ERIC Number: EJ1081926
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1547-688X
EISSN: N/A
"Math Is All around Us and … We Can Use It to Help Us": Teacher Agency in Mathematics Education through Critical Reflection
Felton, Mathew D.; Koestler, Courtney
New Educator, v11 n4 p260-276 2015
As social-justice mathematics teacher educators, we have always engaged and supported the prospective and practicing teachers in our classes in critical reflection about mathematics and the teaching and learning of mathematics (Felton, 2010, 2012; Felton & Koestler, 2012; Koestler, 2012). Although there are different notions, purposes, and traditions of reflection (Zeichner & Liston, 1996), critical reflection goes beyond teachers simply recounting their experiences and instead engages them in attempting to unpack and make sense of their experiences in terms of the social, political, and cultural contexts in which their work takes place. We believe this can support them in taking up more progressive pedagogies that can lead to more equitable and just mathematics education for all students. While we did not originally think about our work in terms of teacher agency, writing about this here and elsewhere (Felton & Koestler, 2012) has provided an opportunity to consider what role agency plays in our work, what agency in mathematics teacher education means to us, and how we may better support developing this form of agency in our future work as mathematics teacher educators. We have been collaborating as "critical friends" (Anderson, Herr, & Nihlen, 2007) for the past eight years by discussing the content and pedagogy of our courses, our theoretical frames, and our research methods. While, in this article we discuss data that were generated in one semester of a mathematics content course for prospective teachers taught by Felton, analyzing and theorizing about the data was a collaborative effort.
Descriptors: Mathematics Education, Reflection, Critical Thinking, Faculty Development, Teaching Methods, Learner Controlled Instruction, Social Justice, Teacher Role, Social Influences, Politics, Preservice Teachers, Student Attitudes, Beliefs, Coding, Motivation, Social Change, Knowledge Level
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Ohio
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A