One of the purposes of teacher education and professional development is to support teachers as they work towards improving their teaching practice. Researchers have found that teachers’ views of authority play a critical role in advancing their practice (Wilson & Lloyd, 2000). Spangler (2010) suggests experimenting within teacher education activities to encourage the development of an internal locus of authority. These findings led us to question if teachers’ authority is situational and may be different when thinking about content versus pedagogy. Furthermore, we wondered if the locus of authority may shift or fluctuate as a person transitions from being a student to becoming a teacher. For many teachers, the shift from being a student to becoming a teacher occurs during a preparation program, which typically includes mathematics courses, mathematics education courses, and field experiences.

Our study compares the similarities and differences in elementary pre-service teachers’ locus of authority and views of the world in mathematics courses and mathematics methods courses. The study is designed to explore issues of authority that arise as university students begin the shift to becoming elementary teachers. The study addresses the research question of how do pre-service teachers’ beliefs pertaining to authority differ in a mathematics course versus a methods course.

Data was collected during summer 2011 in a number and operations mathematics course and a method’s of teaching number and algebraic reasoning course for pre-service elementary teachers. Fourteen participants from the mathematics course and 16 participants from the methods course completed a pre- and post-survey that was developed for this study.  Surveys for both courses included a few common questions about authority and different questions that addressed locus of authority related to the content of the course. Specifically, in the mathematics class the survey questions addressed the pre-service teachers’ views of mathematics and their locus of authority related to mathematics. In the methods course, the questions addressed the pre-service teachers’ views of teaching and learning mathematics and their locus of authority related to these.  At the end of the survey, participants were asked to volunteer to participate in an interview/focus group.  Two groups of three pre-service teachers in each course (12 total) participated in a focus group interview.  The interviews for the two courses were based on a common mathematical activity, but the follow-up questions were designed specifically for the content of the course focusing on either content or pedagogy.

During fall 2011, data will be analyzed using a framework built upon Perry’s (1970) categories of intellectual development, Benne’s (1970) different types of authority, and Boaler and Greeno’s (2000) nature of mathematics knowing. The work of William Perry (1970) looked at authority within the context of students’ attitudes toward knowledge and the way they view the world. He created a scheme that describes the “qualitative changes” in the way students approach different learning experiences throughout their college years and also later into adulthood. Through these experiences there’s a shift from viewing authority as a source of “Truth” to authority as a resource, whether the authority is a teacher, textbook, or oneself. This shift of focus also transfers to considering the role of a student who moves from being a passive receptor of facts and procedures to an active agent in making claims and creating new knowledge. Students’ locus of authority can also be examined in connection with students’ identities. Boaler and Greeno (2000) extended Belencky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule’s (1986) framework of ways of knowing by studying whether students were active or passive participants in didactic teaching and discussion-based teaching. Their framework examined how individuals view their mathematics knowledge as received, subjective, separate, or connected. A third perspective on authority situates authority as dependence and interdependence, where one person has a need or purpose and another has power (Benne, 1970). Benne’s framework includes three different kinds of authority: expert authority, rules authority, and ‘anthropological’ authority.

Our study is a pilot, which will serve as a stepping-stone for our future research endeavors.  It is our plan to turn this into a longitudinal study that begins in the content courses, follows pre-service teachers through their methods courses, and then into their internship and initial teaching positions. We will look for trends in pre-service teachers’ appeals to authority and views of the world of teaching mathematics in hopes of developing a trajectory.  As a result of our findings, we plan to design classroom activities that will challenge our students’ perceptions and perhaps push them to a more advanced way of viewing the world.  

We want to present our pilot study in a working group session to stimulate discussion around teachers’ authority and to receive feedback before moving forward in our study. Our presentation will involve three components. First, we will present our study, including research questions, relevant literature, and data collection strategies (10 minutes). Next, we plan to engage the audience in a data analysis activity to explore our framework, consider various themes, and discuss directions for our research (50 minutes). We will provide the audience with sample data and our framework to focus the discussion. The following questions will structure our discussion:

• In what ways is prospective teachers’ locus of authority similar and different when examining mathematics and pedagogy related to teaching mathematics?
• In what ways do prospective teachers’ locus of authority and views of the world influence their mathematical and pedagogical development?
• What ideas about teachers’ locus of authority and views of the world are explored through the framework we developed? How might we revise the framework?
• For our future research, what modifications should we consider in data collection?

Lastly, we will present our initial findings, offer initial thoughts about implications for teacher education, and seek audience feedback and comments (5 minutes to present initial findings, 10 minutes for audience feedback).

Belencky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, voice and mind. New York: Basic Books.

Benne, K.D. (1970). Authority in education, Harvard Educational Review, 40, 385-410.

Boaler, J. & Greeno, J. G. (2000). Identity, agency, and knowing in mathematics worlds. In J. Boaler (Ed.), Multiple Perspectives on Mathematics Teaching and Learning (pp. 171 – 200), Westport, CT: Ablex.

Perry, W. G. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: A scheme. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Spangler, D. A. (2010). Relationships between content knowledge, authority, teaching practice, and reflection. In J. Luebeck & J. W. Lott (Eds.), Mathematics Teaching: Putting Research into Practice at all Levels, pp. 41-55, San Diego: AMTE.

Wilson, S., & Lloyd G. (2000). Sharing mathematical authority with students: The challenge for high school teachers. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 15, 146–169.