Contributed by:
The purpose of this study was to understand preservice teachers’ identities in relation to mathematics teaching and the resources that contribute to these identities. Following a discourse-centered and situative perspective on identity development, the study utilized Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) identity as a narrative framework, which conceptualizes identity as stories about people. This framework centers on two kinds of identity, actual and designated, which allow for analysis of individuals’ current identities and their expectations for the future. Nine members of a secondary mathematics education cohort who were completing a year-long internship experience participated in the study. Data was collected through interviews and written reflections. For data analysis procedures, the overall principles of grounded theory were applied (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).
1.
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative
Exchange
Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School
Becoming a Mathematics Teacher: Identity, Narratives, and
Ellen Burleson Matheny
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, emathen2@vols.utk.edu
Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss
Recommended Citation
Matheny, Ellen Burleson, "Becoming a Mathematics Teacher: Identity, Narratives, and Resources. " PhD
diss., University of Tennessee, 2016.
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2.
To the Graduate Council:
I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Ellen Burleson Matheny entitled "Becoming a
Mathematics Teacher: Identity, Narratives, and Resources." I have examined the final electronic
copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Education.
Lynn L. Hodge, Major Professor
We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance:
Vena Long, Gary Skolits, Barry Golden
Accepted for the Council:
Carolyn R. Hodges
Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School
(Original signatures are on file with official student records.)
3.
Becoming a Mathematics Teacher: Identity, Narratives,
and Resources
A Dissertation Presented for the
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Ellen Burleson Matheny
December 2016
4.
Copyright © 2016 by Ellen B. Matheny
All rights reserved.
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5.
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated in memory of my grandmother, Dorothy Greenlee
Blair, and my father, Sidney Drew Burleson, who were with me when I began this
journey and never doubted my ability to find my way.
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6.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To my doctoral committee: I would like to thank Dr. Lynn Hodge, who this
dissertation would not be possible without. Thank you for being a true mentor by helping
me to become a better version of myself. You have challenged me and guided me through
personal and professional growth without trying to change who I am at heart. I would like
to thank Dr. Vena Long, who has been a source of support and encouragement since day
one of my master’s coursework. Thank you for always having my back. I would like to
thank Dr. Gary Skolits and Dr. Barry Golden, who have always provided constructive
feedback. Thank you for contributing to my growing confidence in my abilities as a
writer and a researcher.
To my family: I would like to thank my husband, my mother, and my stepfather,
who are my biggest fans. Thank you for being a constant source of love, laughter, and
motivation throughout my journey. You are the loves of my life.
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7.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to understand preservice teachers’ identities in
relation to mathematics teaching and the resources that contribute to these identities.
Following a discourse-centered and situative perspective on identity development, the
study utilized Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) identity as narrative framework, which
conceptualizes identity as stories about people. This framework centers on two kinds of
identity, actual and designated, which allow for analysis of individuals’ current identities
and their expectations for the future. Nine members of a secondary mathematics
education cohort who were completing a yearlong internship experience participated in
the study. Data was collected through interviews and written reflections. For data analysis
procedures, the overall principles of grounded theory were applied (Strauss & Corbin,
1990). By drawing from this approach, themes and relationships were generated through
the participants’ stories. The themes related to identities for teaching were 1) Questioning
as Increasing Student Participation, 2) Using Group Work, 3) The Challenges of
Classroom Management, and 4) The Importance of Building Relationships with Students.
The themes for common impactful resources were 1) Coursework and Readings Are Not
Just Requirements, 2) Evaluators and Evaluation Models Matter, 3) Mentors as
Significant Narrators, and 4) Critical Interactions with Students that Prompt Identity
Shifts. In summary, the participants’ identities seemed to shape and be shaped by
interactions with certain resources and their learning experiences with these resources.
Through these resources their identities guided them to focus on particular aspects of
being a teacher.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One Introduction ................................................................................................... 1
Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................ 5
Purpose of the Study ....................................................................................................... 6
Significance of the Study ................................................................................................ 8
Limitations .................................................................................................................... 10
Delimitations ................................................................................................................. 12
Definition of Terms....................................................................................................... 12
Organization of the Study ............................................................................................. 13
Chapter Two Literature Review........................................................................................ 15
Teacher Effectiveness Through Recent History ........................................................... 16
The Process-Product Literature................................................................................. 16
The Production Function Literature .......................................................................... 17
Teacher Knowledge Literature ................................................................................. 17
Teacher Learning .......................................................................................................... 19
Teacher Identity ............................................................................................................ 22
The Notion of Identity .............................................................................................. 22
Delving deeper: Aspects of Identity ......................................................................... 23
Teacher Identity Research......................................................................................... 28
Identity Development and Resources ....................................................................... 30
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 33
Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 34
Chapter Three Methodology ............................................................................................. 39
Grounded Theory .......................................................................................................... 39
Participant Selection ..................................................................................................... 40
Data Collection Procedures........................................................................................... 41
Access and Entry Procedures .................................................................................... 42
Written Reflections ................................................................................................... 43
Interviews.................................................................................................................. 44
Data Analysis Procedures ............................................................................................. 45
Coding Phases ........................................................................................................... 46
Memo Writing........................................................................................................... 51
Methodological Issues .................................................................................................. 52
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 54
Chapter Four Findings: Individual Narratives .................................................................. 56
Intern #1 – Amy ........................................................................................................ 56
Intern #2 – Britt......................................................................................................... 64
Intern #3 – Cora ........................................................................................................ 73
