The Social Administration of Mathematics Subject Knowledge Through Teacher Education

This chapter describes some empirical research in both primary and secondary university teacher education. It considers how practices of teacher education impact on classroom practice by new teachers and thus shape the mathematics that takes place. The theme is explored through an extended discussion of how the conduct of mathematical teaching and learning is restricted by regulative educational policies that set the parameters of teacher education. Specifically, it considers the example of how mathematics is discursively produced by student teachers within an employment-based model of teacher education in England where there is a relatively low level of university input. It is argued that teacher reflections on mathematical learning and teaching within the course are patterned in line with formal curriculum framings, assessment requirements and the local demands of their placement school. Here, both teachers and students are subject to regulative discourses that shape their actions, and, consequentially, this regulation influences the forms of mathematical activity that can take place and be recognised as such, but where this process restricts the presentational options for the mathematics in question. It is shown how university sessions can alternatively provide a critical platform from which to interrogate these restrictions and renegotiate them.