Critical reflection by correspondence: perspectives on a junior school ‘media, mathematics and the environment’ workshop

Abstract

This article has two functions. First, it is a critical account of a ‘Media Mathematics and the Environment Workshop’ – a collaborative action research project we carried out in a rural primary school in England. Secondly, it is an experiment in reporting and reflecting on such projects. Faced with the difficulties of arranging suitable time and critical spaces for the consideration of our work, we wrote each other open questions that we responded to in our own way. The results attempt to leave the experiences of the day more readily available to us (and to others) as material for professional development. The article begins by describing the practical and theoretical background to the project, and then moves to an introduction from each of the authors. After a largely descriptive account of the workshop itself, we present the children's account of the project outcomes. The main body of the article is taken up by our responses to the questions that we set each other. We argue that it was the opportunity to ask these questions, which was one of the most valuable outcomes of the project. Answering them will inevitable be harder and will be done by each of us in our own practice. The article therefore finishes with a summary of further issues that the project has raised for us and on which we would be happy to correspond further.