More Than Math An Online Community of Practice to Address the Social and Emotional Aspect of Middle School Mathematics

The pandemic has not only increased economic inequities within variouscommunities, but it has also exacerbated the social, emotional, and math achievement inequities of middle school students, creating an environment that increases the potential for heightened anxiety and peer conflict. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that educators not only understand the existence and impact of these social and emotional inequities but have the knowledge and skills to effectively address them. Within this study, I facilitated a 10-week online community of practice with three middle school math teachers, entitled The More than Math Collective (MTMC), with the purpose of improving participant self-efficacy with SEL, developing their professional capital, discussing various strategies to address the social and emotional skill needs of students in their classrooms, and providing time for implementation of the discussed strategies. At the conclusion of the study, most participants reported an increase in self-efficacy, human capital, and decisional capital while only one out of three participants reported an increase in social capital. All participants described a positive impact on their students and their professional growth due to their participation in the MTMC and the various strategies that were learned and implemented in their classrooms. Given the small sample size, more research can be done to determine if the results of this study may be transferable to other educational settings.