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Professional development and teacher agency in Mathematics Teacher Education for Sustainability

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Abstract

In-service primary school teachers’ professional development and, more specifically, their teacher agency, are analyzed regarding the integration of mathematical education and sustainability. To achieve this, based on semi-structured interviews, several questions involving Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and links between mathematics education and sustainability are considered, which yielded 44 answers. The analysis of these answers is based on four sub-aspects: knowledge of sustainability and its connection to the SDGs; sustainability practices; links between mathematics education and sustainability; and obstacles and challenges. The results show that teachers exhibit a significant lack of knowledge about sustainability and its connection to the SDGs, making a single association with issues related to the environmental crisis, which is the main focus of the sustainability practices carried out in schools. As pertains to the links between mathematics education and sustainability, most accept the importance of this connection, but point out various obstacles and challenges, such as the lack of knowledge and time, the curriculum itself, and others. It is concluded that it is necessary to design training programs focused on these aspects, in order to contribute to the development of teacher agency, i.e. the appropriation and reconstruction of new resources to face the challenges that mathematics education for sustainability implies in teaching practice.

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Funding

Work carried out as part of FONDECYT N°. 1200356, funded by the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID) of Chile and project SGR 2021 00767, funded by the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) of Catalonia (Spain).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Girona, Girona, Spain

    Ángel Alsina

  2. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Claudia Vásquez

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  1. Ángel Alsina
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  2. Claudia Vásquez
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Correspondence to Claudia Vásquez.

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Ethics Approval

Attached is the ethics approval letter for the Fondecyt Regular 1200356 project. Ethics approval protocol ID UC 190613048. The research study that underpins this publication was provided by project Fondecyt Regular 1200356 of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Registration number 190613048.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained as follows, as indicated in the methodology section of the article. The participants were recruited by means of open invitations that were sent to the directors of schools in various regions of Chile, who then forwarded the invitations to the teachers in their schools, all of whom subsequently and voluntarily signed the informed consents.

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Alsina, Á., Vásquez, C. Professional development and teacher agency in Mathematics Teacher Education for Sustainability. Math Ed Res J (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-024-00488-y

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