Intern #4 – Don ......................................................................................................... 81
Intern #5 – Eve .......................................................................................................... 95
Intern #6 – Fred....................................................................................................... 106
Intern #7 – Grace .................................................................................................... 121
Intern #8 – Hakim ................................................................................................... 131
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Intern #9 – Isaac ...................................................................................................... 142
Chapter Five Identity Themes, Common Resources, and Insights ................................. 153
Actual and Designated Identity Themes ..................................................................... 153
Questioning as Increasing Student Participation .................................................... 154
Using Group Work.................................................................................................. 156
The Challenges of Classroom Management ........................................................... 158
The Importance of Building Relationships With Students ..................................... 161
Common Resources .................................................................................................... 162
Coursework and Readings Are Not Just Requirements .......................................... 163
Evaluators and Evaluation Models Matter .............................................................. 164
Mentors as Significant Narrators ............................................................................ 166
Critical Interactions With Students That Prompt Identity Shifts ............................ 169
Insights Gained Through Narratives and Themes ...................................................... 172
Conflict Within Designated Identities .................................................................... 172
Identity for Teaching as a Joint Accomplishment .................................................. 174
Summary ..................................................................................................................... 177
Chapter Six Discussion and Implications ....................................................................... 178
Relevance to Mathematics Education ......................................................................... 178
Practical Implications.................................................................................................. 180
Questioning as Increasing Student Participation .................................................... 181
Using Group Work.................................................................................................. 182
The Challenges of Classroom Management ........................................................... 183
The Importance of Building Relationships With Students ..................................... 184
Coursework and Readings Are Not Just Requirements .......................................... 185
Evaluators and Evaluation Models Matter .............................................................. 186
Mentors as Significant Narrators ............................................................................ 187
Critical Interactions With Students That Prompt Identity Shifts ............................ 188
Theoretical Implications and Recommendations ........................................................ 189
Identity as Narrative ................................................................................................ 189
Resources That Speak To Identity .......................................................................... 190
Recommendations for Future Research .................................................................. 192
My Learning................................................................................................................ 194
List of References ........................................................................................................... 197
Appendices...................................................................................................................... 210
Vita.................................................................................................................................. 219
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1. Saldaña’s (2013) model for streamlining codes. ............................................ 47
Figure 3.2. Snapshot example of coding phases using questioning .................................. 51
Figure 5.1. Grace Example ............................................................................................. 175
Figure 5.2. Isaac Example ............................................................................................... 176
Figure 5.3. Cora Example. .............................................................................................. 176
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
From content-based decision making to student relationship-building, teaching is
a dynamic and emotional profession (Duckworth, 2006; Hargreaves, 1998). Teaching is
also a profession that currently faces a number of challenges. First, working in
classrooms with students who are all different from one another, teachers must determine
how to meet the needs of each student and accomplish this feat within a limited amount
of time (Lampert, 2001). The challenge is further compounded by the trend that schools
and classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse. Second, teachers must respond to the
many authorities who try to dictate what teachers teach and must learn to cope with
constant turbulence in the educational landscape (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999). This
turbulence comprises everything from large class sizes to the lack of resources made
available to teachers. Third, the broader context has reflected a general lack of respect for
what teachers do and continued questioning of their effectiveness. Recent changes in the
educational landscape have included more rigorous teacher evaluation models and testing
requirements (National Institue for Excellence in Teaching [NIET], 2010). In addition to
these changes, the profession has endured ongoing issues with salary, poor working
conditions, and general beatings from the public. In the current climate with demands
being greater than ever, teachers are faced with a dilemma in deciding what kind of
teacher they can become. Public discourse, school discourse, and the discourse of
university teacher preparation programs often reflect differing images of an effective
teacher (Giroux, Lankshear, McLaren, & Peters, 2013). Consequently, teachers and
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becoming-teachers receive mixed messages about what kind of teacher constitutes an
effective teacher.
In the area of mathematics, teachers face additional challenges that are more
specific to their content area. For example, solving problems are the typical means for
teaching and learning mathematics. Increasingly, as students advance through new
mathematical content, they need to access prerequisite knowledge and understand
connections among multiple math topics (Lampert, 2001). Teachers are responsible for
supporting student learning through their decisions about their instructional practices
(National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2000). Mathematics teachers
navigate content specific and general instructional challenges as they engage in a unique
experience in deciding who they should be in the classroom.
Given the educational and mathematical context, two questions emerge. First,
how do individuals decide who they want to be as mathematics teachers? Second, how do
teachers become motivated to seek out change and improve their instructional practice to
be the kind of teachers they want to be and should be? Teachers’ motivations to change
stem from both their ideas about teaching and their desire to learn to teach in a particular
way (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011). The process of improving instructional practice includes
developing a deep understanding of the mathematics content (Hill, Rowan, & Ball, 2005),
redefining what it means to teach mathematics (Cobb, McClain, Lamberg, & Dean,
2003), and believing that the effort needed to make these improvements will be
worthwhile (Little, 1993). Deciding whether or not the effort required to improve
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instructional practices is worthwhile depends on the vision of teaching with which
teachers identify (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011).
Clearly, math teachers do not develop these views about teaching in isolation.
Therefore, it seems reasonable that a first step in improving instructional practice on the
whole would involve teachers being able to identify with a vision of high-quality
mathematics instruction (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011). However, there is little consensus
among all the different communities about concrete characteristics of effective
mathematics teaching. In addition, the many resources that contribute to teachers’
identities are not aligned with one another. For example, different individuals who
influence the ways in which teachers form their ideas about instructional practices may
not share similar visions about what it means to teach and learn mathematics effectively.
