Pedagogy Students’ Narratives About School Mathematics and the Educator Challenge

Abstract

The article presents parts of a research that aims to analyze how future teachers have learned mathematical concepts throughout their school and academic trajectory and how their representations related to school mathematics and its teaching can influence the elaboration of new representations. The text is the result of research-teacher education carried out by Hifopem research group, which used the biographical studies as the theoretical-methodological reference. Data were produced using memorials regarding education, pedagogical narratives, and transcription of the discussion-reflection group meetings. A narrative analysis was performed with these data. The research revealed evidence that students have often learned mathematical concepts painfully. Punishment and/or the feeling of impotence are the most visible and create representations of cold school mathematics, which is difficult to access, can only be learned by a few people, and only deals with calculations. Students have distanced themselves from Mathematics and believe they are not capable of teaching it. The clues given by the undergraduates have revealed the size of the challenge faced by educators: to make them aware of the obstacles arising from their school mathematics education to make these difficulties object of reflection, to be overcome and (re)signified during their academic education.