Campus Directory

Pronouns he/him/his

Division Social Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Education Department

Title Assistant Professor of Elementary Mathematics Education

Affiliation Faculty

Web Site

Primary Office Location McHenry Library
3128

Mail Stop Education Department

Biography, Education and Training

Prior to my academic career, I served as a public school middle-secondary mathematics teacher for ten years in culturally and linguistically diverse settings. My lived experiences with my son led me to pursue a doctorate in special education with an emphasis in mathematics education and I have been reckoning and challenging educational inequities and injustices ever since. I identify as Chinese-American, cisgender male, and non-disabled and am parent of three.

Ph.D., Special Education with emphasis on Mathematics Education

Indiana University, 2014

MSEd., Curriculum and Instruction

University of Kansas, 1999

BSEd., Mathematics Education

University of Kansas, 1997

Summary of Expertise

Disability Studies in Mathematics Education, Special Education, Inclusive Education, and Teacher Education

Research Interests

My research focuses on advancing intersectional disability justice in and through mathematics education, particularly in K-5 contexts. This includes building theories for abolitionist mathematics educational research and practices that center the brilliances of disabled youth of color.

Awards, Honors and Grants

PI on the NSF Racial Equity Project: Building and Testing a Framework for Dismantling Systemic Oppression: Advancing Liberatory and Conceptual Mathematics Learning with Black Disabled Students. Awarded $4,036,377 (#2411737): 2024-2028

University of Missouri, St. Louis’ Global International Fellowship: 2024

American Educational Research Association (AERA) Early Career Publication Award of the Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education: 2023

Center for Inquiry and Equity in Mathematics Fellow. Educational Development Center, Iowa State University, and University of Delaware: 2019-2020

PI on Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. Oklahoma Teacher Connection: Advancing Inclusive Mathematics Education: Professional Learning and Mentoring for Early Career Teachers Grant. $16,800: 2016-2018

STaR Fellow. Association for Mathematics Teacher Educators: 2017-2018

AERA Disability Studies in Education Special Interest Group Travel Grant: Towards Equity in Mathematics Education for Students with Disabilities: A Case Study of Professional Learning, $250: 2014

Indiana University’s Beechler Dissertation Proposal Award: 2013

International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication’s (ISAAC) Emerging Scholar Travel Grant for a paper presentation: Using Peer-mediated Instruction to Support Communication in Students with Autism in a Mathematical Context, $1,000: 2012

Selected Publications

Padilla, A., Lambert, R., Tan, P., & White-Smith, K. (2024). Conceptualizing political knowledges needed to teach inclusive mathematics: Theorizing through counterstories. ZDM Mathematics Education (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-024-01598-4

Tan, P., Yeh, C., Lewis, K. E., Bagger, A., Hunt, J., Kondo, M., Mason, E. N., Nieminen, J., Padilla, A., Romero Castro, O. N., Van Zoest, L. R., & Westby, K. (2023). Reconceptualizing ability, normativity: Mathematics education resistance and justice. In R. Marcone, P. Linardi, R. Milani, J. P. A. de Paulo, A. M. Queiroz, & M. T. da Silva (Eds.) Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of Mathematics Education (pp. 325–335). 

Nieminen, J. H., Bagger, A., Padilla, A., & Tan, P. (2023). Student positioning in mathematics assessment research: A critical review. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 54(5), 317–341. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc-2022-0030

Tan, P., Padilla, A., & Lambert,, R. (2022). A critical review of educator and disability research in mathematics education: A decade of dehumanizing waves and humanizing wakes. Review of Educational Research, 92(6), 871–910. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543221081874

Mason, E. N., Padilla, A., & Tan, P. (2022). Toward justice-driven inquiry: On the rightful presence of students with disabilities in mathematics. Mathematics Teaching: Special Issue- Towards a More Humane Mathematics Education (283). https://www.atm.org.uk/Mathematics-Teaching-Journal-Archive/177712

Padilla, A., Vacile, P. A., Kamil, A. A., & Tan, P. (2021). Exploring the nexus between listening for, listening with, and archetypical modes of consciousness formation: The case of relational inclusive education situatedness. Multiple Voices - Disability, Race, and Language Intersections in Special Education, 21(2), 48–65. 

Yeh, C., Tan, P., & Reinholz, D. L. (2021). Rightful presence in times of crisis and uprisings: A call for disobedience. Equity & Excellence in Education, 54(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2021.1951631

Yeh, C., Sugita, T., & Tan, P. (2020). Reimagining inclusive spaces for mathematics learning. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching Pre-K–12. 113(9), 709–714. https://doi.org/10.5951/MTLT.2019.0101

Lambert, R., & Tan, P. (2020). Does disability matter in mathematics educational research? A critical comparison of research on students with and without disabilities. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 32, 5–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-019-00299-6

Tan, P., Padilla, A., Mason, E., & Sheldon, J. (2019). Humanizing mathematics education of students with disabilities: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Tan, P. & Thorius, K. A. K. (2019). Towards equity in mathematics education for students with disabilities: A case study of professional learning. American Educational Research Journal, 56(3), 995–1032. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218811906

Tan, P. & Padilla, A (2019). Prospective mathematics teachers’ engagement with inclusive equity: An exploratory case study in anti-ableist sociopolitical grounding. Teaching and Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.06.007

Padilla, A., & Tan, P. (2019). Toward inclusive mathematics education: A metatheoretical reflection about countering ableism in mathematics standards and curriculum. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(3), 299–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1576941

Tan, P., Lambert, R., Padilla, A., & Wieman, R. (2019). A disability studies in mathematics education review of intellectual disabilities: Directions for future inquiry and practice. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2018.09.001

Tan, P. & Kastberg, S. (2017). A call for mathematics education researchers to lead and advocate for individuals with dis/abilities. Journal of Urban Mathematics Education, 10(2), 25–38.

Tan, P. (2017). Advancing inclusive mathematics education: Strategies and resources for effective IEP practices. International Journal of Whole Schooling, 13(3), 28–38.

Thorius, K. A. K., & Tan, P. (2015). Expanding analysis of educational debt: Considering intersections of dis/ability, race, and class. In D. J. Connor, B. A. Ferri, & S. A. Annamma (Eds) DisCrit: Critical conversations about race, class, & dis/ability (pp. 87–100). Teacher College Press.