BY DR. MANJULA PETER

Associate Professor of Mathematics -School of Arts and Sciences,

FRESNO PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

It started with a question we at Fresno Pacific University had been asking for some time: 

How can we prepare Central Valley students with the mathematics they need not only to navigate a technology-driven world, but to shape it?

For years, our graduate program in Mathematics Education was committed to helping teachers deepen their mathematical knowledge and strengthen their teaching. We worked closely with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) to support high school teachers who wanted to upskill to a master’s degree that would qualify them to teach dual-enrollment mathematics at their respective schools.

The need was — and remains — significant. 

Dual enrollment gives high school students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. For many students, particularly those who will be the first in their families to attend college, these courses can open doors that might otherwise feel out of reach.

However, California faces a significant shortage of qualified teachers who can teach dual-enrollment courses. The CVHEC Master’s Upskilling Project provided a perfect opportunity to address that.

But as we worked with our students and graduates, we began to see a larger problem. Several of our math ed graduates had faced barriers to teaching dual-enrollment mathematics because of the perceived distinction between a degree in mathematics and a degree in mathematics education. 

One recent graduate shared her experience with me:

“I currently hold a BS in Mathematics, an MA in Curriculum and Instruction, and an MA in Mathematics Education. I am highly qualified, have 13 years of teaching experience, run my department, and spent a year as a lecturer at a valley state four-year university. However, my application for community college dual enrollment instruction has been denied repeatedly…”

What disturbed me most was what she wrote next: her students are overwhelmingly first-generation college students from low-income backgrounds, and they were being denied opportunities for no clear reason.

I could not stop thinking about that. And this was not an isolated experience. So now the question loomed even larger: could this misperception of math ed vs. math be what is keeping us from delivering a pathway to success for segments of our communities, not only in need of opportunity, but whose proven successes would benefit society in general?

Hence we began asking a different question: What if we changed the program?

What if we created a graduate mathematics program that provided deeper and more rigorous mathematical preparation not only to meet the needs of teachers, but also to expand opportunities for students who want mathematics to be part of their professional future?

That question led to the Master of Arts in Mathematics at Fresno Pacific University.

The teachers who inspired this transition remain an important part of our vision. But the new program is intentionally broader. Mathematics opens doors to far more than teaching. It is central to various technology-driven careers. We want students in the Central Valley to see those possibilities and to have access to the mathematical preparation that can help them pursue them.

This was not simply a matter of changing the name of the degree. Nor was it about adding rigor for rigor’s sake.

As we developed the new program, we wrestled with a question that is deeply important to me: How do we increase mathematical rigor without losing our belief that mathematics is connected to people and to the world in which we live?

We wanted our students to do serious mathematics. The new M.A. includes advanced study in algebra, geometry, statistics, advanced analysis, linear systems, and data science. Students will develop stronger analytical, problem-solving, and research skills and complete a capstone research experience.

But we also wanted to hold onto something I have always believed about mathematics.

Mathematics is a way of seeing the world.

It helps us recognize patterns, ask better questions, understand complexity, and make sense of the world. And mathematics can do more than help us understand the world. It can help us imagine how the world might be different and participate in changing it.

That is why we want our students to ask not only, can I solve this problem?, but also what does this mathematics help me see? Who does it affect? What assumptions am I making? How might mathematics contribute to human flourishing?

For me, this is where the program connects deeply with Fresno Pacific University’s mission of cultivating knowledge, professional preparation, and a commitment to the common good.

We are in the Central Valley, a region with enormous potential but also significant educational inequities. Access to advanced mathematics should not be a privilege reserved for a select few. We want to expand that access, not only so more teachers can teach mathematics, but so more students can use mathematics to pursue the futures they imagine for themselves.

That matters to me because when we expand access to mathematics, we expand access to possibility.

A student who develops strong mathematical thinking can become a teacher, but also a data scientist, engineer, researcher, economist, computer scientist, analyst, or entrepreneur. Mathematics can become a pathway into fields that shape our economy, our communities, and our future.

And teachers remain central to that work. When a teacher deepens their mathematical knowledge, the impact reaches classrooms, students, families, and communities. When a qualified teacher is able to offer a dual-enrollment course, a high school student can earn college credit and begin to see themselves as capable of college-level mathematics.

The degree is not merely about the degree. It is about what the degree makes possible.

Getting here required extensive work. We redesigned the curriculum, worked through university governance and approval processes, and navigated external accreditation. Each step challenged us to articulate more clearly what we were trying to accomplish.

And somewhere along the way, I realized that we were doing more than revising a graduate program.

We were reimagining what graduate mathematics education could be at Fresno Pacific.

Beginning in Spring 2027, our new 30-unit, fully online M.A. in Mathematics will bring rigorous graduate mathematics to teachers and other professionals throughout the Central Valley and beyond, in a small-cohort environment where students can learn and grow together.

We began with a need among teachers. That need led us to think more deeply about access, and about the many ways mathematics can open doors. The result is a program designed not only to prepare teachers for the classroom, but to equip students to pursue the many fields and possibilities where mathematics is central.

We are not simply teaching more mathematics. We are opening more doors through mathematics and helping create a world in which more people can flourish.