Chapter 1: Setting the Stage: Explorations of Mathematics Teacher Educator Practices

When I (Signe) was assigned to teach a mathematics methods course for the first time, I reached out to Wendy Sanchez, whom I knew to be deeply committed to work with prospective mathematics teachers (PTs). As we talked, I wondered about the content of methods. My experiences teaching mathematics learners involved supporting their constructions of mathematics content, notions of self as a mathematics learner, and views of mathematics communities. Yet as I faced the prospect of working with PTs to support their constructions of mathematics teaching and learning, I wondered: What do I teach, if I am not teaching mathematics? This probably gives away too much and puts me at risk for judgments about what I should have known or done, yet I am willing to take the risk to situate the work of authors in this book.