Preparing Future Mathematics Faculty Members for Teaching: Barriers to Change

• In Event: Preparing the Next Generation of Faculty

Abstract

This study attends to the preparation of graduate students in mathematics for their potential futures as teachers of university-level mathematics. Over a period of six months, a series of conversations was conducted with mathematics graduate students. Coupling hermeneutic inquiry with thematic analysis, the conversations were analyzed to understand what experiences in graduate school were taken as having meaning for the teaching of mathematics. Two themes, the structures of teaching assistant work and the role of professor, had a significant influence on the participants’ views of mathematics teaching; so much so that resistance to alternate ways of teaching is expected with little motivation to engage in new ways of teaching or to connect with mathematics learners.

Author

• Mary Beisiegel, Oregon State University