Chapter 3: Diamonds in a Skull: Unpacking Pedagogy with Beginning Teachers

In the June of 2008, Sir Peter Williams published the outcomes of his investigation into the teaching of mathematics to children for the ages of 3 to 11 in schools in England. This report was commissioned by the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to explore the most effective pedagogy for teaching mathematics—effectiveness was to be measured by the progress that children made in their learning. The quotes that open this chapter show a developing consensus from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted)— the government inspectorate of schools—and the Department with responsibility for education. This is the view that effective teaching of mathematics is inextricably bound to individual teachers’ personal mathematical subject knowledge. During 2008 and 2009, I worked with a group of trainee teachers who had elected to take part in a curriculum development project to support them in developing their teaching of mathematics. All the trainee teachers had expressed a certain “lack of confidence” in their own subject knowledge and hoped that the project would boost their confidence as well as their practice. It is interesting that this group of trainee teachers did not share the view of Ofsted and the DCSF that their own learning of mathematics was directly linked to their teaching of mathematics as they set out on the project.

This national research project was led by The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), with partners including the Training and Development Agency for Schools, York Saint John University, and Leeds Metropolitan University. The project involved 20 undergraduate students who identified themselves as “lacking in confidence” in personal mathematics subject knowledge. A series of seminars supported these undergraduates in developing their subject knowledge. These undergraduates will also be supported in schools to develop their range of approaches to learning and teaching mathematics. In this sense, the project aims at developing the pedagogical approaches of the trainees through developing their confidence in their own understandings. This may be seen as developing their teaching repertoire within their professional subject knowledge as a result of working at their personal subject knowledge. Using Shulman’s (1986) terms, the aim is to develop pedagogical subject knowledge through a focus on content subject knowledge.

This chapter evaluates this process through the lens of identity. The chapter will explore constructions of identities of mathematics learner and mathematics teacher, focusing on the impact that identity work has on classroom practices. The question may be articulated in a number of ways: How do I develop as a teacher? How does my teaching develop as a result of my working at mathematics? How does my changing view of myself as a mathematician impact my view of myself as a teacher of mathematics and how does this evidence itself in my practice?