Didactics In Mathematics (Statement of Purpose and Analysis of Research)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Statement of Purpose - Camille Jones

Dear Berlin Mathematical School (BMS) Admissions Committee:

Please consider me a candidate for admission to Phase I of doctoral study at the Berlin Mathematical School for Fall 2009. I apply as a certified mathematics teacher, former mathematics specialist and as a Harvard GSAS and FAS alumnae, comfortable with the cultures, people and ambiance associated with BMS and FU, and particularly appreciative of its programs, resources, faculty and staff.

I. How Harvard, Paris, and Houston Helped Prepare Me for BMS Doctoral Study

A. Foundations

Raised overseas as a DOD dependent, and formally schooled in French, Spanish and Japanese, I lived alongside both English-speaking and non-English-speaking persons of varied cultures. My parents speak and read other languages.I grew up believing that becoming a global citizen meant becoming a good citizen where you are. The life philosophy I know best is to think globally yet add value locally. I grew up as a third culture kid, who became a third culture adult.Harvard undergraduate and graduate training strengthened my cross-cultural interests and continually validated these foundations. Harvard’s support was instrumental in my decision to return to Paris. Harvard GSAS encouraged me as I met all French entrance exam requirements for overseas graduate studies. I completed doctoral training through the larger University of Paris: I.N.A.L.C.O.: Langues Orientales, l’École Pratique des Hautes Études (IVème Section--Sorbonne), and Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris I).I completed literary studies in France, with the equivalent of the DEUG/and French baccalaureat. Functioning initially as an emissary of Harvard’s goodwill, I worked with a range of French specialists, professors and teams within the French university system, and succeeded by doing things on their cultural terms. My BAC studies required me to absorb and evaluate ideas from centuries of French letters: journals, epistolary, essay, debate, philosophy, theatre, Enlightenment-era science and mathematics, apologetic, etc. If these works are heralded as classics, it is because they continue to speak to us—severally and individually. At times, the voices encountered in these writings took on special meaning for me—and guided my thinking as to my own trajectory.

One summer day, a Paris III professor saw me on the streets near Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève questioning why I should continue my studies. Mindful of my research at “Langues O”, he suggested over a cup of coffee that I read Jean Lacouture’s most recent work, Champollion. His suggestion turned into inspiration: want, impatience and hunger ate at Champollion the student, yet ultimately could not eclipse his focus on decoding the Rosetta Stone.Reading biography became my bibliotherapy: Lacouture offered a problem-solving voice alongside my own, helping me to transcend the mundane limitations that, in part, I myself had built. “Je tiens l’affaire!” became watchwords for renewing my focus, completing the D.E.A. at Langues Orientales with highest honors, and gaining admission to Doctorat at l’École Pratique des Hautes Études.Likewise, at-risk newcomers in French public schools need applied models from life and letters of socially acceptable ways to problem solve. Exemplary mathematics solves problems through varied technique: graphically, pictorially, verbally, analytically and numerically. Mastery of brevet and BAC technical processes alone cannot educate us emotionally and socially. Scaffolded, early exposure to works that systematically model ways to solve life problems—whether by Montesquieu, Molière, Memmi or Mahfouz—might help newcomers customize their ownership of certain ideas informing French notions of civilization. Math teaching scaffolded by multimodal instructional strategies might empower FSL students to customize their math learning in ways that amplify rather than mute their potential.

In France, I met many highly capable third-culture students completing post-baccalaureate studies. Some held foreign passports, most grew up in France, and all spoke two or more languages: Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, as well as French.Many perceived themselves as having special challenges to make it through the French university system; these challenges arose long before testing for BAC S, L, or ES. In 8th grade, the French process of orientation effectively can reroute students that otherwise saw themselves as college-bound towards terminal, vocational studies.

B. Texas: Professional Experiences and Identities

Like an unexpected change in plot, Texas was unplanned.

In 1998, while chaperoning local children through an unknown, open-air market outside Neuilly, my French and American "identities" were stolen. Once interviewed by American and French officials to prove American citizenship, I boarded a plane to Houston, Texas—a venue unseen in 17 years. My doctoral dream abruptly got left behind. I live and teach here in Texas as an “immigrant” at the crossroads of three cultures, and continue to think globally while trying to add value locally.

