Despite attempts to address the well-documented issues in mathematics education with curriculum reform and associated professional development (PD) programmes, significant challenges remain in relation to the teaching and learning of mathematics in schools, particularly in areas of low socio-economic status (SES). In relation to recent curriculum reform in Ireland, research has highlighted teachers’ frustration with the new curriculum specification, a lack of faith in the teaching methodologies being promoted, and a demand for additional PD and support (Byrne & Prendergast, 2020). This lack of faith can mean that teachers often select, a la carte, the approaches they feel address their own concerns or align most with their own beliefs, leading to at best a hybridized version of practice (Cavanagh, 2006).

A wealth of research highlights the prevalence of what Corkin et al. (2015) refer to as “pedagogy of poverty”, noting that students from low SES backgrounds are at an increased risk of rigid, teacher-centric, formulaic pedagogical approaches, focusing on punctuality, and maintaining control. Factors influencing the approaches used include low teacher perception of student ability, which can often be related to, low teacher self-efficacy, out-of-field or inexperienced teachers, or lack of buy-in to reform practices, (Byrne & Prendergast, 2020; Ni Shuilleabhain et al., 2021; Yanisko, 2016). Given the domain-specific challenges of mathematics, and the additional challenge associated with educational disadvantage, there is a need for targeted intervention with schools that serve underrepresented cohorts.

PD is obviously central to such an intervention, but for it to be effective, the literature suggests that it must be a sustained, long running programme that acknowledges the iterative and reflective nature of development of teaching practices, and is deeply rooted in the context of the school (Desimone, 2011; Lieberman, 1995). It should jointly focus on a hands-on element and a co-creative, collaborative planning element within a community of practice. These separate but complimentary factors facilitate the iterative shift between knowledge building and practice through the reflective process (Valerio, 2021).

This paper describes a project that involves working with mathematics teachers in low SES schools in an effort to support them to make the most of curriculum reform and to ultimately help improve student engagement and attainment in the subject at lower secondary (ages ~12 – 15).

The theoretical framework underpinning this is expectancy-value theory (EVT), which posits that both one’s expectation for success (expectancy) and how one values a task (a combined measure of intrinsic, attainment, utility values and cost) directly influence the decision to undertake, and the level of persistence towards, the task (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). The “task” in the context of this research, is conceptualised as faithful engagement with the new curriculum specification.

Based on the principals of EVT and the features of effective PD described by Desimone (2011) a series of PD interventions were co-planned and co-created, by the research team and participating teachers, with the aim of increasing task value and supporting growth in expectancy beliefs of the teachers. This was achieved by:

• Creating bespoke PD sessions in direct response to feedback of perceived needs and barriers of participants in relation to their practice and implementation of the intended revised curriculum, thus increasing perceived utility.
• Co-creative lesson planning, combined with in-school support in terms of planning time and co-teaching to reduce perceived cost of engagement.
• Focusing on best-practice informed strategies of context-rich problems and inquiry-based learning to increase student engagement, which in turn increases teacher attainment value.
• Giving teachers low-risk opportunities to experience reform practices, through observations, co-teaching and targeted workshops, scaffolds growth in expectancy and ability values.

The intervention is taking the form of a longitudinal mixed methods study involving teachers from five Irish schools in areas that serve underrepresented populations. A combination of convenience and voluntary sampling methods were used to recruit school partners. The researchers put out a call for expressions of interest to ~20 schools already involved in the university’s widening participation programme, the Trinity Access Programme (TAP), whose mission is aimed at increasing the number of students from low SES backgrounds applying to higher education. It does this though a suite of activities for students, teachers and schools (Bray et al., 2022). Of the 20 schools, five were selected and engagement began in 2022-23 academic year. An annual survey is administered to participating mathematics teachers in each of the five schools, generating quantitative data. Comparative data is generated by mathematics teachers in the wider group of twenty schools, facilitating comparison with non-participants working in similar contexts. The first survey was administered at the start of the project with an aim of collecting baseline data relating to teacher beliefs, self-efficacy, confidence, and current practice. Teachers were also asked about the culture in their schools, their levels of collaboration with peers, and their perceived level of support from management. Questions used in the survey draw from the PISA 2022 survey – allowing for additional international comparison, along with more explicit questions in the areas listed. The quantitative data generated will be analysed using SPSS. Additional qualitative data will be collected via interviews and focus groups of participating teachers. Transcripts of interviews will then be imported into NVivo for thematic analysis. Codes will be generated inductively through repeated readings and assigned and reassigned iteratively. These codes will then be analysed for commonalities and allocated into broad themes.

Initial findings from the baseline survey (N=28) show that “chalk and talk” style methods and “use of textbook for guiding lessons” both rank highly in terms of usage (81% and 50% respectively stating often/always) and levels of comfort (41% and 28% respectively ranking most comfortable). However, respondents acknowledged that neither align well with the goals of the reformed curriculum, with over 60% ranking both as moderately to poorly aligned. Finally, the highest factors influencing methodologies used in class were “comfort and experience” and “facilities and resources available”, with 44% ranking facilities and resources as most influential. While not explicitly mentioned in the survey, it suggests that access to additional resources, e.g., planned lesson activities, and increased experience using them may result in increased usage of the recommended practices. At this preliminary stage of implementation of the PD sessions, initial findings from ad-hoc interviews and feedback reports highlight: self-reported increased willingness to adopt reform practices; perceived increase in student engagement; and self-reported implementation of planning practices across other departments, which may be indicative of increased levels of self-efficacy; higher feelings of attainment value; and reduced feelings of cost, respectively. Targeted and prolonged PD that addresses the struggles felt in both planning and applying reform practices is required to embed these practices in classrooms, with teachers in Ireland generally feeling unsupported with curriculum change and wanting further access to PD to support this (Byrne & Prendergast, 2020). The cyclical and reflective nature of embedding practices necessitates the prolonged, frequent, and bespoke nature of this PD. Furthermore, as evidenced by the literature the need for this PD is especially felt in schools which serve low SES cohorts, to improve expected outcomes for students (Corkin et al., 2015) and reduce the perceived workload and emotional exhaustion felt by teachers (Van Eycken et al., 2024).

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