About

Jonee Wilson is an Associate Professor at the UVA School of Education and Human Development, where she teaches mathematics and mathematics education courses. She has a background as a high school teacher, and she combines her experiences as a teacher and researcher in her instruction. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, and her work has been featured in prominent journals such as the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Urban Education, Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Teachers College Record, and the American Educational Research Journal. Wilson received an early career publication award at the 2020 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association from the Research in Mathematics Education Special Interest Group, and she was recognized as an outstanding reviewer by the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Pedagogy
• Mathematics education
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Social Science
• Developmental psychology
• Aesthetics
• Environmental ethics
• Law
• Epistemology
• Criminology

Selected publications

• Co-Constructing Inclusive Norms

  Mathematics Teacher Learning and Teaching PK-12 · 2026-02-01

  article

  We offer a framework for what sociomathematical norms are and how they can be constructed and reinforced.

  PublisherDOI

• How Big Is an Acre?

  Mathematics Teacher Learning and Teaching PK-12 · 2026-04-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Instruction that connects mathematics to cultural and community contexts can encourage identity development, increase engagement, and improve access and empowerment for students.

  PublisherDOI

• Making the case for classroom observational instruments that attend to equity

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2025-03-14

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Equity-Focused, Rubric-Based Coaching: An Incremental Improvement Approach to Supporting Teachers to Shift Toward More Equitable Mathematics Instruction

  Education Sciences · 2025-04-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Historically, inequities in mathematics education have resulted in mathematics classrooms that do not support all students, and particularly students from marginalized backgrounds. Efforts to transform mathematics classrooms to be culturally responsive, sustaining, and justice-oriented have met limited success at scale. It may be that supporting teachers to develop more equitable teaching practices would benefit from a more incremental improvement approach. This article considers how school-based mathematics coaches can support teachers to make incremental shifts toward more equitable instruction. We describe a coaching model designed to include elements of incremental improvement, in which coaches and teachers analyze video against a set of rubrics that delineate equitable teaching practices. Using established routines and structures, coaches and teachers work together to identify and enact small, actionable changes that build toward more ambitious equity-oriented practices. Drawing on pilot data, we articulate how the coaching model both reflects and builds on an improvement approach to professional learning. We argue that while incremental shifts may be insufficient to fully address systemic inequities, they can serve as a meaningful bridge toward larger changes. We conclude with considerations for engaging in equity-oriented incremental improvement work.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Initiating a conversation about expertise in designing elementary mathematics methods courses for equity

  Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education · 2024-12-26 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Positioning Students as Thinkers and Doers of Mathematics

  Mathematics Teacher Learning and Teaching PK-12 · 2024-09-01

  articleSenior author

  Positioning students as competent goes beyond saying “good job.” Elevate the practice of positioning.

  PublisherDOI

• Balloons and Weights: Integer Subtraction in Context

  Mathematics Teacher Learning and Teaching PK-12 · 2023-06-01 · 1 citations

  article

  Support students in developing contextual reasoning about integer subtraction.

  PublisherDOI

• Exploring early mathematics through picturebooks: A case study in the context of Head Start

  Journal of Early Childhood Research · 2023-08-13 · 1 citations

  article

  The purpose of the study was to better understand the phenomenon of exploring early mathematics through book reading. The study centers on Head Start and lays on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework). Two sub-questions guided the qualitative single case study of six Head Start adult participants (teachers, parents, administrators): (1) What are Head Start participants’ experiences in exploring early mathematics through picturebooks? and (2) What do Head Start participants say about exploring early mathematics through picturebooks? Findings showed that participants expressed interest toward exploring early mathematics through picturebooks. Picturebooks were commonly used in the classroom but also accessible for families. Participants provided evidence of mathematics practices and discussions around mathematics in the school and in the home. The participants’ sayings and experiences in exploring early mathematics through picturebooks aligned with child development and contexts of learning, two cornerstones of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), but potential obstacles emerged. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Toward A Discourse on the Threat of Performative Wokeness to Justice Agendas in Education

