New Teacher Identity and Regulative Government - The Discursive Formation of Primary Mathematics Teacher Education

This book seeks to address the question of how the task of teaching mathematics to young children might be better understood. But rather than starting out with a conception of mathematics derived from the many histories mathematics might claim as its own we centre the analysis instead within the social practices that surround the teaching of the subject to children aged four to eleven in English primary schools today. That is, we do not commence with an a priori conception of mathematics and see what people are saying about it. Rather, we start from what people are saying and see where this points. We probe how the desires of society have manifested themselves in a societal decision to teach mathematics and how this decision now shapes that which is called "mathematics". We focus on the operation of the noun "mathematics" and verb "mathematical" and consider how the meanings of these terms derive from the social domain in which they are being used. This extends and develops a conception of how language intervenes in the task of mathematics education presented elsewhere (Brown, 2001). In this present book however, we have a particular focus on trainee and newly qualified teachers, with a view to pinpointing how this conception of mathematics manifests itself in their evolving practices. We question how such teachers with many years of experience as a pupil in school might now re-orient themselves towards the demands of teaching mathematics in schools.

List of contents

Identifying with Mathematics Teaching.- Towards Reconciling Insider and Outsider Perspectives.- Conceptualising Identity in Initial Teacher Education.- Trainees Becoming Teachers: an English Case Study.- The English National Reform Agenda.- How Student Teachers Learn.- The Empirical Study.- The Transition from School Pupil to Trainee Teacher.- The Intermediate Years of Training.- The Transition from Trainee to Newly Qualified Teacher.- The Discursive Formation of School Mathematics.- The Production of Cover Stories.- The Emergence of School Mathematics.- The Secrets of the Forms of School Mathematics.- Conclusion.- Conceiving Policy.- Conceiving Teacher Development.- Conceiving Mathematics.- Conceiving Research.

About the author

Tony Brown Tony is Professor of Mathematics Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. Originally from London, Tony trained in Canterbury and Exeter before returning to London where he taught mathematics for three years at Holland Park School. This was followed by three years as a mathematics teacher educator for Volunteer Service Overseas in Dominica in the Caribbean. In 1987, he completed his PhD at Southampton University. His doctoral research focused on language usage in mathematics classrooms, especially where the fluent use of English could not be assumed. After a spell as mathematics coordinator in a middle school in the Isle of Wight, Tony moved to Manchester Metropolitan University. Tony has headed the doctoral programme in education and participated in a range of other courses; he became a professor in 2000. Projects have included: Economic and Social Research Council-funded studies examining teacher education; piloting a distance-teaching programme enabling British volunteers based in Africa to research their own teaching practice within a programme of professional development; a General Medical Council-funded project on how senior doctors learn; and leading a team of emergency medicine doctors carrying out professionally focused research. Tony also spent two years on leave from Manchester at the University of Waikato where he became the first Professor of Mathematics Education in New Zealand. There he led a project funded by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research on Pasifika teachers working in New Zealand Schools. Tony has published two other books in Springer s Mathematics Education Library series. Mathematics Education and Language, first published in 1997, outlines his interest in mathematics in schools. A revised second edition appeared in 2001. Mathematics Education and Subjectivity (forthcoming) explores mathematical learning from the perspective of contemporary social theory. Meanwhile, Tony has also co-authored, with Liz Jones, Action Research and Postmodernism, which explores how teachers might carry out practitioner research within higher degrees. Regulative Discourses in Education: A Lacanian Perspective, co-authored with Dennis Atkinson and Janice England, offers an analysis of teacher practices through psychoanalytic theory. The Psychology of Mathematics Education, which he edited, introduces psychoanalytic theory as an alternative to more cognitive understandings of psychology. Tony has also written extensively in journals such as Educational Studies in Mathematics, For the Learning of Mathematics and the British Educational Research Journal.

Summary

This book seeks to address the question of how the task of teaching mathematics to young children might be better understood. But rather than starting out with a conception of mathematics derived from the many histories mathematics might claim as its own we centre the analysis instead within the social practices that surround the teaching of the subject to children aged four to eleven in English primary schools today. That is, we do not commence with an a priori conception of mathematics and see what people are saying about it. Rather, we start from what people are saying and see where this points. We probe how the desires of society have manifested themselves in a societal decision to teach mathematics and how this decision now shapes that which is called "mathematics". We focus on the operation of the noun "mathematics" and verb "mathematical" and consider how the meanings of these terms derive from the social domain in which they are being used. This extends and develops a conception of how language intervenes in the task of mathematics education presented elsewhere (Brown, 2001). In this present book however, we have a particular focus on trainee and newly qualified teachers, with a view to pinpointing how this conception of mathematics manifests itself in their evolving practices. We question how such teachers with many years of experience as a pupil in school might now re-orient themselves towards the demands of teaching mathematics in schools.

Product details

• Authors: Ton Brown, Tony Brown, Olwen McNamara
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 14.04.2005
• EAN: 9780387239712
• ISBN: 978-0-387-23971-2
• No. of pages: 208
• Weight: 496 g
• Illustrations: X, 208 p.
• Series: Mathematics Teacher Education; Mathematics Teacher Education
• Subjects: Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Family; Humanities, art, music > Education > General, dictionaries