Learning to Teach in the Figured World of Reform Mathematics: Negotiating New Models of Identity

Abstract

Starting from the assertion that traditional and reform mathematics pedagogy constitute two distinct figured worlds of teaching and learning, the authors explore the initiation of prospective teachers into the figured world of reform mathematics pedagogy. To become successful teachers in reform-oriented classrooms, prospective teachers must learn more than pedagogical tools and moves: They must understand what it is to participate in the figured world of reform pedagogy, develop models of identities for participants in this world, and negotiate new constructions of mathematics. In this article the authors present three episodes from an elementary mathematics teacher education class where positions of "teacher" and "child" were offered by instructors in activities designed to approximate practice in the reform figured world. Students negotiated new models of identity and conceptions of mathematics as they took up these positions in varying ways.

Invited Lectures from the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education

“…Significant parts of the growing scholarship on mathematics teachers' professional identities draw on the broader scholarship on identity outlined above (Cobb and Gresalfi 2011;Hodgen 2011;Hodgen and Askew 2007;Horn et al 2008;Ma and Singer-Gabella 2011;Sfard and Prusak 2005). In what follows I do not claim to do justice to the field as a whole, but refer to four studies that I consider representative for a reasonably significant part of the field.…”

“…It has been argued, for instance, that the current reform movement in mathematics education (the reform) may qualify as a figured world for a teacher (e.g. Ma and Singer-Gabella 2011). Within the reform discourse there are certainly certain characters that are recognised and certain acts and outcomes that valued over others (cf.…”

Re-centring the Individual in Participatory Accounts of Professional Identity

“…Significant parts of the growing scholarship on mathematics teachers' professional identities draw on the broader scholarship on identity outlined above (Cobb and Gresalfi 2011;Cobb et al 2009;Hodgen 2011;Hodgen and Askew 2007;Horn et al 2008;Ma and Singer-Gabella 2011;Sfard and Prusak 2005). In what follows I do not claim to do justice to the field as a whole, but refer to four studies that I consider representative for a reasonably significant part of the field.…”

Interpreting Early Career Trajectories

“…Blackburn (2002) addressed LGBTQ issues in an imagined world; similarly, Jurow (2005) used a "possible" figured world to study student mathematical learning in project-based curriculum. Furthermore, a number of researchers have addressed questions of how identities emerge from a at SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 4, 2016 epx.sagepub.com Downloaded from variety of educational contexts (Boaler & Greeno, 2000;Dagenais, Day, & Toohey, 2006;Luttrell & Parker, 2001;Ma & Singer-Gabella, 2011;Michael, Andrade, & Bartlett, 2007;Rubin, 2007;Sloan, 2006).…”