Middle school math teacher María Guadalupe (Lupe) Serna always loved math. But as a kid, her passion for the subject never lined up with what she learned in school. The math classes she took growing up were all about rote memorization, from reciting multiplication tables to practicing specific steps to solve equations.
Instead, Serna found herself interested in the why of mathematics. She had good number fluency, or the ability to understand how numbers worked together in arithmetic. That meant she could solve a problem in multiple ways.
“When I was growing up, my parents taught me math a different way than what I learned in school,” she said. “I just really learned to appreciate that alternative method of finding a solution.”
Serna later learned that other bilingual Hispanic students had a similar experience — learning math one way in the classroom and another at home. While getting her master’s degree through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Mathematics Teacher Leadership program, Serna studied how students’ experiences outside the classroom can impact their relationship to math and how much they enjoy it.
Now a math teacher in the same South Side neighborhood where she grew up, Serna is creating an environment where bilingual students can feel confident in their own approach to mathematics. In 2025, she was recognized for her efforts by Lathisms, an organization that highlights the accomplishments of Hispanic and Latinx mathematicians.
Becoming a math teacher
After earning her bachelor’s degree in education at Marquette University, Serna taught second and fourth grade students at Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes (ALBA), a bilingual Spanish/English charter school. Then, in 2021, she began teaching middle school English, a subject that just didn’t click with her.
“I absolutely hated it,” Serna said. “The following year, I begged them to let me teach math.”
Her wish was granted. In 2023, she continued the path by taking a new job as a middle school math teacher at Albert E. Kagel School. After settling in, she decided it was time to further her math education — something she’d wanted to do since getting her undergraduate degree.
When researching master’s programs, Serna found that many focused on preparing teachers to be administrative leaders. That didn’t appeal to her as much as teaching the subject itself. “I just kept thinking (about) how much I enjoy math,” she said. “I wanted to learn all the different ways to make math make sense and be able to help my students.”
That’s when Serna came across the Mathematics Teacher Leadership program at UWM, designed to deepen teachers’ knowledge of mathematics and research-based teaching practices. It ended up being a perfect fit.
Studying at UWM
In 2023, Serna began taking classes for her master’s in curriculum and instruction, focusing on mathematics teacher leadership. It was there that she was introduced to the world of math conferences, which Serna describes as life changing.
With the encouragement of Anne Marie Marshall, a lecturer for UWM’s Mathematics Teacher Leadership program, Serna presented at the annual Wisconsin Mathematics Council conference in Green Lake. Two years in a row, she shared her research on the experiences of bilingual math students with teachers around the state.
Marshall “made us feel that we all brought something to the table, and we all had valuable insight into the worlds of teaching and math,” Serna said. She was encouraged by Marshall to think about her experiences with math and how they influenced her – a concept known as math identity.
Exploring math identity
In her master’s program, Serna dug into research on how bilingual students see themselves in the classroom. In studies, researchers noted that many bilingual students feel that they aren’t doing math correctly, despite coming up with the correct solutions. As a result, they can start to view themselves as less capable and even grow to dislike the subject.
“I felt like I could relate in every aspect to what the authors were saying, because I myself lived through that,” Serna said.
In her classroom, Serna observes that students who grew up in Latin America approach math differently than their peers who have spent their entire life in the U.S. education system. The former are often better with number fluency, but may struggle to write equations. Meanwhile, students who grew up in the U.S. often know how to write equations but don’t always understand how a math problem works.
Rather than asking every student to solve problems the same way, Serna encourages them to think about math in a way that makes sense to them. Her goal is to help each person find a way to approach the subject that feels logical and empowering while charting their own course to each solution.
“In my classroom, you have the best of both worlds, and you have the struggles of both worlds, too,” she said.
