The acculturation of a beginning high school mathematics teacher into the school mathematics tradition. (Volumes I and II)
Abstract
This study addressed the phenomenon of the ubiquitousness and robustness of teacher-dominated practices in the teaching of school mathematics. In an effort to understand how these practices are perpetuated, a case study of a beginning high school mathematics teacher was conducted. Ethnographic methods were used in collecting data throughout the teacher's first year of teaching. In order to overcome the limitations of previous research, an attempt was made to situate the teacher's beliefs and classroom practices within the broader social contexts of school, community, and societal cultures while still respecting the teacher's agency. This was made possible by a coordination of the theoretical perspectives of constructivism and symbolic interactionism. The dialectical coordination of psychological and sociological perspectives facilitated the construction of a holistic account of the process of the teacher's acculturation into the taken-as-shared beliefs and practices of the school mathematics tradition. The study of the teacher's acculturation also provided the opportunity to study some of the tensions and contradictions that arise in the school mathematics tradition and the ways in which these are dealt with. In other words, the questions of how and why the traditional practices of school mathematics "work" and how they are sustained were also considered. In doing so, some of the implicit assumptions underlying these practices were identified and questioned. Finally, as a paradigm case for a teacher's acculturation into the school mathematics tradition, the study provided the opportunity to reflect on the problems and challenges faced by current reform efforts in mathematics education and by those who practice teacher education. Suggestions are offered for meeting these challenges by attempting to exploit some of the contradictions in the taken-as-shared beliefs and practices of the school mathematics tradition.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Wood, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Mathematics education
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