Hilary Povey

One Teacher and a Class of School Students: Their perception of the culture of their mathematics classroom and its construction

In this paper, the culture of the mathematics classroom is inspected through the lens of one teacher and one class of school students. The intention here is to privilege the voices of the participants, particularly those of the young people themselves, whose views and experiences are sometimes absent from educational studies. A metaphor of spaciousness is invoked in drawing together curriculum, pedagogy, epistemology and classroom practices and relationships. In the classroom under study, the students developed connected and authoritative understandings about the nature of mathematics; they linked these to the classroom relationships and linked these in turn to the curriculum. The comments from the students suggest that a reappraisal and renegotiation of what it means to be a teacher in the secondary mathematics classroom is timely.

Beginning mathematics teachers' ways of knowing: the link with working for emancipatory change

Abstract In this article, drawing on extended interview data collected as part of a larger study, a model of the ways of knowing of beginning mathematics teachers is elaborated. Central to the model is the construct ‘authority’ which links authoritative knowing and the authorship of knowledge. Four epistemological perspectives are described: silence, external authority, internal authority and the authority of self and reason. These are linked to two different traditions in mathematics classrooms – ‘school maths’ and ‘inquiry maths’ – and to the commitment of beginning mathematics teachers to working for emancipatory change in education.

Some Undergraduate Students' Perceptions of Using Technology for Mathematics: Tales of Resistance

We describe and report some results from a project designed to evaluate the use of information technology (IT) for teaching and learning on a range of undergraduate mathematics courses at a U.K. university. The project involved qualitative methods of enquiry (diaries and seminars). We emphasise that many of the students were positive about much of their use of IT; however in this article we focus particularly on their tales of resistance. These tales were told both by students whose overall perspective about the use of IT in the learning of mathematics was very positive as well as by those who were reluctant users. We have organised this article around two themes: the desire for ‘understanding’and technology and power — who is in control? We suggest that these tales spring from non-trivial concerns and that we are likely to be better able to support the development of authoritative learners of mathematics if we heed them.

Storying Joanne, an undergraduate mathematician

In this article two different accounts are juxtaposed. In one, we use a variety of texts to narrate the story of Joanne, a woman undergraduate student of mathematics. Like many of our mature students Joanne came to the university with a ‘non‐traditional’ academic background. We describe how Joanne developed as a learner of mathematics and connect this to our ways of working in the undergraduate mathematics classroom. We believe that our pedagogy is unusual outside (some) school classrooms and suggest it allows our students to develop positive ‘disciplinary relationships’. In the other, we grapple with the issues raised by telling other people’s stories especially when we are also characters within it. Our intention has been that, in interweaving these two threads, each helps us understand more about the other.

Promoting Social Justice in and through the Mathematics Curriculum: Exploring the Connections with Epistemologies of Mathematics.

This article rehearses the argument that being a critical mathematics educator is associated with a particular epistemological stance, one which views the truths of mathematics as historically located, influenced by the knower and mutable. Case study data, collected in England, is offered which exemplifies this connection between epistemology and openness to equity issues in the thinking of some beginning secondary mathematics teachers. Teachers’ responses are analysed around four themes: their beliefs about the nature of mathematics, how those beliefs affect their pedagogy, how they explain student failure, and their views on initial teacher education. These are linked to their commitment to social justice in and through mathematics. The links between subject studies in teacher education and equity issues in the classroom are discussed.

Entitlement through IT in mathematics classrooms

This paper is motivated by the need to find oppositional opportunities within the status quo of mathematics classrooms and the secondary school mathematics curriculum. The document from the National Council for Educational Technology (Mathematics and IT) suggests six ways in which information technology can provide opportunities to which students learning mathematics are ‘entitled’. The article is an attempt to draw out ways in which these opportunities might be interpreted which point to more liberatory practices in mathematics classrooms. Each of the information technology opportunities is paralleled with opportunities to begin to develop a social justice curriculum in and through the teaching and learning of mathematics, a curriculum designed to enable students to participate in a democracy more effectively.

Four Teachers Talking: Social Inclusion, Professional Development and (Un)contested Meanings.

Abstract The concept of social inclusion has been adopted as an overarching guide to policy by the New Labour government in the United Kingdom (following some of its European counterparts) and this extends into the realm of education. However, although the term is in currency, its true value and sense is not yet clear to many educational practitioners – even those who are dealing with projects directly inspired by it. Four teachers working in posts concerned with social inclusion reflect on their own professional development and that of their colleagues. This provides the context for a discussion of the conflicts, tensions and contested meanings they experience in their daily work

Critical epistemologies and gender issues in initial teacher education

Abstract The view that epistemological issues are central to developing a gender critical initial teacher education is explored. Particular reference is made to current government conceptualisations, and the associated assessment practices in England and Wales that are predicated on a technicist model of teaching. A critique of this model is put forward, and an alternative offered involving the self-reflective agent and a dialogic curriculum. Tentative suggestions are made for re-visioning practice

Time for Work: Finding Worth-While-Ness in Making Mathematics

In this chapter we are concerned to understand the connection that can occur for primary school children between relevant practical, “hands-on” engagement with the material world in partnership with others and the development of mathematical commitment, enthusiasm and understanding. We draw on our personal experiences of children who, as part of a theory driven intervention, prepared for a mathematical exhibition by working on extended tasks which they then displayed and explained. We use the writings of David Jardine on time and Peter Applebaum on work to aid our thinking. We point to how absorbing, extended practical work recognises and calls forth our humanity and can provide purposeful spaces for making mathematics.

“Now There’s Everything to Stop You”: Teacher autonomy then and now

Globalisation and neoliberal political agendas currently dominate educational policies and practices in, amongst others, many Anglophone and northern European countries including England, with discourses of the market and performance circulating widely and having become established regimes of truth. This demands sustained critique of hegemonic, taken-for-granted understandings and an exploration of how the lived experience of neoliberalism can be disrupted. In this chapter, we utilise the tools of genealogy to develop a history of the present, focussing particularly on the variation in autonomy revealed through a study of mathematics curriculum development. Juxtaposing stories from teachers involved in the Smile mathematics curriculum development project in England in the 1970s and 1980s with responses from currently serving teachers to the experience of performativity we highlight differences in teacher autonomy over time. We conclude by discussing the possibilities for teachers to mobilise such stories in their resistance to dominant, neo-liberal discourses.