Thomas E. Hodges

Negotiating Contexts to Construct an Identity as a Mathematics Teacher

ABSTRACT The authors focused on 1 middle-grades mathematics teachers identity and her efforts to implement standards-based instructional practices. As professionals, teachers participate in multiple professional communities and must negotiate and manage conflicting agendas. The authors analyze how the contexts of these communities influence the teachers identity and thus her teaching of mathematics.

School-Based Communities of Practice as Mechanisms for Standards-Based Mathematics Curriculum Implementation.

In this article, we draw upon Remillard and Bryans’ (2004) categorization of curriculum use in observations of two middle-grade teachers’ integration of Standards-based curriculum materials (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989, 2000). Each teacher participated in a two-year professional development program focused on increasing content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, as well as fostering the development of communities of practice within each school site. We introduce the design of the professional development program to explain how the design supported each teachers use of Standards-based curriculum materials. Results indicated that the existence of site-based communities of practice established during the professional development program afforded one teacher continued opportunities to reflect upon and critique her instructional decisions, whereas the lack of a community of practice at another school site served to limit the integration of Standards-based materials.