As a result, mathematics teachers may be left with conflicting ideas about deciding the
kind of teacher they need to be and whether or not the effort required to change is
In particular, preservice teachers experience an intense time during their induction
into the profession in terms of figuring out who they want to be as teachers. Various
resources embedded in coursework, field experiences, and other formal and informal
social contexts influence preservice teachers’ development of identities as teachers
(Richmond, Juzwik, & Steele, 2011). Spanning a range of institutional contexts, a few of
the resources include university instructors, mentor teachers and school personnel in field
placements, and university supervisors that operate in both settings. The new ways
preservice teachers participate in social activities in these settings involve transforming
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their own roles and participation that reflect their own learning (Nasir & Hand, 2006,
Sfard & Prusak, 2005). Understanding not only how to act but how to be as teacher is a
significant part of this learning process (Sachs, 2005). Therefore, educational researchers
have a need to better understand the decisions preservice teachers face in making use of
what they learn.
In recent years, researchers have turned to identity as a way to help document,
analyze, and understand teacher learning (Battey & Franke, 2008; Horn, Nolen, Ward, &
Campbell, 2008; Peressini, Borko, Romagnano, Knuth, & Willis, 2004). The situated
nature of learning involves the process of creating and recreating a teacher identity
through participation in different social contexts. Teacher identity involves who teachers
are personally and professionally. It is dynamic and complex (Alsup, 2006; Lampert,
2001). Further, identity impacts and is impacted by what teachers do and think. As
Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, and Bransford (2005) pointed out:
Developing an identity as a teacher is an important part of securing teachers’
commitment to their work and adherence to professional norms...the identities
teachers develop shape their dispositions, where they place their effort, whether
and how they seek out professional development opportunities, and what
obligations they see as intrinsic to their role (pp. 383–384).
The aforementioned statement summarizes the importance and overarching
implications of teacher identity that drove this dissertation study. This study focused on
identity within a preservice mathematics teacher education program. In doing so, the
study drew from a situated perspective that takes into account the individual as well as
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the social context in which learning occurs (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Peressini et al.,
2004). Relatedly, the study aimed to understand what resources contribute to the identity
development of preservice mathematics teachers as they decide who they need to be in
their profession.
The remaining segments of this chapter are organized according to the following
structure. First, the statement of the problem is explained. Second, the purpose of the
study is described. Third, the need for the study and its significance are addressed.
Fourth, the limitations and delimitations are outlined. Finally, the chapter ends with a
definition of terms list.
Statement of the Problem
Researchers have used the notion of identity to study both students and teachers in
educational contexts (Boaler, 2002; Cobb et al., 2003; Cobb, Gresalfi, & Hodge, 2009;
Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011; Hodge, 2008; Lortie, 1975; Nasir & Hand, 2006; Sfard & Prusak,
2005). Building on the situated perspective of learning, some studies have related identity
to mathematics knowledge in teaching (Stein, Silver, & Smith, 1998) while others have
documented the importance of understanding teacher identity in terms of redefining what
it means to teach mathematics (Battey & Franke, 2008; Enyedy, Goldberg, & Welsh,
2006; Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011). Some studies have focused on teacher identity through
narratives from discourses and activities to establish evidence of a developing teacher
identity (Bjuland, Cestari, & Borgersen, 2012; Flores & Day, 2006; Richmond, Juzwik,
& Steele, 2011).
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Although we are aware of some of the resources, we are still unclear about the
impact of these resources on preservice teacher identity development. Some researchers
have begun to document the impact of certain types of experiences on preservice teacher
learning (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Zeichner & Conklin, 2008), but substantial research
exploring the impact of various resources on preservice teachers’ perspectives is fairly
limited (Zeichner, 2010). Previous identity studies with preservice teachers have focused
on specific agendas such as using metaphors to guide understanding (Leavy, McSorley,
& Boté, 2007) or tracing the identity development of those who experienced problems in
their teacher preparation program (Richmond, Juzwik, & Steele, 2011) rather than trying
to understand the resources upon which individuals draw to construct their identities.
This study examined the identities of preservice teachers in an attempt to expand our
understandings of their identity development during the critical phase of becoming a
teacher and what resources significantly contribute to this process.
Purpose of the Study
One way to characterize identity is through the idea that identities are stories
about people (Sfard & Prusak, 2005). I elaborate on this definition of identity by drawing
from Bruner (2003). He described the reflexive connection between identity and
narratives as the following:
I have argued that it is through narrative that we create and re-create selfhood,
that self is a product of our telling and not some essence to be delved for in the
recesses of subjectivity. There is now evidence that if we lacked the capacity to
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make stories about ourselves, there would be no such thing as selfhood (pp. 85-
86).
Bruner’s comments emphasize the importance of stories to identity. Teachers create
narratives to explain themselves, their teaching lives, and who they want to be as teachers
(Connelly & Clandinin, 1999; Sfard & Prusak, 2005). When teachers tell their stories,
they situate themselves and the narratives they use to define themselves (Battey &
Franke, 2008). Teachers reveal through these stories how they view themselves in
relation to teaching and in relation to their students. Because of the reciprocal nature of
identity and narrative, preservice teachers may have more positive teaching experiences if
they tell and experience positive stories about themselves as teachers (Alsup, 2006).
The purpose of this study was to understand preservice teachers’ identities in
relation to mathematics teaching and the resources that contributed to these identities.
Following a discourse-centered and situative perspective on identity development, this
study utilized Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) identity as narrative framework, which
conceptualizes identity as stories about people. Their framework centers on two kinds of
identity, actual and designated, which allow for analysis of individuals’ current identities
and their expectations for the future. Sfard and Prusak (2005) noted that learning is the
key process for closing the gap between actual and designated identities. More
specifically, actual identity refers to the stories told by or about an individual according
to the current state of affairs. Designated identity refers to stories told that present a
vision for the future of an individual or an expected state of affairs.
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18.
This study focused on the identities of secondary mathematics preservice teachers
as they participated in a graduate program that involved one-year of intern-teaching and
related coursework. The three research questions that guided this study were:
1. What are the secondary mathematics preservice teachers’ actual identities?
2. What are the secondary mathematics preservice teachers’ designated identities?
3. What are the resources that contribute to the construction of these identities?
These questions are well founded in trying to understand the kind of teacher that
individuals want and need to become and the decisions they face during the identity
building process. The concepts of actual and designated identities will be further
described in the section of the second chapter discussing the theoretical framework.
Significance of the Study
High-quality teaching is not guaranteed by the completion of coursework or
meeting licensure requirements (Alsup, 2006). A preservice teacher’s future success also
depends on his or her intellectual and emotional readiness to function in the role of a
teacher. In addition to grappling with issues related to classroom management, content
knowledge, and planning, new teachers must address who to be in the classroom (Sachs,
2005). Teacher identity impacts how teachers navigate classroom decisions, decide what
knowledge to use, and make sense of new contexts and resources (Enyedy et al., 2006).
Teacher identity “mediates what makes its way into the classroom” by how consistent or
inconsistent newly learned practices fit with how they think about teaching (Enyedy et
al., 2006, p. 129).
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Overall, the focus of university teacher education programs is to provide
knowledge about learning theories and pedagogical approaches, teaching in placement
schools, and opportunities to increase their teaching skills and competencies. An explicit
focus is not on supporting preservice teachers in developing particular kinds of identities
(Alsup, 2006). Fundamentally, teacher educators are interested in improving teacher
learning and making that learning impactful and lasting. The results of this study may
help teacher educators think differently about preservice teachers’ identity development
and its impact on their learning. Having a better understanding of this development and
the resources that contribute to this development can potentially improve teacher
preparation programs to focus not only on producing high-quality teachers but also on
teachers’ emerging understandings and values about teaching and students (Gresalfi &
Cobb, 2011).
From a theoretical standpoint, this study has significance in that it has the
potential to contribute to related research. First, this study can inform understandings
about the identities that teachers develop during their preparation, including their vision
of what high quality mathematics teaching looks like. Second, this analysis documents
how Sfard & Prusak’s (2005) framework can be applied to the learning of preservice
secondary mathematics teachers. Third, this study provides insight into the relationships
that exist between identity and contributing resources.
From a practical standpoint, this study has significance in two ways. First, it can
help teacher preparation programs design and coordinate aspects of the experience that
build to desirable and purposeful visions of teaching, rather than sending different
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messages about mathematics teaching. This can lead to using resources in more explicit
ways directed towards teacher learning. Second, through studies that analyzed
mathematics teachers’ identities, Cobb and others (Cobb et al., 2003; Gresalfi & Cobb,
2011) found that successful professional development initiatives not only improve
teachers’ skills but also support teachers’ decisions that it is worthwhile to put forth the
effort to improve their teaching. With teacher education programs and professional
development programs sharing similar goals and expectations (Rogers & Scott, 2008), it
seems reasonable that successful implementation of these ideas at the level of teacher
preparation will yield similar effects.
Limitations
As is true with most research studies, factors existed that limited this study in
specific ways. For this reason, steps were taken to warrant the credibility of the results
and will be addressed in the methodology section of this paper. In this section, the
limitations that are addressed relate particularly to the participants, generalizability, and
being the researcher.
In terms of the participants, the preservice mathematics teachers who were both
willing and able to take part in the data collection process could only be included. Given
the topic, the most appropriate and accessible source for potential candidates was the
secondary mathematics teacher cohort at the time, which consisted of 12 members. Out
of the 12 secondary mathematics interns, 9 consented to participate. Out of the remaining
three candidates, two did not express interest in participating and the other one who
initially agreed to participate did not end up completing her internship.
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In terms of generalizability, the small pool of participants yielded a limitation in
my ability to collect diverse or large samples of data. However, the goals of qualitative
research are not to generalize but to achieve transferability, meaning a study shares
enough common qualities and threads to be substantively conveyed to others (Creswell,
2007). In addition, selecting interviews as the primary source for data collection limited
the amount of data I could realistically collect and analyze in a timely manner. Given the
constraints of the preservice teachers’ schedules and the timing of their graduation, the
timeframe for collecting data was also limited. Again, generalizing to the population of
all secondary mathematics interns was not the main point of this study. The analysis of
the data collected was rigorous and should be considered transferable for other
researchers and teacher educators.
In terms of being the researcher, my relationship with the participants is another
element that could have affected the outcome of the study. I was the participants’
instructor for their secondary mathematics teaching methods course, and therefore, our
prior interactions were based on a hierarchy of roles. The nature of my relationship with
the participants potentially affected how they responded to questions in their written
reflections and during the interview sessions. Although this may be true, the participants
were forthcoming in their responses and provided rich data about their experiences in
becoming teachers. Despite the potential shortcomings related to the nature of my
relationship with the interns, it is arguably equally likely that this element of the study
also contributed to the quality of findings based on the resulting data collected. Insights
and implications that support this notion are presented at the end of this dissertation.
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Delimitations
For purposes of clarity and focus, I chose to limit the pool of participants in my
study to only the secondary mathematics intern teachers in the cohort at the time of my
dissertation proposal. This decision resulted in having access to nine participants who
interacted in similar settings and with similar groups of people. Because I was primarily
interested in understanding the participants’ identities through their stories, this
delimitation was an attempt to achieve depth in understanding and to more fully explore
their individual stories as teachers. The likelihood of achieving a certain level of
understanding would have been significantly decreased with a larger sample size.
Because of the timeline of this study and the resources available, I chose to delimit the
collection of data to select written reflections and interviews that were conducted
individually. Because of this decision, I was able to personally transcribe all interviews
and completely immerse myself in the data.
Definition of Terms
The following is a list of ideas that are central to this study:
Identity: individuals’ participation in and across activities in which they use certain
resources to negotiate and make sense of themselves in relation to these activities (Cobb,
Gresalfi, & Hodge; Hand & Gresalfi, 2015; Lave & Wenger, 1991; 2009; Sfard &
Prusak, 2005).
