Tensions of Trust in Preservice Teachers' Consideration of Challenging Mathematics Tasks

Drawing on a larger, cross-institutional study that examines equitable elementary mathematics education, this article reports initial findings related to tensions that emerged for preservice teachers (PSTs) related to trusting students with open-ended, challenging mathematics tasks. Data composed of 194 PSTs' written responses to a survey question. Using methods of qualitative analysis, findings indicate two prominent tensions that emerged for PSTs related to trusting students with open-ended challenging tasks: productive struggle versus unproductive failure and teacher control versus student control. These findings suggest that reform efforts that encourage teachers to implement open-ended, challenging tasks may not come to fruition if underlying issues of (mis)trust teachers may have related to students are not unpacked and addressed.