Disputes in a Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers’ Programme: An (Im)Possible Narrative

Abstract

Background: The curricula of the undergraduate programmes for pre-service mathematics teachers’ education have been debated (and disputed) in Brazilian academic communities over the past decades. Objectives: To investigate actions and disputes among mathematicians and mathematics educators which took place during the curricular changes and creation of the night undergraduate programme for pre-service mathematics teachers’ education at UFRJ. Design: Fictional dialogues were built to present and analyse data from individual interviews. Setting and Participants: Interviews were conducted with seven lecturers, five retired and two in office, who have played central roles in the institution or in designing curricula for the programme. Data collection and analysis: Data analysis and production were conducted through the re-storying methodology. Results: The dialogues indicate that the modification in the priorities of the group of Mathematics Education teachers at the IM-UFRJ moved the faculty away from the discussions that culminated in the curricular changes of 2001 and 2008, either from the understanding of what the laws and resolutions said, or in internal spaces for debate, such as the Fundão Project. Conclusions: Our analysis indicates that disputes take place in a landscape that transcends teachers’ education and reaches more complex political and epistemic terrains, partially related to tensions between mathematics and mathematics education, but that cannot be reduced to this binarism.