Racial Noticing in Mathematics Teacher Education: Unpacking Southern White Christian Teacher Candidates' Reflections on Data Investigations of Issues of Systemic Racism

In this article, we examine how southern white Christian secondary mathematics teacher candidates reflected on racial inequities in academic opportunities and school discipline after engaging with data sets highlighting such disparities. Using a lens of racial noticing, informed by Leonardo’s (2009) conceptualization of whiteness as a racial discourse that normalizes white dominance, we analyze candidates’ written reflections to identify how they interpreted and responded to issues of race in mathematics education. Two dominant themes emerged: the normalization of implicit biases and the tensions between aspiring to objectivity and acknowledging subjectivity in educational practices. Both patterns aligned with whiteness by obscuring systemic inequities. Notably, while many candidates avoided overt deficit views of students of color, their reflections often framed inequities as personal or inevitable rather than structural. We conjecture that their Christian commitments reinforced color-evasive framings while also discouraging overtly deficit interpretations. Statistical investigations, however, created openings for naming race and bias, suggesting both the potential and the limits of such approaches. Findings underscore the need for teacher education to explicitly confront whiteness, with data investigations that highlight racial disparities as being a promising avenue to develop racial literacy and promote systemic change.