Dan Battey

Dan Battey, Ph.D. spent time in urban schools and noticed racial inequities in instruction, especially for Black and Latinx students, when he was inspired to push for ways to better identify and address those inequities. Consequently, his research has come to serve as a catalyst to help teachers to be aware of these disparities and to initiate the conversation on how they can better supper historically marginalized students so they can realize their full potential. Challenging traditional thinking, his research examines issues of race and how patterns of reasoning can limit a student’s exposure to more detailed and complex mathematical concepts and instructional methods. Some of his most recent work looks specifically at the racial match between teachers and students, and the impact it has on student-teacher relationships and student achievement.

Battey first studied physics during his undergraduate career, before being inspired by a faculty-mentor studying elementary mathematics and deciding to go on to pursue his Ph.D. in education. As a doctoral candidate, he began to narrow his focus to examine quality of instruction, students’ thinking, and how it can be incorporated into professional development. In his early years in the field, he focused on professional development for teachers and wanted to shift teachers’ thinking from deficit-basedframings of historically marginalized students’ ability to asset-based framings.

Currently Battey serves as professor of elementary mathematical education at the GSE, teaching his students to develop equitable practices and culturally inclusive classrooms. He strives to support effective teaching methods for students of elementary mathematics and to open conversations with teachers on how to use culturally sustaining practices in math.

• Expertise & Research Interest

  Mathematics Education

  Race & Equity in Education

  Professional Development

  My research attempts to both look at the micro processes and the macro ideologies that contribute to racialized and gendered forms of mathematics education. Throughout this research, my work has centered on two major themes: understanding teacher and classroom change and explicating issues of race within mathematics education. In this sense, my work aims to understand both the individual and social constraints and affordances that shape what mathematics content and instruction makes its way into the urban elementary classroom.

• Recent & Selected Publications

  Gitomer, D., Martinez, J. F., & Battey, D. (in press). Who’s assessing the assessment? The cautionary tale of the edTPA. To be published in Phi Delta Kappan.

  Battey, D., Bartell, T. G., Webel, C., & Lowry, A. (2021). Understanding the impact of racial attitudes on pre-service teachers’ perceptions of children’s mathematical thinking. Journal of Research for Mathematics Education, 52(1), 62-93.

  Gitomer, D., Martínez, J. F., Battey, D., & Hyland, N. (2021). Assessing the Assessment: Evidence of Reliability and Validity in the edTPA. American Educational Research Journal, 58(1), 3-31.

  Leyva, L., Quea, R., Weber, K., Battey, D., & López, D. (2020). Detailing racialized and gendered mechanisms of pre-calculus and calculus classroom instruction. Cognition & Instruction.

  Burroughs, G., Lewis, A., Battey, D., Curran, M., Hyland, N. & Ryan, S. (2020). From mediated fieldwork to co-constructed partnerships: A framework for guiding and reflecting on P-12 school–university partnerships. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(1), 122-134.

  Battey, D., Leyva, L. A., Williams, I., Belizario, V., Greco, R., & Shah, R. (2018). Racial (mis)match: Relational interactions as a mechanism producing racialized achievement patterns. Harvard Educational Review, 88(4), 455-482.

• Honors & Awards

  Faculty Research Award, Rutgers

  Graduate School of Education

  Distinguished Faculty Lecture Award,

  Graduate School of Education Alumni Association

  Linking Research and Practice

  Outstanding Publication Award –

  Teaching Children Mathematics, National

  Council of Teachers of Mathematics Committee

  Chancellor’s Scholar Award, Rutgers University