Tamsin Meaney

Mathematical Teaching Moments: Between Instruction and Construction

Internationally there is much discussion about what and how mathematics should be integrated into preschool programmes. In Swedish preschools, there is a strong tradition of valorising children’s play. Using video data, we identify how one teacher in a Swedish preschool recognises and builds on mathematical teaching moments that arise from children’s play. We use these data to discuss how the guided play context facilitates some teacher actions while constraining others. Respectful listening and asking challenging questions seem to stimulate the development of children’s mathematical curiosity. However, the teacher is not able to insist that her suggestions for activities are taken up by the children.

Learners in Transition Between Contexts

In this chapter, we explore, from a social justice perspective, conceptions of learners in transition between contexts and evaluate pedagogical practices that have been advocated for such learners. Learning occurs as learners reflect on their transition between contexts, particularly when there are differences in what content knowledge is valued, the relationships between participants and how activities are undertaken. From this perspective, productive pedagogical practices for learners in transition are those that build and sustain relationships between learners and mathematics and between learners and others, including those outside the classroom. We look specifically at examples of pedagogical practices that draw on ethnomathematics and critical mathematics education for their inspiration.

Professional development facilitators: reflecting on our practice

Professional development is often seen as something that is provided pre-packaged to teachers, who adopt or reject it depending upon their previous beliefs and knowledge. This view does not take into account the influence of context on the professional development. Yet there is little research from the perspective of the professional development facilitators and so the complexity in which they operate tends to be ignored. In this paper, we explore the constraints and opportunities in setting up a mathematics professional development project in one school whose students came from a low socio-economic area. We unpack some of the main decision-making points using Kemmis and Grootenboer’s ideas on the connection between practice architectures and dispositions, as described by Aristotle. This enabled us to identify how the circumstances and context shaped the professional development that we offered. It enabled us to better understand how we had influenced the situation itself and thus how we affected the later decision-making of participants. Such unpacking has potential for better understanding how the rhetoric surrounding Education for All can become a reality.

Mathematics as the Trojan horse in Norwegian early childhood policy

ABSTRACT Norwegian early childhood education policy seems to have begun to shift from emphasising playing and the development of the whole child to preparing children for school. This shift has been highlighted by the Norwegian early childhood sector as undesirable “schoolification”. However, mathematics education is rarely mentioned in these discussions and its role has not been previously examined. In this paper, representations of mathematics education in both Norwegian and Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development policies are explored to determine whether mathematics education is being used as a Trojan horse in subtly shifting early childhood policy towards more teaching and away from playing. Our findings show that mathematics is more strongly linked to teaching and learning than it is to playing but the shift is subtle.

Young Children’s Engagement with Mathematics: Expanding Teacher Educators’ Views

In this paper, teacher educators’ stories about young children engaging in mathematical activities are discussed. There has been little previous research about teacher educators, without experiences as kindergarten teachers, reflecting on their own understandings about how to engage children in mathematical situations. The teacher educators’ stories were categorised in regard to the mathematics and the pedagogical practices that were evident. Bishop’s six mathematical activities, which are Explaining, Playing, Designing, Locating, Measuring and Counting, were used to identify the mathematics that children engaged in. The stories were also analysed in regard to pedagogical practices, related to construction and instruction. Travel guide, travel agent and travel companion were used as metaphors to clarify the pedagogical roles that the teacher educators adopted when they interacted with children. Understanding our own practices with young children has implications for how to support kindergarten student teachers to connect their theoretical understandings about mathematics education in kindergarten with practical experiences from working with children.

Preservice Teachers Recognising and Responding to Young Children’s Engagement with Mathematics

In this paper, a methodology is proposed for gaining insights into preservice teachers’ understandings about young children’s mathematics learning. Using data from a Swedish and Norwegian pilot study, it is possible to see how a set of questions about a stimulus photo of children playing with some glass jars provided insights into the preservice teachers’ mathematical and pedagogical understandings. Although the preservice teachers seemed to be able to recognise a range of mathematical activities and respond to children engaging in them, they often gave only implicit, general information. This raises questions about teacher educators’ expectations about whether preservice teachers, at the end of their courses, should be able to provide more explicit descriptions of what children are doing and suggestions for how to develop their mathematical understandings. Information of this kind can inform teacher educators about what could be improved in future mathematics education courses in early years programmes.