Theorising Disruptive Pedagogy in Teacher Education: Mathematics Teacher Educators and Practice-theory Challenges in the Post-field Context
Keywords:
mathematics teacher education research, disruptive pedagogy, teacher educator, post-field context, analytical frameworkAbstract
An extensive body of research has examined theory-practice transitions in mathematics teacher education, where prospective teachers (PTs) move from university (theory) to field experience (practice). In contrast, the reverse transition—from practice back to theory—is underexplored. Acknowledging mathematics teacher educators' (MTEs') key role in teaching PTs to reflect critically on their field experiences and create spaces for disruption and disruptive pedagogies, this article focuses on the often-overlooked practice-theory transition. Drawing on interviews with 21 MTEs from Canada and Norway, we examine how MTEs navigate PTs' return to university following their field placement in schools. While and disruptive pedagogy literature suggests that teacher educators should challenge or shift away from certain pedagogies and practices, our findings reveal that MTEs may choose not to challenge specific beliefs/practices in the post-field context of mathematics teacher education. Reasons include PTs’ limited familiarity with theoretical discourse, MTEs' desire to reduce the pressure on PTs, and an intention to avoid reinforcing the dominant time discourse. Additionally, some MTEs are unaware that pre- and post-field practices might need to differ. We offer specific suggestions for critical reflective questions and actions that could be initiated in a post-field “third space” to promote deliberate and disruptive pedagogical actions.
References
Allen, J. (2009). Valuing practice over theory: How beginning teachers re-orient their practice in the transition from the university to the workplace. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5), 647–654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.11.011
Allen, A., Hancock, S. D., W. Lewis, C., & Starker-Glass, T. (2017). Mapping culturally relevant pedagogy into teacher education programs: A critical framework. Teachers College Record (1970), 119(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811711900107
Anderson, J. L., & Justice, J. E. (2015). Disruptive design in pre-service teacher education: Uptake, participation, and resistance. Teaching Education, 26(4), 400–421. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2015.1034679
Andersson, A., & Nolan, K. (2021). Flattening the Facebook curve: Exploring intersections of critical mathematics education with the real, the surreal, and the virtual during a global pandemic. In Education, 26(2), 24–50. https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2021.v26i2.482
Andrews, D. J. C., He, Y., Marciano, J. E., Richmond, G., & Salazar, M. (2021). Decentering whiteness in teacher education: Addressing the questions of who, with whom, and how. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(2), 134–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487120987966
Aronson, B., Meyers, L., & Winn, V. (2020). “Lies my teacher [educator] still tells”: Using critical race counternarratives to disrupt whiteness in teacher education. The Teacher Educator, 55(3), 300–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/08878730.2020.1759743
Ball, D. L., Thames, M. H., & Phelps, G. (2008). Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it special? Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 389–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487108324554
Bastos, F. (2009). Editorial: Disruptive pedagogies in art education. Art Education, 62(3), 5. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2009.11519013
Beighton, C. (2017). Telling ghost stories with the voice of an ogre: Deleuze, identity, and disruptive pedagogies. Issues in Teacher Education, 26(3), 111–127.
Beswick, K., & Goos, M. (2018). Mathematics teacher educator knowledge: What do we know and where to from here? Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 21, 417–427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-018-9416-4
Bjerke, A. H., & Nolan, K. (2022). Developing a disruptive pedagogy theoretical lens for studying the practices of mathematics teacher educators. Proceedings of the Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12), Bozen-Bolzano, Italy.
Bjerke, A. H., & Nolan, K. (2023). The return to university after fieldwork: Toward disrupting practice-theory challenges identified by mathematics teacher educators. Frontiers in Education, 8, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1129206
Bissonnette, J. D. (2016). The trouble with niceness: How a preference for pleasantry sabotages culturally responsive teacher preparation. Journal of Language & Literacy Education, 12(2), 9–32.
Brandenburg, R., & McDonough, S. (2017). Using critical incidents to reflect on teacher educator practice. In R. Brandenburg, K. Glasswell, M. Jones, & J. Ryan (Eds.), Reflective theory and practice in teacher education
(pp. 223–236). Springer.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806
Britzman, D. P. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach (revised edition). State University of New York Press.
Brown, K. (2024). Frames of learning: Privileging teacher perspectives for decolonizing lesson study for mathematics teaching. Mathematics Teacher Educator, 12(2), 133–149. https://doi.org/10.5951/MTE.2023-0034
Castro Superfine, A., Olanoff, D., Welder, R. M., & Prasad, P. V. (2024). A review of research on mathematics teacher educator knowledge: Mapping the terrain. Education Sciences, 14(8), 810. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080810
Chauvot, J. B. (2009). Grounding practice in scholarship, grounding scholarship in practice: Knowledge of a mathematics teacher educator–researcher. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(2), 357–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.09.006
Conklin, H. G. (2015). Preparing novice teacher educators in the pedagogy of teacher education. Action in Teacher Education, 37(4), 317–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2015.1078753
Eriksen, E., & Bjerke, A. H. (2019). The fractal complexity of using theories in mathematics teacher education: Issues and debates, opportunities and limitations. In S. Llinares & O. Chapman (Eds.), International handbook of mathematics teacher education (Vol. 2, pp. 255–284). Brill Sense.
Gainsburg, J. (2012). Why new mathematics teachers do or don’t use practices emphasized in their credential program. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 15(5), 359–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-012-9208-1
Garcia-Olp, M., Nelson, C., & Saiz, L. (2022). Decolonizing mathematics curriculum and pedagogy: Indigenous knowledge has always been mathematics education. Educational Studies, 58(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2021.2010079
Goodell, J. E. (2006). Using critical incident reflections: A self-study as a mathematics teacher educator. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 9(3), 221–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-006-9001-0
Gore, J. M., Griffiths, T., & Ladwig, J. G. (2004). Towards better teaching: Productive pedagogy as a framework for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(4), 375–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2004.02.010
Hökkä, P., Eteläpelto, A., & Rasku-Puttonen, H. (2012). The professional agency of teacher educators amid academic discourses. Journal of Education for Teaching, 38(1), 83–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2012.643659
Jett, C. C., Yeh, C., & del Rosario Zavala, M. (2022). From argumentation to truth-telling: Critical race theory in mathematics teacher education. Mathematics Teacher Educator, 10(3), 223–230. https://doi.org/10.5951/MTE.2022.0007
Keazer, L., & Nolan, K. (2024). Growing and modeling culturally responsive pedagogies: A CRP self-study framework for mathematics teacher educators. In B. M. Benken (Ed.), Reflection on past, present and future: Paving the way for the future of mathematics teacher education (pp. 45–66). Information Age Publishing.
King, A.-L., O’Reilly, K., & Lewis, P. J. (Patrick J. (Eds.). (2024). Unsettling education: Decolonizing and indigenizing the land. Canadian Scholars.
Kitts, H. (2022). Critical possibilities for teacher education. Research in Education, 112(1), 80–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0034523720915738
Li, W., & Castro Superfine, A. (2018). Mathematics teacher educators’ perspectives on their design of content courses for elementary preservice teachers. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 21(2), 179–201. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-016-9356-9
Lin, F-L., Yang, K-L., Hsu, H-Y., & Chen, J-C. (2018). Mathematics teacher educator-researchers’ perspectives on the use of theory in facilitating teacher growth. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 98, 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-014-9589-4
Livers, S. D., & Willey, C. J. (2023). Preparing preservice teachers to teach equitably: A longitudinal, collaborative interrogation of two mathematics teacher educators’ positionalities. Studying Teacher Education, 19(3), 289–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2022.2164268
Loughran, J., & Menter, I. (2019). The essence of being a teacher educator and why it matters. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 47(3), 216–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2019.1575946
Lunenberg, M., Dengerink, J., & Korthagen, F. (2014). The professional teacher educator: Roles, behaviour, and professional development of teacher educators. Sense Publishers.
Madkins, T. C., & Morton, K. (2021). Disrupting anti-blackness with young learners in STEM: Strategies for elementary science and mathematics teacher education. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 21(2), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42330-021-00159-1
Maestranzi, A., Bolgatz, J., Brown, N., & Jackson, M. (2022). Exploring tensions: A self-study of a teacher educator’s white fragility in mentoring novice teachers. Studying Teacher Education, 18(1), 40–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2021.1969227
Maldonado Rodríguez, L. A., Jessup, N., Myers, M., Louie, N., & Chao, T. (2022). A critical lens on cognitively guided instruction: Perspectives from mathematics teacher educators of color. Mathematics Teacher Educator, 10(3), 191–203. https://doi.org/10.5951/MTE.2020.0015
Malm, B. (2020). On the complexities of educating student teachers: Teacher educators’ views on contemporary challenges to their profession. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(3), 351–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2020.1739514
Martin, F., & Pirbhai-Illich, F. (2016). Towards decolonising teacher education: Criticality, relationality and intercultural understanding. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 37(4), 355–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2016.1190697
Masingila, J. O., Olanoff, D., & Kimani, P. M. (2018). Mathematical knowledge for teaching teachers: Knowledge used and developed by mathematics teacher educators in learning to teach via problem solving. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 21, 429–450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-017-9389-8
Mattson, M., Eilertsen, T. V., & Rorrison, D. (Eds.) (2012). A practicum turn in teacher education. Springer Science & Business Media.
