College of Education and Human Development

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Ranza Veltri Torres

  • Pronouns: she, her, hers

  • Assistant Professor in Mathematics Education

Ranza Veltri Torres

Areas of interest

Narrative mathematics identity; narrative inquiry; humanizing research in mathematics education; mathematics as a gatekeeper; elementary mathematics education; early algebra

Degrees

PhD Mathematics Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
MA Teaching, University of San Francisco
BS Mathematics, University of San Francisco

Biography

My research takes a humanizing approach to investigating how school mathematics can function as a gatekeeper by centering the stories of math learners and doers. I position narrativizations as a means to (re)imagining school mathematics and addressing the gatekeeper status of math starting in elementary school. My work centers narrative mathematics identity as a framework for thinking about how the math education community can foster inclusive, equitable, and supportive math learning environments in and beyond K-12 settings, particularly for racially minoritized and underrepresented students.

Publications

Strachota, S., Stephens, A., Morton, K., Veltri Torres, R., Blanton, M., Gardiner, A. M., Sung, Y., Stroud, R., Knuth, E. (2023). How tools mediate elementary students’ algebraic reasoning about evens and odds. Mathematics Education Research Journal. DOI: 10.1007/s13394-023-00457-x 

Veltri Torres, R. (2022). Math as a gatekeeper: Narrative identity of one community college student in non-credit bearing remedial math. In Lischka, A.E., Dyer, E.B., Jones, R.S., Lovett, J.N., Strayer, J., & Drown S., (Eds.), Proceedings of the forty-fourth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 538–539). Middle Tennessee State University.

Stephens, A., Sung, Y., Strachota, S., Veltri Torres, R., Morton, K., Gardiner, A.M., Blanton, M., Knuth, E., & Stroud, R. (2022). The Role of Balance Scales in Supporting Productive Thinking about Equations Among Diverse Learners. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 24(1), 1­–18. DOI: 10.1080/10986065.2020.1793055

Stephens, A., Veltri Torres, R., Sung, Y., Strachota, S., Murphy Gardiner, A., Blanton, M., Stroud, R., & Knuth, E. (2021). From "You have to have three numbers and a plus sign" to "It's the exact same thing": K–1 students learn to think relationally about equations. Journal of Mathematical Behavior. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmathb.2021.100871

Veltri Torres, R., Prough, S., Strachota, S., Stephens, A., Sung, Y., Gardiner, A., Blanton, M., & Knuth, E., (2019). Describing the unknown: Moving toward variable notation and algebraic thinking in kindergarten. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Canada. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/1434601