Agency and fidelity in primary teachers’ efforts to develop mathematical resilience

ABSTRACT

Teaching using the principles of mathematical resilience can lead to a broad range of implementations with different emphases, all intended to mitigate the development of mathematical anxiety in learners and its attendant problems. This article considers 12 primary teachers’ responses to the challenge of developing mathematical resilience within their practice. In pairs, these teachers conducted a small-scale study in their classrooms on a chosen aspect of mathematical resilience, supported by termly meetings. The reports made by the participant teachers form the main part of the data. The teachers were inspired to change how they worked with their learners and reported many positive outcomes. The agency which some teachers exercised influenced not only their outworking of the ideas, but also the fidelity with which they adopted the principles underpinning mathematical resilience. The connections and tensions shown here between agency and fidelity have wider implications for successful implementation of similar change efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• Mathematical resilience
• primary teachers
• teachers studying practice
• agency
• fidelity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clare Lee

Clare Lee is a Senior Lecturer for The Open University teaching on the Masters in Education and Postgraduate Certificate of Education. She also creates open learn courses on education, research, and teaching and assessing mathematics. Her research focuses on how teachers act in the classroom, with a particular focus on teachers of mathematics and the development of mathematical resilience in all learners from young people in school to adult learners.

Robert Ward-Penny

Robert Ward-Penny received his PhD in Education from the University of Warwick in 2013 and is currently working as a mathematics teacher at an international school in the USA. His interests include cross-curricular teaching and learning, and the relationship between philosophy and practice in mathematics education.