Identity as narrative – (Sfard & Prusak; 2005)
• Actual identity: narratives representing the current state of affairs or
stories describing a person as they perceive themselves in the present;
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indicated by words spoken in present tense and stated as factual (Example:
I am a good driver.).
• Designated identity: narratives representing expectations or stories
describing a person as they expect to be in the future; indicated by words
spoken in future tense (Example: I want to be a doctor.).
Preservice teacher: a college student who is being educated to become a K – 12 teacher
and who is yet to enter the profession full time.
Resources – (Hand & Gresalfi; 2015)
• Informational resources: relates to tools or practices of a discipline or
community that are leveraged in certain ways through participation in
various activities.
• Interpersonal resources: relates to the ways in which individuals interact
with one another that frame how they recognize, position and make sense
of themselves in and across different contexts.
Significant narrators: the owners of the most influential voices who narrate cultural
messages that have the greatest impact on an individual’s actions (Sfard & Prusak, 2005).
Teacher identity: a situated identity relevant to an individual’s life as a teacher and what
it means to be a teacher, as told by the teacher.
Organization of the Study
This dissertation is organized into six chapters. The current chapter provides an
introduction to the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the
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significance of the study, limitations, delimitations, and a definition of terms list. The
remaining chapters are organized in the following manner. The second chapter discusses
a review of the literature that is relevant to preservice mathematics teachers’ identities
from a situative perspective. The third chapter explains the research methodology and the
data analysis procedures used in this study. The fourth chapter presents findings
according to individual participant narratives. The fifth chapter describes themes that
were identified across the individual narratives and offers a few insights. The last chapter
provides discussion and implications based on the findings of the study.
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The purpose of this literature review is to situate this study about who teachers are
and who they aspire to become. I will provide a general overview of research on teacher
learning and teacher effectiveness over the past decades in order to show how identity
relates to this substantial line of scholarship. I organize the literature review by the
following sections: (a) teacher effectiveness through recent history, (b) teacher learning,
and (c) teacher identity. A survey of all research literature relevant to teacher learning is
beyond the scope of this dissertation. I narrow my scope to include research more
relevant to the identity as narrative framework used in this study. In particular,
mathematics teachers’ designated identities consist of what they want to achieve and who
they want to be as teachers (Sfard & Prusak, 2005). These identities define what they
view as effective teaching. Furthermore, teacher learning consists of closing the gap
between teachers’ actual and designated identities. Considering these ideas, I will address
the following. First, I will present a brief history highlighting different research
perspectives on teacher effectiveness in terms of their behaviors, characteristics, and
knowledge for the purpose of providing a background for current research. Then, I will
present how relevant research has described teacher learning and the motivations that
encourage teachers to change. Lastly, I will focus on the literature pertaining to identity
and discuss how identity relates to teacher learning.
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Teacher Effectiveness Through Recent History
Over the past 50 years, scholars and policymakers have investigated the
relationships among teacher characteristics, teacher behaviors, and student achievement
in an attempt to define what it means to be an effective teacher (Hill, Rowan, & Ball,
2005). A variety of approaches have been used to measure teacher characteristics, which
have resulted in a variety of results. The following paragraphs contain brief descriptions
about these approaches from (a) the process-product literature, (b) the production
function literature, and (c) teacher knowledge literature.
The Process-Product Literature
With a focus on analyzing the relationship between teacher behaviors and student
achievement, studies from the process-product literature set out to predict student
achievement from solely using data about teachers’ decisions and actions in the
classroom (Brophy & Good, 1986; Doyle, 1977; Gage, 1978; Hill et al., 2005). For
example, scholars from this tradition found that behaviors such as focusing class time on
active academic instruction verses classroom management affected students’ achievement
gains. Methodologically, these studies were critiqued for excessively relying on
correlation data. Conceptually, these studies were critiqued for not considering how the
subject was being taught and how teachers’ subject-matter knowledge influenced the
findings (Hill et al., 2005; Shulman, 1986).
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The Production Function Literature
Concurrent with process-product research, studies from the production function
literature instead focused on teachers as one of many educational resources affecting
student achievement (Begle, 1979; Hanushek, 1981; Hill et al., 2005). These studies
aimed to predict student achievement on standardized tests from resources possessed by
teachers, students, schools, and other sources. Studies that focused specifically on teacher
characteristics and student achievement typically employed one of two approaches, and
sometimes both, to measure teachers as resources. In the first approach, information
about teacher preparation and experience was examined as a predictor for student
achievement. For example, the number of mathematics courses taken by teachers was one
of the many characteristics considered (Begle, 1979). In a second more direct approach,
researchers used certification exams or other tests of subject-matter competence as
measurement tools (e.g. Begle, 1979; Hanushek, 1981). However, both approaches used
questionably weak proxies for measuring teacher effectiveness. Research from the
production function literature assumed teachers’ intellectual resources to be merely
accrued knowledge without considering how this knowledge is implemented in the
classroom (Hill et al., 2005).
Teacher Knowledge Literature
Focusing directly on teacher knowledge, Shulman (1986, 1987) and his
colleagues (Wilson, Shulman, & Richert, 1987) produced a groundbreaking line of
research that explored what teachers need to know about subject-matter content in order
to teach students. In this research, they distinguished between what they believe are the
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ways in which academic content must be known to teach effectively and the ways in
which the general population knows such content. In an attempt to bridge a preexisting
divide between content and pedagogy, Shulman (1986) proposed three categories
describing types of teacher subject-matter knowledge. The first category, content
knowledge, refers to the amount and organization of knowledge in the mind of the
teacher. He stated that a teacher must not only understand “that something is so” but also
understand “why something is so” (p. 9). Shulman’s (1986) second category, pedagogical
content knowledge, comprises representations of specific ideas and an understanding of
what makes learning a specific topic difficult or easy for students. He stated that this
knowledge includes “ways of representing and formulating the subject that make it
comprehensible to others” (p. 9). Shulman’s (1986) third category, curricular knowledge,
is an awareness of how topics are arranged both within a course and over time. This
knowledge also involves understanding ways of using resources and materials, such as
textbooks, to organize courses and programs of study. Shulman’s framework, and
particularly the pedagogical content knowledge category, connected ideas about content
and pedagogy in new ways and sparked a new direction in educational research.
