Professional Biography
Janine Remillard is an expert in mathematics education and classroom practices. Her research focuses on how teachers learn and change their teaching and how they use curriculum materials and other instructional tools. She pursues these questions in both local and cross-cultural contexts. She co-founded the Community Based Mathematics Project, a hub for developing and sharing locally relevant and social justice-oriented mathematics lessons that teachers can modify to fit the needs of their classrooms. Dr. Remillard has been involved in developing and redesigning three teacher education programs at GSE and is engaged in research that can inform program structures and practices.
After teaching at an independent school in St. Louis, Janine Remillard earned a Ph.D. from Michigan State University in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy, with a focus on mathematics teaching and learning. While at Michigan State, Dr. Remillard taught mathematics in a Lansing public elementary school and coordinated professional development activities in mathematics at the school. She joined the faculty of Penn GSE in 1997, where she serves as one of the faculty in the Learning, Teaching, and Literacies Division.
Throughout her time at Penn GSE, Dr. Remillard has led research on mathematics teaching and curriculum in the U.S. and cross-nationally. She has also explored how the use of formative assessment tools and a video feedback platform support instructional improvement. Her research on teacher education structures and practices includes experimenting with ways to enhance mentor teachers’ practices to support novice teachers’ learning. Dr. Remillard’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, and the Spencer Foundation, as well as internal funds from the University of Pennsylvania.
As a teacher educator, Dr. Remillard is committed to working in partnership with schools and teachers to create opportunities for novice teachers to learn effective teaching practices that are humane, socially just, and responsive to students.
Dr. Remillard has held a number of leadership roles at Penn GSE and in mathematics education in the U.S. She served as the founding director of the Collaboratory for Teacher Education at Penn GSE between 2017 and 2023. She was appointed to the U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction (USNC/MI), authorized by the National Academy of Science, in 2009 and served through 2016, including two years as vice chair and two years as chair. In 2014, she served a two-year term as co-chair of AERA's Special Interest Group in Research in Mathematics Education.
Research Interests and Current Projects
Dr. Remillard's research interests include mathematics teacher learning and classroom practices, teacher education, and the role of tools and innovative structures in supporting teacher learning. She has a strong commitment to improving education opportunities in urban contexts and making mathematics humanizing for teachers and students.
Current Research Projects
Mentoring Practice for Advancing Classroom Teaching (MPACT)
Funded by the National Science Foundation and launched in 2024, MPACT is a collaboration with researchers from Boston University and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The study explores how mentor teachers can be supported to engage novices in pedagogical reasoning that supports responsive mathematics teaching. Using an inquiry group professional development structure with mentors from three distinct teacher education programs, the researchers aim to build mentoring tools and structured opportunities that support mentor teachers to make visible their decision making. The research component will study mentor and novice teachers’ learning and how it differs across differing teacher education programs.
Cross-Cultural Study of Mathematics Curriculum Use in the 21st Century (Math 3C)
Math 3C is a cross-cultural study of elementary teachers’ use of print and digital mathematics curriculum materials in Belgium, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S., funded by the Swedish Research Council in 2017 and co-directed with collaborators from Sweden and Finland. The study includes teacher interviews (before and during COVID), a survey, and curriculum analysis. Findings reveal both similarities and important cultural differences in teachers’ curriculum use and use of digital resources. The researchers also turned a lens on their own cultural and linguistic interactions as a cross-cultural team, providing important insights on cross-cultural research.
Studying the Development of Responsive Math Teaching Practices through Online Inquiry Group
This study explores ways that learning to teach might be extended beyond the boundaries of teacher education programs through online video feedback inquiry groups. Using an approach developed through previous research and an online video commenting platform, novice teachers upload videos of brief number sense routines recorded in their classrooms and then comment on the videos of others in the group over several cycles. You can view a 2024 presentation for more details.
Rehumanizing Mathematics in Preservice Teacher Education
This study builds on Remillard’s decades of efforts to support preservice teachers to reflect on and reconsider their mathematical identities and relationship to mathematics as future teachers. Remillard and Lara Condon have begun to study the impacts of specific strategies employed in a middle-years mathematics methods course. You can read more about their approach and view slides from a 2022 presentation.
Recent Projects
The following projects have recently concluded, but publications and other resources are available.
Improving Curriculum Use for Better Teaching (ICUBiT)
A study of teachers' curriculum capacity, funded by the National Science Foundation in 2009.
Community Based Mathematics Project of Philadelphia (CBMP)
Working with teachers to develop locally relevant mathematics curriculum for students in Philadelphia.
Selected Publications
Journal Editorial Boards
Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education
Editorial Board
ZDM – Mathematics Education
Special Issue Guest Editor, Volume 55, Issue 3, June 2023