Research in mathematics education suggests that teacher identity relates to why people teach (de Freitas, 2008; Gellert, 2000), how they understand the mathematics they teach (e.g. Drake, 2006), and how they learn to teach mathematics (e.g., Horn et al., 2008).  Relations between teacher identity and practice (e.g., Peressini, Borko, Romagnano, Knuth, & Willis, 2004) may be further complicated by preservice elementary teachers’ existing beliefs about or negative experiences with mathematics (Drake, 2006) and their understandings of students (e.g., Sleeter, 2008), as well as the ways in which they are positioned by institutional and social dynamics in classrooms.  Mathematics teacher education must attend to preservice elementary teacher (PST) identity to support teachers in understanding their identities and navigating classroom dynamics and the discourses that shape their understandings, such as institutional discourses of accountability and social discourses of mathematics ability.

Research on teacher identity development in teacher education, however, remains theoretical in nature or unspecified (Rodgers & Scott, 2008).  In mathematics education, teacher identity is seen as a “by-product of teacher education programs rather than as a targeted outcome” (Ponte & Chapman, 2008, p. 246).  More focused research is needed, particularly on supporting teacher identity work in teacher education (Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011).  Thus, this study explores how PSTs develop understandings of themselves as mathematics teachers and teaching as situated in the complex realities of schooling and how these understandings shift through their participation in a seminar involving critical self-examination. 

Theoretical framework

I contend that conceptualizing and understanding mathematics teacher identity through Butler’s (1999) theoretical premise of performativity and supporting PSTs’ identities through a process of deconstruction may advance research in mathematics teacher education and create opportunities for PSTs to navigate their teaching contexts. Performativity is a process of how identities are shaped by and understood in relation to prevailing social and institutional discourses.  The theoretical premise of deconstruction suggests that engaging PSTs in deconstructing dominant discourses that frame mathematics teaching and their teaching contexts, and challenging PSTs to question these discourses encourages PSTs’ active involvement in identity work and shifts in understanding.  Making sense of one’s relations to the multiple dynamics in the mathematics classroom and developing understanding of self as mathematics teacher may build capacity for navigating these dynamics and being critically analytic about teaching decisions. 

Research Methods and Data Sources

The research questions were: For PSTs participating in a seminar on critical self-reflection and mathematics teaching, how are they understanding themselves as mathematics teachers and mathematics teaching in context?  How are those understandings shifting?

To address these questions, I designed and facilitated a seminar to engage participating PSTs in critical examination of their understandings of themselves as mathematics teachers, teaching, and political and social discourses that shape classroom dynamics.  The seminar involved eight 2-hour sessions with one group of ten elementary PSTs in the final semester of their certification program.  The seminar design situated critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970/2000; Kumashiro, 2000) in mathematics teacher education specifically.  Across sessions, PSTs engaged in opportunities to name prevailing discourses of mathematics teaching and learning, discuss related implications on how they (and others) position themselves and are positioned, and interrogate these discourses, thus opening spaces for them to (re)author their understandings of being a mathematics teacher and teaching.  Activities included discussions, case analysis, and written responses and reflections.

Using data collected from the seminar (interviews, discussion transcripts, written work), I analyzed PSTs’ understandings of themselves as mathematics teachers, specifically how they were reflexive about their positioning (Mauthner & Doucet, 2003) in relation to an emergent theme and how they repositioned themselves.  I also analyzed how PSTs problematized mathematics teaching, that is how they negotiated different levels of attention— such as, to principles of teaching, instructional strategies, and specific teaching moves (Pollock, 2008)—and used conversational routines that opened opportunities for teacher learning (Horn & Little, 2010).

Discussion/Conclusion

The case of each participant offers a unique perspective on how PSTs understood themselves as mathematics teachers and their teaching and how these understandings shifted.  For example, analysis suggests that Candice engaged in this process of deconstruction, being reflexive about how she and others are positioned, and her understandings of herself as a mathematics teacher shifted.  Across PSTs’ discussions of teaching, there were both subtle and significant differences in how PSTs problematized teaching, particularly in relation to race, class, and students’ abilities.  PSTs’ understandings of teaching shifted, and engaging in this process of deconstruction served as a resource for PSTs, such as Sarah, in understanding teaching.

Across seminar sessions, PSTs’ discursive participation also suggests how to engage PSTs in critical self-examination in mathematics teacher education.  Analysis suggests the importance of situating this identity work within a mathematics methods course to allow PSTs opportunities to interrogate the specifics of the mathematics and students’ opportunities to learn.  For example, when discussing teaching probability in an urban school, PSTs emphasized how games with dice may encourage student interest.  They did not, however, take up discussions about the broader implications of this narrow focus, such as how games of chance present only one application of probabilistic thinking or whether these games support elementary students in meeting specific district objectives or developing conceptual understandings.  This proposed session will focus on these findings and present the session framework and specific activities in order to support teacher educators in understanding and implementing related activities in mathematics teacher education.

Significance

Teacher education has a responsibility to support PSTs in this identity work, that is, in navigating the social and political forces that shape their identity and their experiences in mathematics classrooms, and as such attention to teacher identity may build teacher capacity to address issues of equity in teaching mathematics.  Performativity (Butler, 1999) offers both a theoretical premise to understand identity and a framework for how to foster it thereby using theories of identity in course design and in supporting PSTs in self-understanding.  By operationalizing identity and critical pedagogy in mathematics teacher education, this study provides new tools for teacher education and attends to enduring questions of teacher preparation for today’s classroom contexts.