  Urban Education · 2023 · 9 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
  • Social Science

  Among the most urgent matters in contemporary education discourses are those that delve into the justice issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Colleges of Education are critical sites for such discourse. In particular, the teaching methods course is where candidates are to acquire tools to take up such issues. Success of justice agendas depends on the receptivity of individuals to engage in ways that are critical, substantive, and above all authentic. But what challenges present if receptivity is feigned? In this paper, we describe encounters with the phenomenon of performative wokeness and how it threatens justice agendas.

  PublisherDOI

• Initial Steps in Developing Classroom Observation Rubrics Designed Around Instructional Practices that Support Equity and Access in Classrooms with Potential for “Success”

  Teachers College Record The Voice of Scholarship in Education · 2022 · 10 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Political Science
  • Mathematics education

  Background: The field of mathematics education has made progress toward generating a set of instructional practices that could support improvements in the learning opportunities made available to groups of students who historically have been underserved and marginalized. Studies that contribute to this growing body of work are often conducted in learning environments that are framed as “successful.” As a researcher who is concerned with issues of equity and who acknowledges the importance of closely attending to the quality of the mathematical activity in which students are being asked to engage, my stance on “successful learning environments” pulls from both Gutiérrez’s descriptions of what characterizes classrooms as aiming for equity and the emphasis on the importance of conceptually oriented goals for student learning that is outlined in documents like the Standards . Though as a field we are growing in our knowledge of practices that support these successful learning environments, this knowledge has not yet been reflected in many of the observational tools, rubrics, and protocols used to study these environments. In addition, there is a growing need to develop empirically grounded ways of attending to the extent to which the practices that are being outlined in research literature actually contribute to the “success” of these learning environments. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to explore one way of meeting this growing need by describing the complex work of developing a set of classroom observation rubrics (the Equity and Access Rubrics for Mathematics Instruction , EAR-MI) designed to support efforts in identifying and observing critical features of classrooms characterized as having potential for “success.” In developing the rubrics, I took as my starting place findings from an analysis that compared a set of classrooms that were characterized as demonstrating aspects of successful learning environments and a set of classrooms that were not characterized as successful. This paper not only describes the process of developing the rubrics, but also outlines some of the qualitative differences that distinguished more and less effective examples of the practices the rubrics are designed to capture. Research Design: In designing the rubrics, I engaged in multiple cycles of qualitative analyses of video data collected from a large-scale study. Specifically, I iteratively designed, tested, and revised the developing rubrics while consistently collaborating with, consulting with, and receiving feedback from different experts in the field of education. Conclusions: Although I fully acknowledge and recognize that there are several tensions and limitations of this work, I argue that developing rubrics like the EAR-MI is still worthwhile. One reason that I give for continuing these types of efforts is that it contributes to the work of breaking down forms of practice into components and identifying key aspects of specific practices that are critical for supporting student learning in ways that make potentially productive routines of action visible to and learnable by others, which may ultimately contribute to the development of more successful learning environments. I also argue that rubrics like the EAR-MI have the potential to support researchers in developing stronger evidence of the effectiveness of practices that prior research has identified as critical for marginalized students and in more accurately and concretely identifying and describing learning environments as having potential for “success.”

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Kara Jackson

  4 shared

• Adrian Larbi-Cherif

  Global Strategy Group

  3 shared

• Anne Garrison Wilhelm

  Washington State University

  2 shared

• Temple A. Walkowiak

  North Carolina State University

  2 shared

• Christine Larson

  2 shared

• Jessica H. Hunt

  North Carolina State University

  1 shared

• Britnie Delinger Kane

  1 shared

• Ilana Seidel Horn

  Vanderbilt University

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Early Career Publication Award at the 2020 annual meeting of…
• Outstanding Reviewer by the Journal for Research in Mathemat…