Technology use and mathematics teaching: teacher change as discursive identity work

Abstract

Teacher change towards developing competences for technology use in mathematics teaching has been the focus of current educational reforms worldwide. However, a considerable amount of research denotes the extent to which teachers resist a full integration of technology in mathematics classrooms. The present paper is based on an ethnographic study and focuses on how mathematics teachers – as they participate in an intensive training course – perform identity work whilst collectively articulating meanings concerning the potential of technology-based mathematics learning. By means of discourse theory, we analyse how they try to fix meaning as they engage and interact with varied discourses of ‘change’. Our findings indicate that mathematics teachers' attempts to articulate meaning are organised around discourses that concern directly societal and learning issues of technology use in mathematics teaching.

Keywords:

• technology integration in mathematics education
• technology use
• teacher change
• teacher training
• identity work
• discourse theory
• meaning articulation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all teachers who participated in our study and shared with us a number of issues related with technology-in-mathematics education.

Notes on contributors

Anna Chronaki is currently Professor at the Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Thessaly. Her research focuses on issues of theory and methodology in mathematics education and technology use, and has focused on the analysis of issues concerning communication, diversity and alternative design practices of mathematical learning activity. She has published in international journals such as Educational Studies in Mathematics, the European Journal of Educational Psychology, Computers and Education, Journal of Philosophy in Mathematics Education, and in refereed conference proceedings such as MES, PME, ISCAR and EARLI. She has authored a monograph on the ‘Epistemology of Constructivism’ and has edited two books Challenging Perspectives on Mathematics Classroom Communication (IAP Press) and Mathematics, Technology and the ‘Body’ of Education: Gendered perspectives (UTh Press).

Anastasios Matos is a secondary school humanities and language teacher, and teacher-trainer for ICT use in the curriculum. He holds a master's degree in the area of ICT in education with a particular emphasis on virtual communities of learning. He has just completed his PhD research focusing on teachers' professional development in technology use and integration in educational practices. He has participated in several Greek and European R&D projects concerning teaching reformation through digital media. His research focuses on the design of open and exploratory teaching environments that stimulate innovation and change in teaching practices and has also published several papers related in the above matters, in Greek and international conferences.

Notes

1. Teacher names used here are pseudonyms trying to safeguard confidentiality through anonymity.

2. The training course acronym in English is PAKE and stands for ΠAKE () which is translated as University Based Teacher Training Centre. PAKE is centrally organized by the Greek Ministry of Education, the Pedagogic Institute and the Computer Technology Institute (see PAKE, 2007).