Mills, M. (1997). Towards a disruptive pedagogy: Creating spaces for student and teacher resistance to social injustice. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 7(1), 35–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620219700200004
Nicol, C. C., Archibald, J.-A., Glanfield, F., & Dawson, A. J. (Eds.). (2020). Living culturally responsive mathematics education with/in indigenous communities. Brill Sense.
Nicol, C., & Korteweg, L. (2010). Braiding teacher lives into relation: The steps and dilemmas of culturally responsive teacher education in Canada. In The Eighth International Conference on Self-study of Teacher Education Practices (pp. 183–187).
Nolan, K. (2015). Beyond tokenism in the field? On the learning of a mathematics teacher educator and faculty supervisor. Cogent Education, 2(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2015.1065580
Nolan, K., & Bjerke, A. H. (2021). Unpacking field trips: The role of a teacher educator in post-field mathematics teacher education courses. In D. Kollosche (Ed.), Exploring new ways to connect. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Mathematics Education and Society Conference (Vol. 1, pp. 207–210). Tredition. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5392502
Nolan, K. T., & Bjerke, A. H. (2024). Moving beyond reflection and toward disruption in the post-field context of mathematics teacher education. ZDM–Mathematics Education, 56(3), 473–484. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-024-01547-1
Nolan, K., & Keazer, L. (2021). Mathematics teacher educators learn from dilemmas and tensions in teaching about/through culturally relevant pedagogy. In M. Goos & K. Beswick (Eds.), The learning and development of mathematics teacher educators: International perspectives and challenges (pp. 301–319). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62408-8
Owens, K. (2023). The role of mathematics teacher education in overcoming narrow neocolonial views of mathematics. Education Sciences, 13(9), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13090868
Philpot, R. (2016). Physical education initial teacher educators’ expressions of critical pedagogy(ies): Coherency, complexity or confusion? European Physical Education Review, 22(2), 260–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X15603382
Reid, J.-A. (2011). A practice turn for teacher education? Asia-Pacific Journal for Teacher Education 39(4), 293–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2011.614688
Reilly, S. (2022). Helping trainee teachers to decolonise the school geography curriculum. Teaching Geography, 47(2), 64–66.
Resch, K., & Schrittesser, I. (2021). Using the service-learning approach to bridge the gap between theory and practice in teacher education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 27(10), 1118–1132. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2021.1882053
Roberts, H. M. (2020). Embodying and enacting the grand narrative to disrupt power, privilege, and (monocultural) perspectives. In J. L. Pecore, F. S. Allaire, & C. Haeussler Bohan (Eds.), Curriculum and teaching dialogue, 22(1&2), 217–231. Information Age Publishing.
Roofe, C., Maude, K., & Sunder, S. G. (2023). From classroom teacher to teacher educator: Critical insights and experiences of beginning teacher educators from Jamaica, England and United Arab Emirates. Power and Education, 15(1), 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/17577438221112536
Saultz, A., Lyons, A. I., Aronson, B., Sander, S. A., & Malin, J. R. (2021). Understanding preservice teacher dispositions: Implications for social justice and educational policy. Teacher Education Quarterly, 48(1), 7–32.
Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.57.1.j463w79r56455411
Stillman, J., & Palmer, D. (2024). Teacher educators’ critical language awareness: Building toward transformation in critically conscious teacher education. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 317–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2024.2367811
Siuty, M. B. (2019). Teacher preparation as interruption or disruption? Understanding identity (re) constitution for critical inclusion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 81(1), 38–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.02.008
Tondreau, A., Gardiner, W. L., Hinman, T. B., Dussling, T. M., Stevens, E. Y., White, K. L., & Wilson, N. S. (2024). Disrupting niceness in literacy teacher education: Non-linear trajectories toward culturally relevant pedagogy. Journal of Teacher Education, 76(2), 146–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871241263337
Vratulis, V., Clarke, T., Hoban, G., & Erickson, G. (2011). Additive and disruptive pedagogies: The use of slowmation as an example of digital technology implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 1179–1188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.06.004
Zaslavsky, O., & Leikin, R. (2004). Professional development of mathematics teacher educators: Growth through practice. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 7(1), 5–32. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JMTE.0000009971.13834.e1
Zeichner, K., & Bier, M. (2013). The turn toward practice and clinical experiences in US teacher education. Beiträge Zur Lehrerbildung/Swiss Journal of Teacher Education 30(2), 153–170.
