A new report funded by BERA’s Small Grants fund explored how explores how teacher educators can promote socially just mathematics teaching among both student teachers and experienced practitioners.

Findings

The research team found that:

•  School environments often prioritise exams and traditional teaching methods, limiting innovation. 
• Teachers face constraints from curriculum frameworks and policy reforms, especially in England. 
• Student teachers sometimes struggle to apply socially just approaches in real school settings. 
• Teachers who tried socially just approaches saw increased student engagement and motivation. 
• Professional networks (like the Teaching Maths for Social Justice Network) provided vital support and inspiration. 
• Teacher educators felt empowered to challenge dominant narratives and promote change. 

 The authors go on to recommend increased support for professional networks for teacher educators and greater participatory action research to improve classroom practice. 

Read the full report below.

Report summary

This project set out to explore how educators of mathematics teachers can promote socially just pedagogies and practices among the student teachers and experienced practitioners they work with. We adopted a participatory action research methodology in establishing a research team of co-researchers drawn from universities across England and Scotland. A key focus was on developing a series of professional development workshops. Trialling and evaluating the
workshops provided a key focus for the co-researchers to reflect on their own practice. Our findings highlighted how teacher educators, while facing constraints relating to the culture and environment in initial teacher education (ITE) and schools, have a key role to play in challenging existing discourses and narratives in mathematics education. We identified principles that might be applied in designing appropriate professional development resources, as well as strategies and structures for enhancing agency in educators of mathematics teachers.