This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 26, Issue 2, Author(s): Janet Hart Frost, “Looking through the Lens of A Teacher's Life: The Power of Prototypical Stories in Understanding Teachers' Instructional Decisions in Mathematics“, Pages 225-233, Copyright Elsevier (February 2010).
The focus of this narrative inquiry was to examine how teachers describe influences on their instructional decisions in mathematics.
Using a lens provided by pivotal or prototypical stories teachers told about their past experiences, connections were suggested between these past experiences and their instructional decisions. These connections helped to illustrate how instructional decisions may be shaped by priorities and beliefs established earlier in life, as well as by current contexts.
Further research on the use and characteristics of prototypical stories is suggested.