Balancing District-Level Policy and Professional Obligations: An Exploration of Early Career Elementary Teachers' Enactment of Ambitious Mathematics Instruction

• In Event: Elementary Teachers and Coaches' Experiences of Opportunities to Learn

Abstract

As early career teachers (ECTs) work to implement reforms such as the Common Core State Standards in mathematics, they often experience dissonance as they fulfill professional obligations of mathematics teaching (Herbst & Chazan, 2012). Some ECTs may not have the resources to productively negotiate these choices. Further, the school and district in which they work may not equip them well to teach ambitiously (Lampert, 2001). We used an exploratory mixed method case study (Yin, 2013) to understand how ECTs negotiate their professional obligations and how this informs their ability to teach ambitiously. We found that extensive explicit district-level curricular guidance promoted strong mathematics instruction, but at the expense of responding to obligations to mathematics as a discipline or student needs.

Authors

• Serena J. Salloum, Ball State University

• Kristen Bieda, Michigan State University

• Peter A. Youngs, University of Virginia