceptual understandings about math in service of her ultimate mandate: “Every child deserves the right to understand math.”

“My goal is to develop equity mindedness,” she says. “And what I mean by that is just a mindset that becomes aware of how race impacts the teaching of math, the power dynamics at play, the systems and structures, and even gender.”

Colum hopes her students will carry equity mindedness into their classrooms through an awareness of who they’re allowing to speak (is it mostly white students? Is it more often boys than girls?); how they are framing problems (are they relying solely on the textbook or drawing from students’ lived experiences?); and even how they recognize a “wrong” answer. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that the answer is simply incorrect, she tells her teacher candidates to dig deeper, “unpack their thinking.”

Karen Colum (top) teaches math education using hands-on methods.

“They have to be armed with the math to be able to do that,” she notes. “I strongly feel that they have to know the content to be able to dismantle or disrupt.”

For Colum, math has become more than just a series of black and white answers. It’s a living, breathing discipline that can fling open doors for students, or slam them shut—and often it’s teachers who have the power to determine which it will be.

College of Education

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118 Armstrong Hall Mankato, MN 56001

Power of One After 40 years of teaching, Judith Dellinger (’65 Elementary Education) still has a desire to inspire students. Judith retired from teaching at Emerson Elementary in Burbank, California. She didn’t stop there, however. In combination with her spouse, Ernest, she created the Judith and Ernest Dellinger Elementary Education Endowment for students at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Thank you Judith and Ernest for your passion and support of our students! Donors like you play a critical role in supporting students, faculty and the University.

To make a gift to the College of Education, contact Kristen Dulas at kristen.dulas@mnsu.edu or 507-389-1381.