Investigating Secondary Mathematics Preservice Teachers’ Instructional Vision: Learning to Teach Through Pedagogies of Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in a cohort of secondary preservice teachers’ (PSTs) vision of the role of a teacher within the context of a mathematics methods course designed around pedagogies of practice. We analyzed data collected in the first and last 2 weeks of the course, consisting of recordings of small- and whole-group discussions, PSTs’ written work, and individual interviews. We first coded using Munter’s Role of Teacher rubric and identified significant differences between beginning-of-semester data and end-of-semester data. We then conducted three rounds of constant comparative analysis resulting in four themes that describe the changes in visions of role of teacher. Findings indicate that engaging in pedagogies of practice in preservice education has the potential to influence PSTs’ visions of their role as mathematics teachers. This study extends both the literatures on pedagogies of practice and on teachers’ instructional vision.

Editors’ Learning: Reflections on Our Leadership of JTE

“…One example of this is JTE articles where authors have advised caution concerning the primary focus on core practices (e.g., Philip et al, 2019;Richmond et al, 2017). Another is several articles where authors address the ways that practices can be taught to individuals during their time in teacher preparation programs (e.g., Arbaugh et al, 2021;Jenset et al, 2018), including those practices which have not always been considered "core" to the profession (e.g., Windschitl et al, 2021).…”