Abstract
In this chapter, professional identity is explored in relation to the problem of how official curriculum frameworks organise, influence and shape professional concepts, choices and processes through their texts and other resources. The Key Stage 3 National Strategy for England, a framework of curriculum guidance and professional development for lower secondary mathematics teachers, is taken as an example. The way in which the guidance constructs the nature of mathematics teaching and the professional identity of the mathematics teacher is analyzed. The chapter discusses how alternative and even contradictory mathematics teaching approaches can be brought into accommodation with the official framework, and suggests that the successful implementation of the National Strategy is strongly related to its openness to alternative readings, incorporating potentially oppositional voices. Implications for the nature of professional curriculum practice and development are drawn.
An earlier version of this chapter (Morgan, 2005) was presented at the Fourth International Mathematics Education and Society Conference. I am grateful for the stimulating discussion with conference participants
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Notes
- 1.
Key Stage 3 refers to the first 3 years of secondary school, consisting of pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 (age 11–14). The National Strategy, itself an expansion of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies introduced into primary schools in the late 1990 s, has expanded its scope considerably since its inception in 2001. From an initial focus on the core curriculum subjects, it now intervenes in all subject areas and many other aspects of pedagogy and school management, including, for example, assessment, behaviour management and truancy. Most recently it has been renamed the Secondary Strategy, to incorporate Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11). In this chapter, however, I focus only on the mathematics component of the Strategy, specifically the Framework for Teaching Mathematics: Years 7, 8 and 9 (DfES, 2001), the key definition of mathematics and mathematics teaching in the lower secondary school.
- 2.
Some may instead (or additionally) choose to position themselves in relation to other aspects of their professional practice (e.g. management or pastoral care), but I am concerned here only with the aspects of teachers’ professional identity in relation to their teaching of mathematics.
- 3.
Apart from the fact that this guidance was non-statutory and unenforced, its neglect may be explained as the result of the mismatch between its dominant discourse and that of the statutory curriculum and its accompanying assessment. A prime example of this is the notion, prominent in the guidance, that “Using and Applying Mathematics” should “permeate” the curriculum – in contrast to its clear separation in the statutory curriculum, defined as a separate program of study and assessed independently. It is interesting to note that there was an intersection between the sets of authors of the National Curriculum and of the Non-Statutory Guidance, yet the voices represented in the two documents are largely distinct.
- 4.
The panoptic nature of the National Numeracy Strategy, the forerunner of the National Strategy, was identified at an early stage by Tansy Hardy (Hardy, 2000). The extent of surveillance of both teachers and pupils is now even greater.
- 5.
Though Ofsted reports each year, evaluating the impact of the Strategy in secondary schools, no independent external evaluation at secondary level has been undertaken since the evaluation of the pilot year (Stoll et al., 2003).
- 6.
The term trainee is a part of the new official discourse of pre-service teacher education/training/development, reflecting the culture of performativity in education. Many of those working in Higher Education with pre-service teachers attempt to contest the official discourse and to preserve liberal discourses of education and professionalism by continuing to refer to students and to name their occupation as teacher education. I have chosen to use the official trainee to indicate the fact that, however critical the experience offered within the HE institution may be, its prime function is nevertheless to induct trainees/students into the official discourse of schooling.
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Morgan, C. (2009). Making Sense of Curriculum Innovation and Mathematics Teacher Identity. In: Kanes, C. (eds) Elaborating Professionalism. Innovation and Change in Professional Education, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2605-7_6
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