C. Current Educator Identities

In Texas, my identities are different. I am a bilingual, certified Math Specialist who works with at-risk kids. I individualize instruction, hold high expectations for all students, and act as a liaison between English and Spanish language parents, schools and communities.In Houston ISD, I integrate thematic math curricula for secondary students, and vertically align them to meet our TEKS. I use cooperative learning, multiple intelligences and "real-world" examples to stimulate learning and mastery.I use technology and digital games to innovate math curriculum. I advocate math mastery amongst parents, student-to-student math mentoring, hands-on, minds-on materials, math paper folding for Algebra II and Geometry and Math, Singapore math and other approaches that build capabilities for non-routine problem solving. I present professionally. Now, I am a candidate for a High School Master Mathematics Teaching Credential from the Texas Education Agency.Texas “at-risk” youth are central to my development as a K-12 math educator.

D. MAT Research That Prepared Me for BMS Doctoral Studies:

Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) studies here sparked my professional interest in validating newcomer math teaching strategies more fully. My Bilingual Education MAT cohort, with its 4 teachers with multiple cultures and/or linguistic identities, felt familiar and safe. In our second year, however, everyone else withdrew from the MAT program. Left alone, I was mainstreamed into a Curriculum and Instruction cohort—where identities were more homogenous. Much of my new cohort viewed bilingual education, student-centered, ESL-aligned reforms, and contemporary pedagogies critically. Their skepticism motivated me to draw on successful newcomer programs like that of CASNAV from the Paris Region to model what math for multilingual newcomers in secondary programs might be, and to indirectly address ways to bridge our ongoing math achievement gap. Again, my approach was to think globally, yet add value locally. My research on French priority education zones (ZEPs) began.

E. MAT Research on Mathematics Instructional Practices and Strategies Within ZEPs

Various studies on French public schools located in ZEPs detail their socio-educational challenges.

However, prior studies have not examined how neo-Francophones with symbol-based heritage languages (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi and Pakistani) succeed in ZEP-based secondary math classrooms, where math discussions increasingly are proof-driven and linguistically dependent on French academic language proficiency. Given increasing European and French immigration, further research is needed in this area of math education. For the MAT, I reviewed relevant literature and ZEP data, drawing largely on case studies of CASNAV Paris newcomers. I analyzed how certain math instructional modifications might help these special newcomers make meta-cognitive links to the math reasoning “culture” prevalent in French math classrooms.

I concluded as well that math-related instructional scaffolding can benefit both French newcomer and mainstream students. My study proposed a range of math instructional strategies as interventions. Both questions and findings were shared with Paris-based government agencies in Fall 2003.

In Spring 2004, several French agencies responded favorably to these recommendations. They e-mailed to inform me that a study group within the Académie of Paris would examine their possible implementation. Positive response from France further motivated my effort to continue this research.Immigration patterns in the Paris region have changed since 2004, as Chinese-language newcomers now outnumber those speaking Arabic.

Cases amongst CASNAV Paris newcomers with Arabic, Chinese, and other symbolic home languages reveal that many newcomers are drawn to math-related careers, yet need additional “sociolinguistic capital” to complete BAC studies and gain university access.

My doctoral research would continue to focus on ZEP-based math instruction within Paris, yet now also study cases from suburban ZEPs in Seine-Saint-Denis (i.e. Académie de Créteil areas affected by the 2005 riots). These earlier conclusions inform core aspects of my doctoral research.

F. French ZEP-Based Research Aims By Analogy to Analyze the Texas Math Achievement Gap

Challenges faced by newcomers to French public schools can parallel those faced by low-SES Latino and (post-Hurricane Katrina and post-Hurricane Ike) learners in Texas, 2008. Amongst the secondary clients with whom I work, many lack access to formal study of their home language or lack mentors to teach them about hidden rules and school cultures. In both Houston and Paris, many attend a series of under-resourced schools in urban areas--with the unintended effect of placing them further behind. For nearly 10 years here, I have focused on exposing our youth to the best possible learning experiences. Many of my students—in their resilience, in their willingness to believe, and in their honesty--are for me both heroes and teachers.

