Zandra de Araujo is a teacher, researcher, and life-long learner. Her experiences as a high school mathematics teacher and a community college instructor along with her background as a first-generation college student and the daughter of immigrants have shaped her interests in better understanding how to help people learn and enjoy mathematics. As an associate professor in mathematics education at the University of Missouri, Zandra's work focuses on how prospective and practicing teachers use mathematics curriculum, particularly with emergent bilingual students. She also seeks to understand how technology can support teachers’ enactment of high-quality mathematics instruction. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, among other agencies. Based on her findings, de Araujo has written numerous scholarly articles in a number of journals such as the Review of Educational Research, the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Teaching Children Mathematics, and other leading publications. She is also the lead author of the book Putting Essential Understandings of Expressions and Equations into Practice in Grades 6-8 for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Zandra is the creator of Mathematically Educated (www.mathematicallyeducated.com), a blog in which she writes about teaching and learning mathematics, and the co-creator of a free series of videos for teachers, twominuteteachersguide.com. At the University of Missouri, Zandra teaches courses for future and current teachers. She also leads graduate courses related to issues of equity and diversity in mathematics education. In addition, she serves as a faculty mentor for MU’s Dorsey Scholars, a program that supports students from underrepresented backgrounds, and is the co-director of the MU Partnership for Educational Renewal, a partnership among Mizzou and 24 Missouri school districts.

Dr. de Araujo has been in mathematics education at the University of Missouri since 2012. This position has afforded her a number of opportunities to improve access and equity for learners of mathematics. In terms of research, her work focuses on teachers’ use of curriculum, particularly with English learners. Dr. de Araujo’s scholarship is helping to advance knowledge and practice in the field of mathematics education by highlighting critical issues related to teachers’ understanding and enactment of curricula, examining innovative approaches that emerge among K-12 practitioners (i.e., flipped classrooms), and contributing innovative approaches in preparing teachers to enact curricula. Resources available to teachers and students will continue to evolve at incredible rates. The field needs frameworks and tools that support teachers as they learn to enact mathematics curricula in different formats (e.g., digital curricula) with different tools (e.g., tablets, videos, animations). We need to ensure teachers learn to use evidence-based approaches. Dr. de Araujo’s work will continue to examine teachers’ curriculum enactment in the ever-changing context of U.S. classrooms in order to provide an evidence base for how teachers enact curricula and how technology can support teachers’ learning so that they can effectively use mathematics curricula. Currently, Dr. de Araujo is the principal investigator of a National Science Foundation grant to examine flipped mathematics instruction (flippedmathstudy.net). She is also continuing to examine the ways in which mathematics tasks can be effectively adapted for English learners and has co-developed a free series of videos for teachers (twominuteteachersguide.com). Teaching continues to be one of Dr. de Araujo’s favorite parts of her work. She teaches method courses for preservice elementary and secondary teachers, and graduate courses related to issues of equity and diversity in mathematics education. She also serves as a faculty mentor for the University of Missouri’s Dorsey Scholars, a program that supports students from underrepresented backgrounds, and facilitates professional development regularly on a variety of topics including the mathematics education of English learners. These experiences keep her connected with schools and students so that she can better understand how she can help support their efforts. In addition to teaching and research, Dr. de Araujo is the chair of the emerging issues committee for the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators; an active community member leading several local initiatives in Columbia, Missouri; a member of the local organizing committee for PME-NA 2019; a director of TODOS (an equity-oriented mathematics education organization); and a Faculty Fellow for the University of Missouri’s Cambio Center (a Center focused on research and outreach related to Latinos/as). Her goal across all of these positions is also to help foster greater collaboration with preservice teachers, teachers, and teacher educators.

“Hispanic (Latinx) Heritage Month means a time to recognize those who have contributed to culture, education, science, and other areas of society. This recognition is important as their contributions may have been otherwise hidden or relegated to the margins.”

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