101. Developing a narrative-enactivist methodology for becoming a mathematics teacher educator
- Author
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Helliwell, Tracy, Brown, Laurinda, and Coles, Alf
- Subjects
Narrative ,Enactivism ,Mathematics teacher educator ,Becoming ,Mathematics teacher education ,Mathematics teacher learning ,Mathematics teacher educator learning ,Methodological - Abstract
This is a methodological thesis. The motivation for this study is a personal and professional one, which arose out of my need to learn a new set of practices and a new way of being with mathematics teachers as a new mathematics teacher educator. Over the course of this study, I explore a range of methodological issues that are pertinent to a self-based narrative inquiry, researching how I am becoming a mathematics teacher educator. In considering these methodological issues, I uncover a number of methodological principles that inform my approach to analysing one conversation between myself and an experienced mathematics teacher by using creative analytical practices. Through analysing that conversation, a central issue is revealed that provokes the need for an explanatory theory (the enactivist theory of cognition) and a conceptualisation of the process of developing expertise as a mathematics teacher educator. Having uncovered a range of methodological principles, in relation to narrative inquiry and the enactivist theory of cognition, I bring these principles together, to formulate a narrative-enactivist methodology for researching how I am becoming a mathematics teacher educator which I express as a set of eight key methodological principles. This research methodology informs my systematic approach to analysing a set of audio-recorded conversations with a collaborative group of in-service mathematics teachers. Through enacting this research methodology, which combines categorical analysis with the process of telling stories, a narrative-enactivist methodology for becoming a mathematics teacher educator emerges. This methodology for becoming a mathematics teacher educator is ultimately expressed as five methodological dimensions, specifically, using dissonance; staying with the detail; finding conviction; making it real; and going meta. Each of the five methodological dimensions are described in relation to three distinct methodological levels: learning to teach mathematics and mathematics teachers; researching how I am becoming a mathematics teacher educator; and a way of working with mathematics teachers.
- Published
- 2021