Novice mathematics teachers often find the initial years of classroom teaching demanding. In this paper, we follow a novice teacher, Laura, the first 18 months of her teaching career and investigate the development of her professional identities from a participatory perspective. Laura’s case is interesting as her identities change dramatically, due to her participation in an induction programme and to a change of school. Our analysis shows that she loses her professional balance and almost leaves the profession during the first year, and that she regains her professional confidence and even coaches her colleagues on reform-oriented teaching in the second year. We argue that our participatory approach helps explain Laura’s identity trajectory.

There is evidence for recommendations to link mathematics teacher education (MTE) closely to school mathematics and to emphasize proving why rather than proving that when teaching reasoning and proving (R&P) in schools. In spite of that, we suggest not to take the implication that MTE focuses on proving why to extremes. We outline the background, framework and results of a pilot to an intervention study that seeks to address the problems of R&P in MTE. The results suggest that teachers face more problems with R&P than expected and have difficulties selecting classroom situations in need of a mathematical justification, let alone developing justifications and supporting their students’ learning of R&P. This supports our suggestion that a dual emphasis on proving that and proving why is needed in MTE.

Kommentar til Jan Sølberg: To metaforer for læring og kompetenceorienteret undervisning, Mona 2020‑2

Teacher identity has become important in mathematics education research, but mainly in relation to programmes for teacher education (TE) and professional development (PD). Less attention has been paid to understanding the role and development of identities in the majority of cases in which teachers are not involved in long-term TE or PD. This paper presents a study that seeks to develop such understandings. The study defines teacher identities as their shifting experiences of being, becoming and belonging related to the profession. It is a longitudinal case study of a novice teacher, Anna, and it asks how Anna’s identities change over the first 4 years of her career at her school, Northgate. To address the question I use a framework called Patterns of Participation (PoP) in combination with a range of methods, including interviews with Anna, her closest colleagues and the leadership at her school, and observations of Anna’s classrooms and of team meetings. I argue that this combination invites new understandings of identity development, because it does not prioritise teacher engagement in one particular practice (e.g., as promoted by PD), but allows interpretations of how Anna’s engagement with a multitude of different practices play a role for her professional experiences. The results suggest that in general terms, Anna’s identity changes from being ‘a mathematics teacher at Northgate’ to becoming ‘a mathematics teacher at Northgate’.

Kommentar til Dorte Moeskær Larsen og Bent Lindhardts artikel “Undersøgende aktiviteter og ræsonnementer i matematikundervisningen på mellemtrinnet”, MONA, 2019‑1.

Developing Research in Mathematics Education is the first book in the series New Perspectives on Research in Mathematics Education, to be produced in association with the prestigious European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. This inaugural volume sets out broad advances in research in mathematics education which have accumulated over the last 20 years through the sustained exchange of ideas and collaboration between researchers in the field. An impressive range of contributors provide specifically European and complementary global perspectives on major areas of research in the field on topics that include:the content domains of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, statistics, and probability;the mathematical processes of proving and modeling;teaching and learning at specific age levels from early years to university;teacher education, teaching and classroom practices;special aspects of teaching and learning mathematics such as creativity, affect, diversity, technology and history;theoretical perspectives and comparative approaches in mathematics education research.This book is a fascinating compendium of state-of-the-art knowledge for all mathematics education researchers, graduate students, teacher educators and curriculum developers worldwide.