Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 ZDM https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-020-01205-2 ORIGINAL PAPER Supporting prospective teachers to notice and name student language resources as mathematical strengths Sandra Crespo 1  · Diana Bowen 2  · Tarik Buli 3  · Nicole Bannister 4  · Crystal Kalinec‑Craig 5 Accepted: 12 November 2020 © FIZ Karlsruhe 2021 Abstract Defcit discourse and framing of multilingual students and their academic potential is a persistent challenge in mathemat- ics education research and practice. It is a challenge for teachers of all experience levels to learn how to use asset-based language when working with students who are learning mathematics in a non-dominant language. This article reports on a study that explored how prospective teachers (PTs) position multilingual students and their primary language when learning mathematics. The participants are elementary and secondary PTs who were introduced to and had the opportunity to practice asset-based discourse to describe students’ mathematical strengths. Findings illustrate that after these learning opportuni- ties PTs’ positioning of multilingual students shifted from using defcit and uncommitted discourse to asset-based. A closer look, however, showed no explicit mention of the value of the student’s primary language for learning mathematics. Only a few PTs did so implicitly. This study shows it is possible for PTs to shift defcit language, but that more explicit support is needed to help them communicate the value of language/linguistic diversity in the learning of mathematics. Keywords Language resources · Mathematical strengths · Multilingual students · Teacher noticing 1 Introduction Preparing prospective teachers of mathematics (PTs) com- mitted to equity and inclusion is complex work. It requires unsettling normative perspectives about what and who counts as capable and smart in mathematics (Crespo and Featherstone, 2012). It requires that mathematics teacher educators draw attention to and problematize the invisibil- ity of particular groups of students in mathematics class- rooms (Chval, Pinnow, and Thomas, 2015). It also entails challenging defcit perspectives about these students, espe- cially recent immigrants and emerging multilingual students (Moschkovich, 2007) learning mathematics in a non-dom- inant language. The pervasiveness of defcit perspectives and position- ing of emerging multilingual students learning mathemat- ics in a non-dominant language are widely documented in the research literature (e.g., Celedón Pattichis and Ramirez, 2012; Zavala, 2016). Defcit comments such as “the only ELL student […] does not speak at all, keeps to himself and copies his neighbors’ notes because he cannot keep up” are readily made by teachers and teacher candidates when describing what they notice emerging multilingual students doing in mathematics classrooms (Kennedy and Crespo, 2020, p. 22). These kinds of statements ignore the linguistic wealth and funds of knowledge of emerging multilingual students and perpetuate cultural stereotypes and implicit bias about multilingual students and their ability to learn math- ematics in multiple languages. The research literature suggests that studying ambi- tious student-centered mathematics teaching practices is not enough to support PTs to create opportunities for his- torically marginalized students, including emerging mul- tilingual students, to learn high quality mathematics and to develop a positive mathematical identity (e.g., Aguirre, Mayfeld-Ingram, and Martin, 2013). There is however, little empirical research on how to support teachers and PTs to adopt and use strength-based pedagogy when working with * Sandra Crespo crespo@msu.edu 1 Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA 2 University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, USA 3 University of Maryland, College Park, USA 4 Clemson University, Clemson, USA 5 University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA