Comparing Mathematics Teacher Roles in Denmark and England
Author(s):
Peter Kelly (presenting / submitting) Hans Dorf Nick Pratt Ulrike Hohmann
Conference:
ECER 2012
Network:
24. Mathematics Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

24 SES 01, International Research in Mathematics Education

Parallel Paper Session

Time:
2012-09-18
13:15-14:45
Room:
ESI 3 - Aula 2
Chair:
Birgit Pepin

Contribution

Cross-national variations in student achievement have been the focus of much interest and reflect a pervasive policy concern across many countries for improving student outcomes. One significant factor in this is the nature and quality of teaching. Using an approach which accounts for social and cultural difference, we attempt to understand teaching as one particular influence on cross-national variations in student achievement in mathematics and compare mathematics teaching across Denmark and England, exploring similarities and differences both across and within these countries.

In this study we explore and contrast how teachers mediate the many influences on their practice within the context of mathematics teaching in England and Denmark. We separate broad socio-political influences which serve to recontextualise and pedagogise knowledge and ways of knowing from individual teacher mediations within institutional contexts. Our findings infer teacher mediations from the roles teachers adopt, where roles are situated enactments of goal-directed practice.

Method

The focus was on 8 mathematics teachers of children in the school year in which they were 12 in 4 separate schools (that is 2 from each school) in each country. Two lessons for each teacher, each relating to a slightly different context (for example, a different ability class, a different content area, and so on) were observed and audio recorded during a 3 week period (first in week 1 and second in week 3), and on each occasion both the teacher’s planning and samples of the students’ work were collected. Following each lesson the observer’s notes, audio recording of the teacher in the lesson, planning and children’s work provided the basis for lesson analysis. Immediately following each lesson a detailed interview was used to explore and illuminate teachers’ goals (conditioned by contextual norms), discourses and practices. Teacher roles were then inferred from this data in a process of analysis which constructed and drew on Weberian ideal types. Participating teachers were asked to reflect on their teaching between visits and their reflections were used as a basis for further questions at the end of the second interview to explore their decision making processes in the light of their professional identities.

Expected Outcomes

The range and nature of roles adopted varies between England and Denmark, and reflects macro-sociological differences in education policy and culture which can be characterised as largely techno-rationalist in England and democratic humanist in Denmark. Within each country teachers seem to move between different roles according to the perceived demands of the situation, mediating policy requirements, practicing interpretations of educational aims, and administering classroom discourses and practices in ways which sometimes differ from those intended. Power relations between roles can be understood in terms of visible and invisible pedagogies, instructional and regulatory discourses, and the classification and framing of pedagogic discourse (Bernstein, 1990; 1996; 2001), and are influenced by broad socio-political concerns.

References

Alexander, R. (2000) Culture and pedagogy: International comparisons in primary education (Oxford, Blackwell). Alexander, R. (2009) Pedagogy, culture and the power of comparison, in: H. Daniels, H. Lauder & J. Porter (Eds) Educational theories, cultures and learning: a critical perspective (London, Routledge). Bernstein, B. (1973) Class, codes and control, vol. 2: Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul). Bernstein, B. (1975) Class, codes and control, vol. 3: towards a theory of educational transmission (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul). Bernstein, B. (1990) The structure of pedagogic discourse (London, Routledge Falmer). Bernstein, B. (1996) Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: theory, research, critique (London, Taylor Francis). Bernstein, B. (2001) From pedagogies to knowledges, in: A. Morais, I. Neves, B. Davies & H. Daniels (Eds) Towards a Sociology of Pedagogy. The contribution of Basil Bernstein to research (New York, Peter Lang). Billett, S. (2001) Knowing in practice: Re-conceptualising vocational expertise. Learning and Instruction, 11(6), 431-452. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977) Towards an experimental ecology of human development, American Psychologist, 32, 513-531. van Oers, B. (2001) Educational forms of initiation in mathematical culture, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 46, 59 – 85. Osborn, M., Broadfoot, P., McNess, E., Planel, C., Ravn, B. and Triggs, P. (2003) A world of difference: Comparing learners across Europe (Maidenhead, Open University Press). Pimm, D. (1987) Speaking Mathematically. Communication in Mathematics Classrooms. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. Schoenfeld, A. (1985) Mathematical Problem Solving, New York, Academic Press. Schoenfeld, A. (1996) In fostering communities of inquiry, must it matter that the teacher knows ‘the answer’? For the Learning of Mathematics, 16(3), 11 – 16.

Author Information

Peter Kelly (presenting / submitting)
Plymouth University, United Kingdom
Hans Dorf
Aarhus University, Denmark
Nick Pratt
Plymouth University, United Kingdom
Ulrike Hohmann
Plymouth University, United Kingdom

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