A Mathematics Teacher’s Curricular Decision Image: Unearthing How Knowledge Interacts With Practice

• In Event: Narrative Methodologies in Our Current Classrooms

Abstract

Research uncovered factors that inform mathematics teachers’ curricular decisions. Yet less understood is how teachers make curricular decisions and what frameworks to use. A personal practical knowledge framework (PPK) conceptualizes teachers’ experiential ways of knowing, and teacher image conveys how teachers make curricular decisions. We narratively inquired into an eighth-grade mathematics teacher’s decisions while teaching a task. Data consists of transcripts of conversations, weekly journals, and student’s written work. We report one image from the narrative analysis: bringing the outside in. The image communicates how the teacher’s curricular decisions were conscious, rational, and informed by her identity. We argue that PPK allows researchers to explore how teachers make curricular decisions, which contributes to unearth how teacher knowledge interacts with practice.

Author

• Elizabeth Suazo-Flores, University of North Dakota