Expectations of the primary mathematics coordinator: demands and tensions within the role

Abstract

The development of ‘Using and Applying Mathematics’, introduced through the Mathematics National Curriculum in England and Wales in 1989, presented a challenge to even the most confident of mathematics coordinators. The article looks at how a coordinator in a school where the decision had been made to develop this complex and difficult aspect of mathematics responded to the demands of her task, and the implications this had for whole-school development. The coordinator is a key player in school development and the holder of this post has taken on increasing responsibilities in recent years. The tension between expectations and resources in this primary school illustrate the complex and demanding nature of the role, bridging, as it does, individual and collective responses to innovation and change.