Abstract
Actor-network theory is a way of describing and understanding the complexity of social change. This article explores its relevance to understanding teacher change in mathematics education by considering a single teacher change narrative. This is centred on a veteran teacher of mathematics who participated in a teacher led, teacher-educator-supported professional development project. The project had two foci: investigating forms of school-based collaborative professional development in the context of developing a dynamic approach to teaching and learning geometry. Three conceptual tools appropriated or adapted from actor network theory are used to describe and analyse features of this teacher narrative. These are relationality, translation and fluidity. Some implications are considered for developing accounts of, and actions for, mathematics teacher change.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the funding received from the National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching in UK that supported the project referred to in this article and for the comments of the reviewers, editors and Cathy Burnett.
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Boylan, M. ‘It’s getting me thinking and I’m an old cynic’: exploring the relational dynamics of mathematics teacher change. J Math Teacher Educ 13, 383–395 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-010-9154-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-010-9154-8