Using Artifacts to Reflect on My Mathematics Teacher Educator’s Ways of Knowing: A Rural South African Perspective

I am a Black teacher educator who grew up in a South African township under the apartheid regime. In this chapter, I narrate my experiences of how my professional position and identity shaped me as a mathematics teacher educator early in my career. I started my teacher education career in a college of education and got involved with preservice teachers in a B.Ed. program, which took place at the Roman Catholic Seminary in a rural area. In this unique place, I experienced a teaching moment related to a clock. I brought a clock with Roman figures to the classroom pertinent to the lesson about the Roman number system. Data for this study comprise narratives around two artifacts: the clock and a picture of the Seminary. While telling and retelling my story around these two artifacts, I reflected on my mathematics teacher educator’s ways of knowing. Findings suggest that I learned mathematics alongside my preservice teachers. Throughout this journey, I conceded that preservice teachers were not only people to teach content to; I saw them as knowledgeable of mathematics and people with other needs, such as sustenance and comfort. I join other mathematics teacher educators in positioning preservice teachers as knowledgeable of mathematics content and pedagogy.