Differing from the production function literature that merely provided evidence
that some teachers are more effective than others, the many scholars on teacher
knowledge have attempted to answer the how and why of effective teaching. For
example, some studies illustrated how teacher knowledge is related to such skills as being
able to acknowledge and respond to student difficulties (Ball, Lubienski, & Mewborn,
2001; Fennema et al., 1996) as well as being able to lead effective classroom discussions
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(Chazan & Ball, 1995; Boerst, Sleep, Ball, & Bass, 2011). Furthermore, other studies
have shown how teacher knowledge is comprised of the ability to unpack mathematical
ideas in a way that is relatable for students (Hill, Ball, & Schilling, 2008; Hill et al.,
2005). Some research stemming from this literature addressed a need to consider how
teachers learn and what motivates them to change their practice.
Teacher Learning
Traditionally, educational researchers took a cognitive approach to learning,
treating it as only the acquisition of skills and knowledge to be used in a variety of
settings (Greeno, Collins, & Resnick, 1996; Putnam & Borko, 2000). In other words,
learning was viewed as an internal process independent of the situation and separate from
the learning context. More recently, many researchers have adopted a situative approach,
which challenges the notion of learning as independent of the physical and social
contexts in which it takes place (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Putnam & Borko, 2000). In this
case, how an individual learns a set of skills and knowledge and the situation in which an
individual learns are considered an integral part of what is learned. Additionally, a
traditional cognitive approach takes the individual as the basic unit of analysis, whereas a
situative approach considers “interactive systems” that include individuals as well as their
interactions with others (Greeno et al., 1996). Incidentally, learning for teachers occurs in
many different situations (Peressini et al., 2004). For preservice mathematics teachers,
these situations may include mathematics courses, teacher education courses, and field
experiences. To understand the complexity of teacher learning, this study focuses on a
situative prospective because it takes into account both the individual teacher-learners
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and the social structures in which they participate (Peressini et al., 2004; Putnam &
Borko, 2000). In the following paragraphs, studies are highlighted that define powerful
learning experiences for teachers.
The first study describes teachers’ participation in a learning community. Franke
and Kazemi (2001) investigated how teachers acquire knowledge that can become the
basis for continued learning. They indicated that ongoing teacher learning involves
learning with understanding, which has three distinguishing characteristics. First, learning
with understanding must be generative, meaning that new knowledge is integrated with
existing knowledge (Greeno, 1988). Knowledge becomes generative when the learner
“continually reconsiders existing knowledge in light of the new knowledge” (Franke,
Carpenter, Levi, & Fennema, 2001, p. 656). Second, knowledge is rich in structure and
connections. New knowledge is related and intertwined into existing networks of
knowledge rather than simply being connected piece by piece. Third, teachers see
learning as driven by their own inquiry. This implies that they view knowledge about
teaching and learning as self-constructed through their own activity and constantly
changing. A situative approach allowed these researchers to highlight teachers’
appropriation of knowledge as being connected to their participation in communities of
practice (Kazemi & Franke, 2001, Lave & Wenger, 1991). Their study implies that
teacher learning can be characterized in terms of changes in participation within a
community. Further, teachers can develop knowledge that motivates future learning.
In addition to the three criteria explained above, Cobb and others (2003)
highlighted a major resource that is critical for teachers to experience substantial
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learning. In this study, they suggested that teachers must have access to particular forms
of pedagogical reasoning to support their learning. In a study that focused on the
constraints and affordances of the settings in which teachers develop and revise their
instructional practices, they found that teachers need certain personal resources. Personal
resources, for example, can refer to teachers’ conceptualizations of certain mathematical
domains, their understanding of the development of their students’ reasoning, and the
mathematical possibilities that they see in their students’ work. In order to improve their
instructional practices, teachers must be given access to forms of “pedagogical reasoning
that involve explicitly focusing on, documenting, and adjusting to students’ developing
mathematical understandings” (Cobb et al., 2003, p. 21). This aspect of teacher learning
affects how teachers incorporate central mathematical ideas into the tools they use and
organize for teaching and learning.
Consistently across time, educational reform has demanded that teachers make
ambitious and sometimes complex changes (Franke et al., 2001; Kazemi & Franke,
2004). These changes involve more than developing a deep understanding of the content
(Hill et al., 2005) or simply being shown how to implement effective practices (Franke et
al., 2001). In fact, Little (1993) indicated that most reform initiatives do not lend
themselves well to traditional types of skill training because they are not specific,
transferable skills or practices in nature. Instead, teachers must have the opportunity to
discover and develop practices that align with the reform ideas being presented to them.
They need to investigate what broad principles look like in practice but at the same time
invent local solutions that embody central values rather than merely adopt what are
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considered “universally effective” practices (Little, 1993, p. 133). This claim considers
both the uncertainty surrounding what constitutes best practices and the complexity of
local situations.
