Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Item

A Different Story of Beliefs: Preparing Elementary Mathematics Specialists (as-Subjects) and Reconceptualizing Teacher Beliefs(-Entangled)

Myers, Kayla
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract

Teacher beliefs have long been a focus in mathematics education research as well as the broader field of education. One basic rationale for this emphasis has been to understand potential relationships between teacher beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning and enacted instructional practices, with recent research complicating these findings, suggesting beliefs are more complex with less of a linear relationship (e.g., Fives & Buehl, 2012; Skott, 2015a). In this study, rather than attempting to define teacher beliefs or dispute their influence, teacher beliefs are reconceptualized as entangled. This project was designed to support Prospective Elementary Mathematics Specialists (PEMSs) negotiate their beliefs amidst other aspects of teaching, addressing the messiness of beliefs while navigating their roles as mathematics teachers and teacher leaders. The participants in this study were three PEMSs completing a university K–5 Mathematics Endorsement program’s field practicum course. Data consists of classroom observations, semi-structured individual interviews, focus group interviews, and document analyses. Poststructural theories of subjectivity (e.g., Britzman, 1994; Davies, 2000; Foucault, 1982) were engaged to consider PEMSs as subjects whose beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics are entangled, impossible to think as separate or pre-existing (Derrida, 1967/1974). Analysis consisted of writing as inquiry (Richardson & St. Pierre, 2005), making (re)visible multiple ways of being and becoming subjects in mathematics teacher education and enabling a story of teacher beliefs entangled. This reconceptualization gave PEMSs a space to navigate and negotiate the tensions of teacher beliefs and their instructional practice. These tensions were crafted into conversations (Bridges-Rhoads, 2011; Davies, 2009; Shor & Freire, 1987), including creative analytical processes of writing dialogue, narratives, and poetry (Richardson, 1994, 1997, 2000). These “results” are perhaps more accessible, contributing to the current conversation about teacher beliefs as well as extending it to address important issues of perspective and methodology (Jackson & Mazzei, 2009; Koro-Ljungberg, 2015). This perspective and methodology have opened up the space to tell this different story of beliefs-entangled—messy, moving, and, most importantly, negotiable.

Comments
Description
Date
2019-05-17
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
Elementary Mathematics Specialists, teacher beliefs, poststructuralism, subjectivity, teacher education, mathematics teacher education
Citation
Myers, Kayla. "A Different Story of Beliefs: Preparing Elementary Mathematics Specialists (as-Subjects) and Reconceptualizing Teacher Beliefs(-Entangled)." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2019. https://doi.org/10.57709/14423672
Embargo Lift Date
2019-05-03
Embedded videos