Dr. Kathleen Clark is a Professor of Mathematics Education. She previously served as Associate Director of the School of Teacher Education (2020–21) and was appointed as Director of the School in May 2021.

Dr. Clark has two primary research interests: history of mathematics in mathematics education and the transition from school to university mathematics (also known as secondary-tertiary transition). In the former, her research investigates ways in which prospective and in-service mathematics teachers use history of mathematics in teaching how the study of history of mathematics impacts mathematical knowledge for teaching, and how the study of primary historical sources contributes to the ways in which students talk about and do mathematics. Regarding her interest in the secondary-tertiary transition, she investigates the affective and emotional factors impacting and resulting from the transition experienced by mathematics majors.

Dr. Clark was a principal investigator for the NSF-funded collaborative research project, TRIUMPHS (Transforming Instruction in Undergraduate Mathematics via Primary Historical Sources; grant number 1523561). As part of this project, she investigated the potential of engagement with primary historical sources (in the form of Primary Historical Projects, or PSPs) for motivating undergraduate students to participate in and accept new mathematical discourses (e.g., using Sfard’s commognitive theory). 

Dr. Clark is a member of a variety of professional organizations and serves as a reviewer for several academic journals. She also serves on the editorial boards of PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies and Implementation and Replication Studies in Mathematics Education. She was the chair of the International Study Group on the Relations between the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics (HPM Group) from 2016-2020 and has actively participated in the international HPM community as a member of organizing teams for history in mathematics education working/study groups at CERME, HPM, and ICME conferences.

Dr. Clark spent 12 years as a high school mathematics teacher, teaching in a variety of contexts (urban, gifted, and residential environments) in both Florida and Mississippi. She earned her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction (with an emphasis in Mathematics Education) from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2006, where she was a doctoral fellow at the Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning (MAC-MTL). Prior to her graduate work at Maryland, she spent one year on Capitol Hill working in educational policy as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow.

Dr. Clark’s research has been published in journals such as The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, BSHM Bulletin: The Journal of the British Society of History of Mathematics, Research in Mathematics Education, Mathematica Didactica, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, and Educational Studies in Mathematics. She was a guest co-editor for a special issue on exploring the significance of the history of mathematics in mathematics education in ZDM – Mathematics Education [54(7)], in which she also contributed to three articles with colleagues (including undergraduate and graduate students).

See Dr. Clark's Research Gate and Google Scholar pages to learn more about her research and publications.