Talking About Sustainability in Mathematics Teacher Preparation in Finland and the United States

• In Event: Poster session I
  In Poster Session: Poster session 1

Proposal

This paper reports on empirical research findings from a case study on teacher preparation. A sociological perspective was deployed for investigating the characteristics of mathematics teacher preparation and for responding to the following research question: What can thirteen interviews in Finland and four interviews in the United States tell us about the characteristics of local cultures of teacher education? The study was piloted in the U.S. in 2015 and carried out in Finland in 2016. Seventeen semi- structured, open-ended, audio-recorded interviews form the core of the research materials. Research participants articulated ethical reflections that connected the role of mathematics teachers to different conceptualizations of sustainability. Articulations on the meaning of sustainability in mathematics teacher education in Finland are in this paper contrasted with articulations from teachers in the U.S.

Two theories from the social sciences, namely (1) Structuration theory (Giddens, 1986) and (2) Speech act theory (Skinner, 2002) are deployed in this paper for a thematic analysis of interviews.
(1) Structuration theory (Giddens, 1986; Burridge et al. 2010) proposes actors are knowledgeable, in the sense that decisions to act are based on individually meaningful reasons. Faculty and students make decisions in a context that is structurally and politically limited. Structural and political limitations include material conditions as well as intersectional positionality that is determined by factors such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, community of faith, tribe and nationality. I have interviewed faculty, students and administrators regarding the goals, constraints, barriers and resources that were in their view important in the initial training of mathematics teachers and for the continued development of mathematics teachers. I have compiled a demographic profile of research participants using self-identification and I sought pro-actively to compose the group of interview participants so that it represented different social and intersectional positions (age, gender, primary language, ethnicity, nationality and race) (Table 1.).

(2) Speech act theory (Skinner, 2002) explains statements made by actors as moves in argument (Skinner, 1988, p.274). Concepts are in this approach understood as defined by the practices they are in different context used for justifying or promoting. Accordingly, I asked teachers to provide concrete examples of teaching practices that corresponded to goals and barriers.

Participants were faculty, students, administrators and instructors in two graduate-level programs preparing mathematics teachers for upper secondary schools. The pilot study in California and the following case study in Finland were executed with the approval of the Institutional Review Board of the University of California Los Angeles, the approval of the universities at which the teacher preparation programs were located and with the consent of participants.
My goal has been to identify similarities, differences and patterns in how teacher preparation was reasoned about in a set of interviews. Behavior in social contexts, including interview responses, are not based on natural laws that can be generalized for populations or political units. The empirical examples documented in this case study are specific to time, location and interviewee.
Having worked with credential evaluation, I am an outsider-observer of teacher preparation. My goal was not to evaluate or promote a program. I was motivated by an interest to contribute to basic research that is informed by a sociological approach to understanding local practices in mathematics teacher education.
The Finnish discourse documented was characterized by a view in which the primary role that mathematics teachers play for promoting sustainability is to popularize scientific knowledge. Teachers in the U.S. identified social justice as the foundation for sustainable futures. Research participants outlined how mathematics teachers can play a role as professional educators in supporting agendas for sustainability. The following paraphrases two points made by mathematics teachers in the U.S. and in Finland. The names used are pseudonyms.

“A goal of the program is that students develop an understanding of the social justice stance that is an umbrella concept for all of the Graduate School of Education. […]. One activity that helps students develop understanding for positionality is the “I am” poem. They learn to understand their privilege.” (Aina, Mathematics TEP Instructor, U.S., February 13th, 2015)

“A scientist studies natural phenomena and the effects of new inventions that apply new knowledge. Subsequently, the scientist needs to figure out some ways of dealing with the problems for the environment and humans caused by new applications of knowledge.”
(Matti, Mathematics TEP Student, Finland, September 2nd 2016)

International comparative studies of student outcomes such as the PISA study (OECD, 2016) tell us little about these types of thoughts regarding the purposes and goals that drive teacher preparation in individual Schools of Education. Yet, reforms of teacher preparation are often motivated by a wish to improve student outcomes in large-scale surveys and standardized testing. The reasoning for reforms in teacher preparation remain lopsided when the reasoning of teachers involved in teacher preparation is assumed. The goal of the research on which this paper reports was to support a deeper understanding of the characteristics of local discourses and to illustrate how teacher preparation is reasoned about in the case of a research university in Finland. A smaller number of interviews in the U.S. were used for providing contrast. This research was motivated by an extensive review of research on teacher education (Cochran-Smith et al., 2014 & 2015) and critical responses to the globalizing force of international surveys (Sellar & Lingard, 2014; Andrews et al., 2014). These and other contributions have underscored the importance of a better understanding of the context of teacher preparation and different cultures of teacher preparation.

The research I present is significant in that it identifies connections between teaching practices and language practices regarding societal purposes and how sustainability was addressed in two different cultural contexts. My research contributes to research on mathematics teacher education. This research is original in that it engaged teachers in discussions regarding their subject matter but also regarding their vocation as educators. My analysis articulates how context-specific culture and social norms contribute to local models in which the forms of knowledge and skill-sets of teachers are understood as complex, interlinked and framed by societal discourses.

Author

• Susan Wiksten, UCLA International Institute