Troubling Teacher Identity: Preparing Mathematics Teachers to Teach for Diversity

Source:  Teaching Education, Volume 19, Issue 1 March 2008 , pages 43 - 55

This paper reports on an action research project designed to explore the complexities of pre-service mathematics teacher resistance to social justice issues. Research on equity and mathematics education has indicated that such resistance seems particularly strong for mathematics teachers. Twelve pre-service mathematics teachers participated in a course-based research project to explore this issue. Participants completed a classroom discourse analysis and a self-study narrative as part of their secondary mathematics methods course. The findings suggest that attention to issues of identity construction within school mathematics can be successfully embedded in methods courses in order to better prepare mathematics teachers to teach for diversity.