Essentially, teachers need to reinvent their practices so that teaching and learning
becomes an interdependent ongoing process (Franke et al., 2001), which in most cases
requires a need for teachers to adjust their conceptions of what it means to teach
mathematics (Cobb et al., 2003; Kazemi & Franke, 2004). Critical to teachers improving
their instructional practices is that they must believe that the effort required to improve
their practice is worthwhile (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011; Little, 1993). How teachers become
motivated to improve their practices depends on the vision of mathematics instruction
with which they identify (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011). Previous research has documented a
strong relationship between the vision of instruction with which teachers identify and
their classroom practices (Battey & Franke, 2008; Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011; Kagan, 1992).
Consequently, the role of identity in learning to teach has gained the attention of many
educational researchers in recent years.
Teacher Identity
The Notion of Identity
Researchers vary in their interpretations of what shapes and creates a person’s
identity (Enyedy et al., 2005; Sfard & Prusak, 2005). Some believe that identity is an
essential part of an individual that does not change (Cerulo, 1997) while others believe
that identity can change from moment to moment and context to context (Gee, 2001).
More recently, traditional views of identity as essential, stable, and biological have been
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replaced with identity as dynamic, cultural, social, and individually as well as collectively
shaped (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Gee, 2001; Lave, 1991; Lave & Wenger, 1991;
Rodgers & Scott, 2008; Sfard & Prusak, 2005; Wenger, 1998). In the first section to
follow, three aspects of identity are described that contribute to the approach on identity
that is taken in this study. The specific aspects described are (a) identity as being a “kind
of person”, (b) identity as being part of a community of practice, and (c) identity as
narrative. These aspects are important because mathematics teachers are recognized for
being a certain kind of person based on their roles as teachers and their participation in
different learning communities (Gee, 2001; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Additionally,
teachers talk about these roles and who they are as teachers. Following these descriptions,
a noteworthy line of research that has accumulated on teacher identity is presented
according to three categories: (a) Individual teachers’ beliefs about themselves, (b) the
stories teachers tell about themselves, and (a) the nature of teachers’ participation in
particular types of activities. Following this presentation, a framework for characterizing
identity resources from a situative perspective is described.
Delving deeper: Aspects of Identity
Identity as being a “kind of person.” Gee (2001) claimed that when an
individual acts and interacts in a given context, the individual is recognized as being a
certain “kind of person.” In this sense, everyone has multiple identities that are connected
to their “performances in society.” Identities are formed in how human beings see each
other in certain contexts. The process of identity development is about presenting oneself
and being recognized by others in a certain situation. An individual engages in a
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“combination” at a given time and place, which may include speaking in a certain way,
acting in a certain way, dressing in a certain way, or using tools in certain way (Gee,
2001). This combination is a presentation of self, a process of becoming in which an
individual uses common resources to create a unique, personally tailored identity (Sfard
& Prusak, 2005).
Of significance is how Gee (2001) discussed the factors that contribute to identity.
Gee described four contextual forces that highlight certain dimensions of identity. First,
he described the nature perspective, which are parts of individuals that have their source
in nature rather than society and are out of one’s control. As an illustration, he notes how
being an identical twin is an example of this type of identity. Second, he defined the
institutional perspective, which includes parts of individuals that have their source in
institutional authority. For example, a professor’s identity, as Gee writes, is rooted in the
institutional title of professor. Third, he described the discursive perspective as individual
traits that have their source in how people participate in dialogue and interact with each
other. He used the example of being “charismatic” as discursive because an individual
cannot achieve this identity without the discourse of others. Lastly, Gee described the
affinity perspective, which includes the parts of individuals that have their source in a
distinctive set of practices or experiences that are shared by a group. He illustrated this
perspective by using the example of being a “Trekkie” or Star Trek fan. To summarize
these traits in Gee’s (2001) words, “People can actively construe the same identity trait in
different ways, and they can negotiate and contest how their traits are to be seen (by
themselves and others) in terms of the different perspectives on identity” (p. 108).
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Mathematics teachers negotiate their identities based on a combination of the preexisting
ideas they have about themselves as teachers, the ways in which their role as a teacher is
defined, the ways in which they interact with others, and the ways in which they
participate in certain communities (Gee, 2001; Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011).
Identity as being part of a community of practice. A second key idea from
identity research is that identities are not developed in isolation but are a matter of
negotiation with others (Gee, 2001). This is particularly true for preservice teachers who
are the focus of this study. Identity development can be viewed as a function of
participation in different communities and should not be viewed as a separate
phenomenon from this participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). From Lave
and Wenger’s (1991) perspective, individuals construct identities as they engage in
routine activities of a community of practice. Identity development occurs continuously
through participation in communities in significant ways (Lave & Wenger, 1991).
Especially for preservice teachers moving into practice, different community contexts
frame their experience and contribute to their ideas about what it means to teach (Battey
& Franke, 2008; Enyedy et al., 2005). Preservice teachers study, learn, and teach within
the communities of their teacher education program, the classroom and school
communities of their teaching placement, and later in the communities of their beginning
practice (Battey & Franke, 2008; Beauchamp & Thomas, 2011).
Furthermore, communities of practice determine the appropriate ways for
individuals to act and work together as well as the tools and resources that support this
work (Wenger, 1998). Individuals learn the ways of thinking and acting that are valued
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within a community and the tools that constrain and afford certain ways of being within
the community. This shared repertoire includes “the discourse by which members create
meaningful statements about the world, as well as the styles by which they express their
forms of membership and their identities as members” (Wenger, 1998, p. 83). Teachers
learn how to work with students and other teachers, how to apply various types of tools
and knowledge, and how to organize their practice through participation in their
communities. These actions and interactions shape their identities and raise their
awareness of the expectations within these communities (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2011).
