Elham Kazemi

Elham Kazemi is a professor of mathematics education at the University of Washington. She studies children’s mathematical thinking and learning experiences in classrooms, the teacher’s role in facilitating discussions, and how teacher educators design and lead environments so that teachers learn from and with their students. One important theme throughout all this work is nurturing strong professional communities among teachers. Her research and partnership work has been informed by research on equity and justice in mathematics education, organizational learning, school reform, children’s mathematical thinking and classroom practice.

Recent books include Intentional Talk, coauthored with Allison Hintz, which focuses on leading productive discussions in mathematics; Choral Counting and Counting Collections, edited with Megan Franke and Angela Turrou, which describes two generative routines for student learning; and a new title Learning Together, co-authored with Jessica Calabrese, Teresa Lind, Becca Lewis, Alison Resnick and Lynsey Gibbons, which explains the work that teachers, coaches, and principals can do together to make schools powerful places for student and teacher learning.

Keynote Address for MEAD 2025: Inviting Students to Mathematics through Reciprocity and Relationship

In this talk, I use the ideas of reciprocity and relationship to characterize how we can be together with our students when we are learning, studying and teaching mathematics.  Through examples from classrooms, I invite us to think about these questions: How can stories and storytelling within our communities provide a context for meaning-making for children, mathematical modeling, analyzing structure, and engaging in argumentation? How can we more deeply consider the importance of making decisions that are specific to children’s community and their lives as they grow as mathematicians and make meaning of their world?