Considerations For Research For Issues Of Out-Of-Field Teaching

Author(s):

Stephen Quirke(presenting / submitting)Niamh O'Meara Olivia Fitzmaurice

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES D 13, Teaching and Education

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-22

13:30-15:00

Room:

OB-H2.32

Chair:

Lázaro Moreno Herrera

Contribution

This paper highlights the consideration that must be given to teacher confidence and teacher knowledge as elements of teacher identity when examining the phenomenon of ‘out-of-field’ mathematics teaching. An out-of-field mathematics teaching teacher is defined as a teacher who is teaching mathematics in second level education but is not fully qualified to do so (Ingersoll 1999). This is an international area of interest with research published on this issue in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and the United States of America (Ingersoll 1999, Hobbs 2013, Ní Ríordáin & Hannigan 2011, Van Zoest and Bohl 2005). This issue involves an investigation into the composition of an out-of-field teacher’s identity and their professional mathematics teacher identity (PMTI). Wenger (1998) believes that there is a deep connection between identity and practice, thus if this is the case then “[t]he professional identity of the person who teaches is an essential factor in determining the success of what happens in the classroom” (van Putten et al. 2014, p. 369).

Identity is tasked with serving many purposes such as studying self-understanding, labelling persons with uniformity or regularity and recognising core elements of the self (Brubaker and Cooper 2000). The psychosocial view on identity, developed by Erik Erikson, comprises individual and social meaning (Holland and Lachicotte 2007). The sense of being part of relationships, groups or culture is central to this perspective on the concept of identity (Flum and Kaplan 2012). This is similar to the sociocultural perspective of Wenger (1998). This perspective is frequently cited in research on identity in education (e.g., Graven 2004, Van Zoest and Bohl 2005). Wenger (1998) illustrates that identity is composed of negotiated experiences, community membership, learning trajectory, nexus of multi-membership and the relation between the local and global. Communities of practice are deemed to play a significant role in identity development. These are communities who share a joint enterprise, mutual engagement and repertoire (Van Zoest and Bohl 2005). This signifies the link between identity and practice and thus, in an educational context between professional teacher identity and teaching.

Beijaard et al. (2004) propose that professional teacher identity is an ongoing process that is not fixed, but rather dynamic. They highlight that it involves the answers to the questions “who am I at this moment?” and “who do I want to become?”, thus involving anticipatory reflection (Conway 2001). They add that a teacher’s professional identity consists of sub-identities that more or less harmonise. This links to Wenger’s (1998) work on the nexus of multi-membership, whereby the reconciliation of community membership takes place. This process of identity reconciliation undertaken by out-of-field mathematics teachers requires future research. The following research questions have been formed:

Does a community of practice, established through a professional development programme, have the capacity to impact on teacher identity?
What are the key factors that support the identity reconciliation of out-of-field mathematics teachers?

The theoretical framework for this study aims to examine the boundary crossing (Hobbs 2013) that out-of-field mathematics teachers undertake. It incorporates Van Zoest and Bohl’s (2005) definition of mathematics teacher identity (MTI) that focuses on teachers teaching mathematics who are not qualified to do so – that is, the actual identity of teachers (Sfard and Prusak 2005). Wenger (1998) social theory of learning is utilised with the additive of confidence from the work of Graven (2004). The final component encompasses four elements namely, Knowledge of Mathematics for Teaching, Experience, Participation in Professional Activities, and Membership to Professionally Related Communities. Graven (2004) argued that mastery illustrated by confidence in these domains, was essential for formulating a PMTI - the designated identity of teachers (Sfard and Prusak 2005).

