The development of a mathematics teacher’s professional identity during her first year teaching

Abstract

This study is focused on a period that poses several challenges for the development of mathematics teachers’ professional identities and agency: their first year of teaching in schools. During this period, beginning mathematics teachers confront tensions and contradictions among the principles, ideals, and experiences encountered during pre-service education and the demands, and restrictions of their teaching practice in schools. This article approaches this topic by developing an interpretative case study centered on one novice mathematics teacher, Sol. The aim is to describe and understand the development of Sol’s professional identity and agency during her first teaching year. Considering identity development as a diachronic phenomenon, we carry out a narrative analysis of the research data. The findings show that Sol developed her professional identity and agency through a process that gathered together the teaching practices possible inside her school, the positions she could negotiate as a newcomer inside the institution, and the cultural practices and discourses embodied during pre-service education. The results bring to the forefront the profound and tense interactions between the intimate and personal terrain of mathematics teachers and the social and cultural world of the schools where they work. Sol’s case also contributes to understanding the role that a robust pre-service education can play in the development of beginning teachers’ professional identities and in the possibility they could become agents of transformation in their schools.