Katherine Lewis

I am a researcher and educator who is fundamentally concerned with designing accessible educational contexts – particularly for students with disabilities. 

My primary line of research is focused on students with mathematics learning disability (i.e., dyscalculia). These students have a neurological difference in how their brains process numerical information that leads to significant difficulties learning and doing mathematics. Unlike most research on mathematics learning disabilities, I reject the deficit model and adopt a disability studies approach.  I believe that individuals are not disabled by their physical, sensory, or neurological differences, but by inaccessible spaces and contexts.  For students with mathematics learning disabilities, standard mathematical tools may not be equally accessible.  In my work, I aim to identify the ways in which students’ unconventional understanding and use of mathematical representations results in issues of access.  This theoretical orientation – informed by a Vygotskian perspective of disability – involves identifying students’ unconventional understandings as they occur in authentic learning environments, evaluating the accessibility of tools and instruction, and considering the ways students compensate to gain access. My research sits at the intersection of mathematics education and special education and begins to address the epistemological, theoretical, and pedagogical divides that have historically separated these fields.

My second line of research is concerned with designing educational supports for foster and adoptive parents.  Children in the child welfare system, often struggle academically, and foster/adoptive parents must figure out how to support their children inside and outside of school.  I am interested in working with foster/adoptive parents to problem solve and design innovative tools to support their children academically.  I have created a website: foster-edu.com which provides resources for foster/adoptive parents during this time of home schooling and distance learning.  

My third area of interest – one that I am only beginning to investigate – involves understanding the unique role that American Sign Language can play in supporting Deaf students’ understanding of mathematics concepts.

For more details about my work and recaps of my current research, please go to my research website (klewismath.com)

(she/her/hers)