Dr. Lawrence Clark: Professor and Math Education Researcher
Posted on 31. Mar, 2010 by Leshell Hatley in Mathematics, Scholarly Celebrations
Dr. Clark is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is interested in articulating the ways in which American educational researchers of African descent engaged in collecting data on the African continent is a rich space to interrogate issues of personal, national, and cross-cultural identity. His research interests include influences on secondary mathematics teachers’ instructional decisions, equitable mathematics learning environments; and professional development of secondary mathematics teachers.
Education
Ph.D., Educational Studies
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Division of Educational Studies, December 2004
M.Ed., Educational Studies
Emory University, Atlanta, GA, May 1998
B.A., Mathematics
Hampton University, Hampton, VA, May 1989
PostDoc Training
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, September 2005 – August 2007
Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics
In the past decade, there has been a considerable amount of attention focused on international comparisons of student achievement in mathematics (Third International Mathematics and Science Study, Programme for International Study), and, indirectly, mathematics instructional quality within these environments. The majority of African countries, however, are conspicuously absent from these comparative comparisons. Dr. Clark contends that attempts to incorporate these underreported and underrepresented stories could provide prospective teachers insights into the art of mathematics teaching that might serve them well in their practice. Despite the common perceptions that mathematics is a transcendent, universal language, many mathematics education researchers have concluded that mathematics teaching and learning are far from ‘culture-free’ experiences. It is critical therefore to examine the cultural underpinnings of the mathematics teaching and learning dynamic in diverse social and cultural environments.
Dr. Clark served on a team of U.S. teacher educators in 2002 and 2003 charged with assisting faculty at a teacher training college in northern Ethiopia in their efforts to rethink and revise mathematics teacher preparation courses (and the pedagogical practices of instructors of those courses) to better reflect national teacher education reform efforts. Reflections on this experience, as well as analysis of data collected during this project, have illuminated opportunities and tensions related to influencing curricular and pedagogical shifts in mathematics teacher preparation in Ethiopia.
2009 GATE Fellows
As a 2009 Global Awareness of Teacher Education (GATE) Fellow, Dr. Clark will continue the work he started in Ethiopia and hopes this year’s activities will lay the groundwork for a future exchange program between prospective teachers and faculty at Ethiopian teacher training colleges and the University of Maryland. In the coming year he plans to hold a local forum of Ethiopian immigrants to discuss and document their experiences as mathematics learners within the Ethiopian educational system; research and identify African mathematicians and African mathematics education researchers in the local DC, VA, MD area; and create a contact list of Ethiopian mathematics and science teacher educators currently working in U.S. higher education institutions.
Honors
More career highlights can be found at http://www.education.umd.edu/EDCI/MathEd/info/lclark.htm and http://web.mac.com/lclark66/Site/a_bit_about_me_and_my_work.html
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