Diverse meanings ascribed to equity in early mathematics assessment

Figures & data

Table 1. Description of focus groups.

Group	Profession	Years in profession	School*	Municipality**
1	Preschool teachers (3) ***	21, 28, 29	A (2), B (1)	J (3)
2	Preschool teachers (3)	32, 33, 37	C (3)	J (3)
3	Preschool teachers (2) Primary school teacher (1)	15, 25, 12	D (1), E (1), F (1)	K (3)
4	Preschool teachers (2) Primary school teacher (1)	24, 34, 7	G (2), H (1)	J (2), L (1)

*The schools are lettered A - H.

**The three municipalities are lettered J - L.

***Numbers in brackets indicate the number of teachers.

Table 2. An illustration of the process of analysis of small discourses. The examples in the table are of the iterative process and do not present the complete analysis that supports the construction of one discourse (doing the same).

Tool #9	Tool #7	Tool #4	Tool #2	Tool #1
The teachers’ intention is all students doing the same during the assessment.	Doing the same contributes to increased equity.	The teachers have chosen to talk about the importance of doing the same in order for the assessment to contribute to equity.	Doing the same expressed as counter-image to the lack of clarity that the teachers experience.	Expressed as positive if all six-year-olds in Sweden do the same during assessment.

Table

Teacher 7	Yes, everyone in the whole of Sweden focuses on the same thing, so it will be, somehow, it will be …
Teacher 9	Equity
Teacher 7	Yes, exactly.
Teacher 9	It’s not some kind of blah blah here and some kind of blah blah there, but it’s the same thing.
Teacher 7	It’s this, and that’s what we have, the same thing. Then we can always have different literature and books and textbooks. But this is the same thing.
Teacher 9	All students have covered the same thing.

Table

Teacher 4	To be honest, if we could be somewhat spontaneous and get these two days right away to prepare what we’re going to do now, then we could talk. We could talk through things with each other and prepare. Do the same thing.
Teacher 5	Equity. Because now it’s more like this: What have you done? So maybe I’ll do what you did. And what was your reasoning? There are way too many loose ends. We must, you know, be given time to work together.
Teacher 4	And then everyone will do it well, but it’s good if we can talk things through with each other. But that’s another issue for equity.
Teacher 5	All three of us plan to work very hard individually, on our own, instead of collaborating and working together.

Table

Teacher 1	I think one advantage is that you notice quite early on those who need challenges in this part of the semester. Because they are a bit like that; they go with the flow. Often you notice those who need support early on, but you see that some, when you really sit and work with things like this, some have already come a long way and need a bit more. So that you notice them earlier in the term, sort of.
Teacher 3	Good that there is focus on both and on this. You need to find those who have difficulties and those who need challenges.
Teacher 2	That’s the best part. Before, we focused very much on the students who need extra support. But this means that we have to find those who need extra challenges. And I for one think that’s much harder.

Table

Teacher 11

Yes, it’s challenging to find the right stimulation for each student, to make them enjoy mathematics. To get them interested /…/

Teacher 10

I’m becoming much more aware of the enormous range in ability and background of my children when it comes to mathematics. For me, it will, of course, be challenging to continue working with mathematics with all the students in the way you said (teacher 11). It should be exciting and interesting in the future. Mathematics is fun. And so is doing it at different levels. Yes, now I get help knowing who is at what level, but I also get, if I hadn’t gotten this, then it would have been easier for me to provide them with material.

Table

Teacher 3

We thought we would get time during the prep days at the start of the semester, but that didn’t happen. Then it’s tough. So we haven’t met up very often. Now we may just work on our own and try. We started to draw up a short schedule, just in case, about how we would set it up to begin with and see how far we get.

Table

Teacher 12

Then you are away for a few days, someone is ill, so you have to get them to catch up. There is a lot of pressure on the individual. And then I’m left thinking that there won’t be equity if it is meant to be mandatory throughout Sweden. Here (referring to another school) you have a whole team. I am completely alone …

Table

Teacher 12

But I also think this. For me there is a difference between maths teaching and this, assessment material. And the disadvantage may be that it will only be assessment material. You may not even try to teach in a different way.

Table

Teacher 12	Math, I teach, but this is assessment material. So one advantage will be to use it in teaching, in one way or another, so that it will not be just an isolated activity.
Teacher 10	For me, it’s come to be that we almost immediately have given inspiration and ideas about what we could do. We worked, we assessed patterns, and we continued to work more with patterns in both art and music… and we keep using those patterns in a way I would not have done otherwise.