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The development of a mathematics teacher’s professional identity during her first year teaching

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Abstract

This study is focused on a period that poses several challenges for the development of mathematics teachers’ professional identities and agency: their first year of teaching in schools. During this period, beginning mathematics teachers confront tensions and contradictions among the principles, ideals, and experiences encountered during pre-service education and the demands, and restrictions of their teaching practice in schools. This article approaches this topic by developing an interpretative case study centered on one novice mathematics teacher, Sol. The aim is to describe and understand the development of Sol’s professional identity and agency during her first teaching year. Considering identity development as a diachronic phenomenon, we carry out a narrative analysis of the research data. The findings show that Sol developed her professional identity and agency through a process that gathered together the teaching practices possible inside her school, the positions she could negotiate as a newcomer inside the institution, and the cultural practices and discourses embodied during pre-service education. The results bring to the forefront the profound and tense interactions between the intimate and personal terrain of mathematics teachers and the social and cultural world of the schools where they work. Sol’s case also contributes to understanding the role that a robust pre-service education can play in the development of beginning teachers’ professional identities and in the possibility they could become agents of transformation in their schools.

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Notes

  1. All the names mentioned in this paper are pseudonyms.

  2. The research participants gave informed consent to use this set of data for the purposes of the present study.

  3. The syllabus of both programs shared several subjects such as Calculus and Algebra.

  4. https://www.geogebra.org.

  5. In Argentina, school year starts in March and ends in December.

  6. The reader should keep in mind that in Argentina, secondary education is compulsory and lasts six years. It is divided in two cycles: the basic cycle and the oriented cycle. The basic cycle includes 1st to 3rd grades (students aged 12–14 years) and has a common curriculum for all the schools. The oriented cycle comprises 4th to 6th grades (students aged 15–17 years). For the oriented cycle, each institution offers at least one orientation (natural sciences, social sciences, etc.). Each orientation has a special curriculum.

  7. In Argentina, 2nd grade students are 13 years old.

  8. Referrals are disciplinary sanctions that teachers impose on students because of their misbehavior.

  9. In Argentina, 6th grade students are 17 years old.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Res 4467/12), and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Processo PQ-1D/CNPq No. 312929/2013-7).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Av. Medina Allende, s/n Ciudad Universitaria, X5000HUA, Córdoba, Argentina

    Leticia Losano & Mónica Villarreal

  2. Faculdade de Educação, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

    Dario Fiorentini

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  1. Leticia Losano
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  2. Dario Fiorentini
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  3. Mónica Villarreal
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Correspondence to Leticia Losano.

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Losano, L., Fiorentini, D. & Villarreal, M. The development of a mathematics teacher’s professional identity during her first year teaching. J Math Teacher Educ 21, 287–315 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-017-9364-4

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