Abstract
This chapter outlines some of the theoretical ground that will underpin the arguments to be made after the empirical material has been presented in Chapter 4. The alternative frames to be offered enable an analysis of how mathematics and its teaching manifest themselves differently in individual and social perspectives. Distinctions between the individual and the social bring with them a host of difficulties with regard to teacher agency. The image of the lone teacher reflecting on her practice and building her control is challenged. The teacher cannot easily separate her own aspirations from those that are demanded of her by her employer. The very definition of the individual human
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Notes
- 1.
There are, however, significant problems recruiting teachers with appropriate mathematics qualifications to teach in secondary (or high school) education in England.
- 2.
Bottery and Wright (1996).
- 3.
Hirsch, quoted by Gallagher (1992, p. 211).
- 4.
Schleiermacher, quoted by Gallagher (1992, p. 213).
- 5.
Habermas (1972).
- 6.
Carr and Kemmis (1986), Zuber-Skerritt (1996). The aspirations seem consistent in many ways with other traditions of critical education as evident in the work of some major writers in the area (e.g. Freire , 1972; Apple , 1982; Aronowitz & Giroux , 1985; McLaren , 1995). Such critical perspectives on education have been pursued specifically within mathematics education research (e.g. Skovsmose , 1994, 2005; Frankenstein, 1997; Ongstad, 2006). See also a special issue of the International Journal of Philosophy of Mathematics Education, 2010. Meanwhile, Taylor (1996) and Brown (2001) have explicitly discussed the social theory of Habermas as an approach to understanding how educational objectives in mathematics might be framed.
- 7.
Brown (2008c).
- 8.
Excellent books by Valerie Walkerdine (1988), Margaret Walshaw (2007), and Fiona Walls (2009) have each carried out detailed explorations of how we might understand Foucault’s theory in the context of mathematics education. These books document educational scenarios and classroom situations from the point of view of how we might read teachers and children’s engagements in terms of subjectivity. See also Hardy (2004).
- 9.
Foucault’s work does not provide much insight into the subject’s sense of her own situation. This aspect began to be more important later on in his work and has been pursued more by Butler (1997, 2005). Davies (2006) has situated this aspect in educational context. Davies stresses Butler’s point that the subject is constituted, not determined, and this constitution is the very precondition for its agency. Oppressive relations can be reworked and resisted by the individual.
- 10.
Ricoeur (1981, p. 265).
- 11.
The British government meanwhile has made it official policy for its subjects to be “happy” since “happiness” is compatible with employability. A number of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy sessions have often been provided to “unhappy” people on the grounds that the cost of the therapy is lower to the government than the cost of 6 months of unemployment benefit (e.g. Fitzpatrick, 2009).
- 12.
Myers (2003, p. 12).
- 13.
Kay (2003, p. 8).
- 14.
A much fuller account of Lacan’s work considered in the context of mathematics education has been provided by Brown (2008a, forthcoming).
- 15.
Garetsky (2004) argues that it was this ever desiring, never satisfied, being derived from Freud that fed in to early conceptions of people living within twentieth century capitalist economics.
- 16.
Žižek (2006, p. 63).
- 17.
cf. Cobb (1999).
- 18.
Jablonka and Gellert (2010).
- 19.
cf. Grootenboer (2003).
- 20.
See, for example, Walshaw (2008), DeFreitas (2008), Solomon (2009), Black, Mendick, and Solomon (2009), Krzywacki (2009), and Walls (2010). Walshaw (2010b) documents how student teacher identity is shaped in school practicum elements of teacher education. Cotton (2010) explicitly addresses issues of identity with a group of teacher education students. Sfard and Prusak (2005) have also conceptualised identity within mathematics education contexts.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
Brown , Jones, and Bibby (2004).
- 24.
For example, O’Connell Rust (1999).
- 25.
Quoted in, Leader and Groves (1995, p. 24).
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Brown, T., McNamara, O. (2011). Mathematics Teaching and Identity. In: Becoming a Mathematics Teacher. Mathematics Education Library, vol 53. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0554-8_2
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