Dr. Cawley's research in Mathematics Education relates to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. Her work investigates classroom experiences of historically underrepresented and minoritized students, math instruction in the first two years of college, and professional development for mathematics faculty towards equity-minded teaching practices.
Current work focuses on how students experience mathematical microaggressions and microaffirmations within mathematics courses and the ways that students contribute these to a sense of belonging in the mathematics classroom. Other projects include providing professional development for faculty teaching a numbers and operations course for future elementary teachers. This work also promotes building a sense of community among these faculty, creating a professional learning community.
Recent publications include:
Cawley, A., Runnalls, C., Perkins, E. & Jimenez Maldonado, D. (2024). Establishing alternative pathways to becoming MTEs: Initial impacts of professional development. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Mathematics Education. Sydney, Australia.
Cawley, A. & Wilson, R. (2024). "I felt like a fraud": Students' sense of belonging in the mathematics classroom. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Mathematics Education. Sydney, Australia.
Cawley, A., Runnalls, C., Jimenez Maldonado, D., & Perkins, E. (2024). Learning to teach teachers: Community college faculty explore fraction tasks for teaching. Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference for the Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. Omaha, NE.
Cawley, A. & Wilson, R. (2024). "Really, you're a math major?!": Students' Descriptions of racial and gendered microaggressions and sense of belonging in mathematics. Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference for the Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. Omaha, NE.
Cawley, A. & Wilson, R. (2023). Mathematical microaffirmations. MAA FOCUS, 26-29.
Cawley, A., Aniceto, R., Ricarte, S., & Wilson, R. (February, 2023). “Well, it’s obvious”: Students’ experiences with mathematical microaggressions. Paper submitted for the Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference for the Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. Omaha, NE.
Hernandez, V., & Cawley, A. (2022). Do support courses actually help?: The experiences of community college students in co-requisite statistics. MathAMATYC Educator.
Cawley, A., Contreras, J., & Fuentes-Lopez, E. (2022). More than just the math: Embedded tutors may provide more than we hoped for. Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference for the Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. Boston, MA.
Cawley, A., & Altman, M. A. (2021). Supporting students at multiple levels in accessing and succeeding in college credit mathematics. Paper submitted for the 14th International Congress of Mathematical Education (ICME). Shanghai, China.
Cawley, A. (2020). They know more than you think: An anti-deficit framing of mathematics students’ understanding of the intercepts of a function using multiple representations. MathAMATYC Educator 11(3) pp. 14-24.
Cawley, A., Eldick, H., & Cano, S. (2020). Counterstories of preservice elementary teachers: Strategies for successful completion of their math content sequence. Sacristán, A.I., Cortés-Zavala, J.C. & Ruiz-Arias, P.M. (Eds.). Mathematics Education Across Cultures: Proceedings of the 42nd Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Mexico (pp. 1469-1476). Cinvestav / AMIUTEM / PME-NA. https:/doi.org/10.51272/pmena.42.2020
Invited Talks:
If you'd like for Dr. Cawley to share about any current or past research, teaching experiences, or mentorship, please reach out to her at acawley@cpp.edu.
Improving Teaching Practice and Students Experience in the Math Classroom. Invited workshop at Los Angeles Valley College. Valley Glen, CA (3-hour workshop, November 9, 2024).
Equitable Math Teaching Practices Professional Learning Community. Invited professional development workshop at West Los Angeles Community College. Culver City, CA. (9 week professional development, Fall 2024)
Sense of Belonging in the Mathematics Classroom through the Lens Microaggressions. Invited talk at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. New Brunswick, NJ. October 30, 2024.
Students’ Sense of Belonging in the Mathematics Classroom: The Impact of Microaggressions. Invited talk at PRiME at Michigan State University. East Lansing, MI. October 7, 2024.
Equitable Assessment Techniques. Invited workshop at Los Angeles Valley College. Valley Glen, CA (3-hour workshop, March 8, 2024).
Microaffirmations, Microaggressions, and Microbrews. Invited talk for Science on Tap at Cal Poly Pomona. Pomona, CA (60-minute talk, February 26, 2024)
We don't know unless we ask: Incorporating Students' Needs in the Math Classroom. Invited workshop at Los Angeles Valley College. Los Angeles, CA (3-hour workshop, October 27, 2023).
Student's Experiences with Microaggressions within the Mathematics Classroom: Future Directions. Invited talk at the University of Auckland and Auckland Institute of Technology. Auckland, NZ (60-minute talk, June 14, 2023).
“How do I know if I’m providing enough variation?” A look at the Cognitive Demand of Mathematical Tasks. Invited workshop at the California Mathematics Project – Cal Poly Pomona. (3 hours workshop, February 11, 2023).
Mathematics Students’ Experiences with Mathematical Microaggressions. Invited talk at Virginia Commonwealth University. (60-minute presentation, October 25, 2022).
More than just the math: How can we think to utilize Learning Assistants in the classroom? Invited talk at CSU East Bay. Virtual talk. (60-minute presentation, April 25, 2022).
Invited Panelist: CampusTownHallMeeting - Assuring Meaningful Online Learning for Students. Hosted by: Provost Sylvia Alva, Christina Gonzales, Phyllis Nelson, & Lucy Yu. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. (60-minute panel, October 22, 2020)
Invited Panelist: Assuring Students a Positive Experience in their First Term. Hosted by: The CSU Chancellor’s Office. (60-minute panel, July 6, 2020)
Students’ experiences in a co-requisite statistics course at a community college – Preliminary discussions. Invited talk at the Wheelhouse Scholars Retreat through UC Davis. Berkeley, CA. (30-minute invited presentation, August 16, 2019).
Connecting the dots: Decomposing the practice of explaining a mathematical procedure. Invited talk at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. (90-minute invited presentation, February 4, 2019).