Method

As the focus of the study is to examine the identity of out-of-field mathematics teachers, a qualitative paradigm fits, as this mode of research examines “things in their natural setting, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (Denzin and Lincoln 2000, p. 3). Kelle (2006) concludes that this paradigm is advantageous when studying how social actors define and perceive their situation. In the context of this study, this will focus on how out-of-field teachers define and perceive their professional mathematics teacher identity and how this may evolve through participation in a professional development programme. Viewing the world through this lens requires collecting qualitative data. This data can be collected through the use of interviews, focus groups, observations or documents (Merriam 2009). With this approach, the authors intend to use a questionnaire to identify the demographics of the teachers to enable the use of purposive sampling. The authors will then gather data through the use of focus groups, semi-structured interviews, lesson observations and field notes. The authors plan on using six participants who will be interviewed three times over the course of two years. This data will be collected to enable participants to tell their own stories and narratives. Much literature highlights the relationship between teachers’ professional identity, and their stories and narratives. Thus, the use of narratives seems to be a sound theoretical basis for researching teachers’ professional identities (Beijaard et al. 2004). Chapman (2008) concludes that studies on teacher narratives are a useful research tool for mathematics education. He highlights that research framed in this manner is less concerned with identifying teacher’s deficiencies but instead, more focussed on understanding how teachers understand themselves and their work based on the past, present and future. Thus, for this research, this method consolidates the focus on examining teachers’ learning trajectories, in Wenger’s (1998) terms, to examine their ongoing identity work.

Expected Outcomes

The expected outcome of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a Professional Diploma in Mathematics Teaching (PDMT) programme in catering for identity (re)construction. Based on the literature, it is argued that if the programme supports out-of-field teachers to develop their mastery of mathematics teaching then it enabled them to cross the subject boundary and construct their PMTI. This would indicate it is a most valid boundary object. The study intends to validate the claim of theory that mastery in these domains will enable the formation of PMTI. Through the data collection, the narratives of the teachers will illustrate the dynamic nature of teacher identity and offer great insight into the identity reconciliation process that out-of-field teachers must undertake. Ultimately, the study aims to assist participants to develop their PMTI and offer credible guidelines for in-service programme developers to implement in future to cater for identity (re)construction.

References

Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C. and Verloop, N. (2004) 'Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity', Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107-128. Brubaker, R. and Cooper, F. (2000) 'Beyond “identity”', Theory and society, 29(1), 1-47. Chapman, O. (2008) 'Narratives in mathematics teacher education', in Tirosh, D. and Wood, T., eds., The international handbook of mathematics teacher education: Tools and processes in mathematics teacher education, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2, 15-38. Conway, P. F. (2001) 'Anticipatory reflection while learning to teach: from a temporally truncated to a temporally distributed model of reflection in teacher education', Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(1), 89-106. Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. (2000) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., California: SAGE Publications. Flum, H. and Kaplan, A. (2012) 'Identity formation in educational settings: A contextualized view of theory and research in practice', Contemporary Educational Psychology, 37(3), 240-245. Graven, M. (2004) 'Investigating mathematics teacher learning within an in-service community of practice: The centrality of confidence', Educational Studies in Mathematics, 57(2), 177-211. Hobbs, L. (2013) 'Teaching ‘out-of-field’as a boundary-crossing event: Factors shaping teacher identity', International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 11(2), 271-297. Holland, D. and Lachicotte, W. J. (2007) 'Vygotsky, Mead and the new sociocultural studies of identity' in Daniels, H., Cole, M. and Wertsch, J., eds., The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky, New York: Cambridge University Press, 101–135. Ingersoll, R. M. (1999) 'The Problem of Underqualified Teachers in American Secondary Schools', Educational researcher, 28(2), 26-37. Kelle, U. (2006) 'Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in research practice: purposes and advantages', Qualitative research in psychology, 3(4), 293-311. Merriam, S. B. (2009) Qualitative Research. A guide to Design and Implementation (Revised and Expanded from Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ríordáin, M. N. and Hannigan, A. (2011) 'Who teaches mathematics at second level in Ireland?', Irish Educational Studies, 30(3), 289-304. Sfard, A. and Prusak, A. (2005) 'Telling Identities: In Search of an Analytic Tool for Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity', Educational researcher, 34(4), 14-22. van Putten, S., Stols, G. and Howie, S. (2014) 'Do prospective mathematics teachers teach who they say they are?', Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 17(4), 369-392. Van Zoest, L. R. and Bohl, J. V. (2005) 'Mathematics Teacher Identity: a framework for understanding secondary school mathematics teachers’ learning through practice', Teacher Development, 9(3), 315-345. Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

Stephen Quirke (presenting / submitting)

EPI*STEM

Department of Education and Professional Studies

Limerick

Niamh O'Meara

University of Limerick, Ireland

Olivia Fitzmaurice