In another time and another place, Marta Civil might have been a square peg in a round hole.

University mathematics departments have traditionally emphasized pure and applied research rather than exploring math education. People like Civil -- university-based specialists in mathematics education -- would likely have been found in education colleges rather than math departments. These days, says Civil, "more and more math departments are becoming responsible for secondary-education math programs and other aspects of math education."

Even so, says Civil, "it's unusual for Research I universities to have people like me who feel comfortable" housed in a science or math department. "At math education conferences, people would say, ‘You're at a Research I university? How are you going to be judged for tenure?'"

Right on schedule
In another time and another place, Marta Civil might have been perennially frustrated in her efforts to gain promotion and tenure. But in 1987, three years before Civil arrived at the UA, Steve Willoughby was hired to lead the UA math-education program.

Thanks to a system Willoughby set in motion, Civil received tenure "right on schedule" in 1996. She's calling on that system again as she seeks to gain full-professor status this year. She won't learn whether she's successful until next April, but Civil is optimistic. "I think I'm ready," she says.

Willoughby's concern about equity in faculty elevation led to the creation of SEPTC -- the Science Education Promotion and Tenure Committee within the UA College of Science. Going through SEPTC is an extra step in the promotion-and-tenure process, but it's one well worth taking, says Civil.

The SEPTC group comprises UA faculty who understand the scope and importance of work like Civil's -- research, teaching, and outreach activities long viewed as peripheral. The math department's SEPTC representative is Fred Stevenson, himself a beneficiary of the SEPTC perspective when he became a full professor in 1993. Stevenson and colleague David Gay had begun focusing on math education after attaining tenure but before receiving full professorships. Those were granted after the College of Science adopted SEPTC guidelines in 1992.

When Civil received tenure in 1996, the committee included one representative from the College of Education. "The rest were from the College of Science," she says. "But they were all in tune with the work we do in math and science education. They were scientists who could understand a dossier put together by someone doing this kind of work."

The committee solicited "external letters from outstanding scholars who understand research in mathematics education," Civil explains.

Career change
In little more than a decade, Civil has seen her work gain international stature -- one of the requirements for promotion and tenure at the UA.

A native of Spain, Civil graduated from the University of Barcelona, then earned master's and doctorate degrees at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "When I first came to this country," she recalls, "I was going to go into [traditional] research" in a field such as mathematical logic or artificial intelligence.

"What really made me switch to math education was being a teaching assistant in a mathematics-content course for undergraduates who were going to be elementary teachers," she says. "Until then, I wasn't aware of math education as a career option."

Civil came to the UA fresh from her doctoral studies and went right to work changing the face of math education.

In 1992 and 1993, Civil and her colleagues organized Carnaval Matemático, a summer program for low-income, ethnic-minority middle-school students. Then she became the co--principal investigator on a teacher-enhancement project funded by the National Science Foundation.

As her projects, grants, and publications multiplied, Civil became one of eight educators featured in Looking at Learning Again... Part 2, a professional-development video workshop prepared and distributed by the Annenberg/CPB Channel.

Raising Arizona
Currently Civil is involved in three major outreach activities: Project Bridge, which combines professional development for teachers and researchers with innovative math teaching techniques designed for minority and lower-income students; funded by the U.S. Department of Education;

Girls in the SYSTEM (Sustaining Youth in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), which seeks to improve science and math education for third- through eighth-grade girls from Hispanic, Native American, and low-income families in southern Arizona; funded by the NSF;

MAPPS (Math and Parent Partnerships in the Southwest), geared toward involving parents in math education; funded by the NSF.

Because of her research and outreach responsibilities, Civil currently teaches two regular math-education courses per year instead of three -- her normal teaching load. In the university classroom, she works with both aspiring and practicing teachers, often in courses she has developed. She also leads the department's graduate mathematics-education program and serves as the adviser for four graduate students (including three doctoral candidates).

One new math-education faculty member joined the department last year and two more arrived this fall. Civil anticipates that they too will benefit from SEPTC and hopes that others in the College of Science will do so as well. "I think it is to your advantage to have your work looked at by those who can understand it," she says.

Through publication and presentation of her work, Civil takes her message throughout the world, having spoken at conferences from Brazil to the U.K. Last fall, she and colleague Stevenson led a working-group session at the National Summit on the Mathematical Education of Teachers, which met in Tysons Corner, near Washington, D.C. Appropriately titled "Raising Arizona: Improving Teacher Preparation through the Four R's: Recruitment of Students, Retention of Teachers, Reform of Curriculum, and Reward for Faculty," it included a discussion of SEPTC.