II. Graduate Study Objectives: career goals, possible faculty mentors, and Initial Research Interests

A. Why BMS Now and Research Goals

However, after nearly 10 consecutive years here in Texas, my earlier “identities” can barely whisper, and hear little echo when they do. I apply now for admission to BMS because I would like to begin reintegrating critical ways of knowing from my earlier life with my current educator identities. One overarching research goal is to apply my findings where appropriate to furthering educational outcomes for newcomers and underserved minorities in Texas’K-12 public education. My doctoral research would draw on overseas experience, yet aim to support their long-term success.

B. Possible Faculty Mentors: Professors Wurl, Landenthin and Eberhard

I am drawn to scholars having trained directly within mathematics pedagogical systems that also incorporate didactics, and who understand its distinctive epistemologies.

My EPHE advisor (supporting me unconditionally until her departure) was French Swiss and trained in France. These earlier academic influences explain in large part my interest in working with Dr. Eleanor Duckworth, given her graduate studies in Geneva, and her life work with Piaget. I am further motivated by her student-centered scholarship that draws on the influential ideas of P. Freire.

Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot would be an ideal co-advisor, given her work on teacher-parent conversations, the culture of schools, and related socio-educational issues that significantly affect newcomers in both French and Texas public schools. Her glowing presence and her wisdom affected me even during my years as a Harvard undergrad.

Dr. Ronald Ferguson would also be a welcomed advisor--helping me to analyze cross-cultural implications within ZEP data and trends for examining Texas weak promoting high schools, dropout rates amongst Latinos, and ongoing achievement gap issues in Texas. I worked for Dr. Ferguson nearly 20 years ago as an administrator for the Sloan Foundation APPAM Program at KSG, and have remained in touch both with him and his current research.

III. How ZEP Research Objectives Mesh With the Culture, Communities and Education Doctoral Program at HGSE

A. Five Types of Harvard Courses and Resources Would Further Support Quantitative and Qualitative ZEP Research

First: BMS offers a formal doctoral program that would encourage me to analyze 1) how traditional French instructional strategies affect math access amongst newcomers at ZEP-based campuses, and 2) how first, second and/or third languages and cultures might positively affect how these students succeed. I would welcome the chance to apply these larger concepts to field placements within a real-world context.

Second: BMS stays abreast of updates in mathematics and its didactics--through FU research institutes and projects—in ways inaccessible here.

Third: Courses like Modern Arabic and Modern Chinese would strengthen the quality of my participant interviews and my analyses of how newcomers bridge math meanings between their first language and French.

Fourth: BMS Math courses would both build and maintain my math content expertise. I would welcome support from all three BMS affiliate schools and courses in this area.

Fifth: Seminar work with experts like Dr. Ronald Ferguson would enhance my understanding of larger patterns and trends in related areas of mathematics educational policy.

B. BMS Core Courses Would Further Enhance ZEP Research Methodology and Math Modelling Curricula:

Integrating Perspectives on Education will expose me to research methods across concentrations. Answering Questions with Quantitative Data would help me make more precise meaning of “3D” case study data gathered from campuses across the Paris Region.

Participation Observation in Context will enrich my efforts to work with students onsite. Psychological Anthropology: Methods and Approaches will help me understand how culture and economy interactively affect newcomer experiences in French schools. Qualitative Interviewing will build my skill at interpreting and coding narrative interview data. Finally, Applied Regression and Data Analysis will help me to correlate end-of-course Brevet and BAC data, and compare and contrast high-stakes testing trends in Paris and Houston and their consequences for achievement gaps.

* *My request to begin Phase I studies in the Ph.D. program at BMS represents a request to return to the roots of my undergraduate and graduate training, and to once again fuse my foundational, educational and professional identities as only Harvard—my home campus—could do.

I thank the BMS Admissions Committee sincerely for its consideration of my candidacy.

With best regards,

Camille

Camille Jones

Doctoral Research