Pre-service mathematics teachers’ perceptions of equity and interactive digital tasks: implications for initial teacher education

Abstract Interactive digital tasks have the potential to aid mathematics educators in providing equitable mathematics learning experiences. However, research indicates that mathematics educators may not be aware of how interactive digital tasks can promote equitable teaching practices. This study reports on a design-based research project exploring pre-service teachers’ perceptions of equity and interactive digital tasks. Over three cycles of design, implementation, evaluation, and revision, 57 pre-service teachers participated; this article focuses on data from the third cycle, involving 25 pre-service teachers. Using lesson analyses grounded in the Equity-centered Transformative Technology Lesson Analysis Tool (EqT-tech LAT; Suh et al., 2022), we explored their perceptions of how interactive digital tasks can promote equitable teaching. Findings suggest that while the structured framework supported pre-service teachers in identifying some equity-related features of interactive digital tasks, many struggled to articulate connections between task features and deeper equity goals. These results indicate that pre-service teachers benefit from explicit frameworks for discerning how interactive digital tasks can promote equitable teaching practices but require additional supports to develop productive perceptions of the equity constructs embedded in such tools. We discuss implications for mathematics teacher education.