Preservice teachers in particular are faced with how to negotiate belonging within all of
these communities for the first time in their lives. Norms exist on how to talk about
students, content, and teaching (Battey & Franke, 2008). As preservice teachers navigate
these norms, discourses among members of the communities collectively define what it
means to teach. “The language practices that teachers use in talking about the profession
of teaching both hold the acceptable identities for teachers and carry the important
knowledge, skills, practices, and values for teaching” (Battey & Franke, 2008, p. 129). In
essence, teachers enact identities through participation in their communities and as they
engage in discourse related to teaching and learning.
Identity as narrative. Sfard and Prusak (2005) take a discursive view of identity.
They deem the construction of stories to be equivalent with the construction of identities.
These stories change over time, across contexts, and are always in the making. Identity is
both interpreted and constructed through the stories that individuals tell themselves and
that others tell. Sfard and Prusak (2005) characterized these stories in terms of actual and
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designated identities. The actual identity of a person is comprised of narratives that
describe the person as they actually are, stated as assertions of fact. On the other hand,
the designated identity of a person is comprised of narratives that describe the person as
they are expected to be, sooner or later. Large gaps that appear between actual and
designated identities, if they persist, can likely cause conflict and unhappiness for an
individual. In most cases, Sfard and Prusak (2005) note, the only way to successfully
close such gaps is through learning.
In order to understand this learning, Sfard (2006) claimed that one must pay close
attention to the activity of identifying that “accompanies, informs, and results from the
process of learning” (p. 25). The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of
the process of teacher learning by allowing preservice teachers to actively identify
through the stories they tell. By telling stories, they situate themselves and the narratives
they use to define themselves (Battey & Franke, 2008; Sfard & Prusak, 2005).
Specifically, teachers may talk about who they are in terms of actions (e.g., incorporating
group work) or in terms of states (e.g., being a math person). Additionally, teachers may
talk about who they are in terms of future states (e.g., becoming a better math teacher).
These stories constitute identity because they account for teachers’ previous decisions
and actions while providing direction for their current and future decisions (Hodge, 2008;
Sfard & Prusak, 2005). To summarize, teachers’ narratives about themselves and their
practice as well as the discourse in which they engage provide opportunities for exploring
and revealing identities.
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Teacher Identity Research
Over the past few decades, a noteworthy line of research has accumulated on
teacher identity. This scholarship can be discussed in terms of three categories:
• Individual teachers’ beliefs about themselves (Knowles, 1992)
• The stories teachers tell about themselves (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999; Drake,
Spillane, & Hufferd-Ackles, 2001)
• The nature of teachers’ participation in particular types of activities (Grossman,
Wineberg, & Woolworth, 2001; Kazemi & Franke, 2004).
These categories of research have contributed to an enhanced understanding of teachers’
experiences as part of schools, communities, and professional development from their
perspective. In the following paragraphs, a few ideas are highlighted in terms of teacher
identity that emerged from this research.
Individual teachers’ beliefs about themselves. From Knowles’ (1992)
perspective, teacher identity is what individuals believe about themselves as teachers. He
suggested that a preservice teacher’s biography is important in the process of forming a
teacher identity. In this case, biography refers to the formative experiences of preservice
and beginning teachers that influence the ways in which they think about teaching. He
mentioned early childhood experiences, early teacher role models, previous teaching
experiences, significant people, and significant prior experiences as relevant biographical
influences. In a series of case studies, Knowles (1992) found connections between
biographies and how beginning teachers think about teaching and their practices in the
classroom. However, he claimed that teacher identity development is a struggle for many
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preservice teachers because they have to make sense of varying and sometimes
competing perspectives and expectations. He implied that teacher educators should try to
understand how to “harness the life experiences” of preservice teachers and channel them
into more positive and more effective teacher identities (p. 147).
The stories teachers tell about themselves. Another way a teacher’s identity can
be understood is through stories (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999; Drake, Spillane, &
Hufferd-Ackles, 2001). As lived and told by teachers, stories can serve as the lens
through which teachers “understand themselves personally and professionally and
through which they view the content and context of their work” (Drake, Spillane, &
Hufferd-Ackles, 2001, p. 2). Connelly and Clandinin (1999) suggested that a teacher
identity is a “unique embodiment” of teachers’ stories that are shaped by the changing
landscapes in which teachers work. In one particular study, Drake and others (2001)
found story interviews to be a useful way to understand teachers’ beliefs, motivations,
and perspectives. Additionally, they found that teachers’ stories were consistent with
their teaching practices. In general, the line of research focusing on the stories teachers
tell tend to demonstrate that the ways in which teachers understand and describe their
experiences are related to the changes that they make in their practice (Drake, Spillane, &
Hufferd-Ackles, 2001; Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011).
The nature of teachers’ participation in particular types of activities. Yet,
another way to view teacher identity is in terms of how teachers participate in certain
activities (Grossman, Wineberg, & Woolworth, 2001; Kazemi & Franke, 2004). More
specifically, the ways teachers participate in activities ranging from classroom instruction
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to professional development. From this perspective, teacher identity is shaped by the
norms, values, and practices of the contexts in which teachers participate (Gresalfi &
Cobb, 2011). Furthermore, shifts in participation involve forming new identities that
reflect new learning (Wenger, 1998). In this view, teacher identity does not refer to
personal characteristics or beliefs. In contrast, it refers to the set of practices and
expectations that define participation in certain contexts (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011). For
example, in one study, Kazemi and Franke (2004) examined a group of teachers who
worked together to develop a deeper understanding of their students’ mathematical
thinking. As they worked together to create a community of learners around the teaching
and learning of mathematics, they were also creating a set of norms about what it meant
to teach at their school. This study along with other studies attending to participation and
identity (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011; Grossman, Wineberg, & Woolworth, 2001) has
implications for the kinds of practices teachers pursue within their communities.
Identity Development and Resources
As mentioned previously, teachers construct their identities in multiple contexts
and through participation in multiple communities (Gresalfi & Cobb, 2011). This
complex process involves individuals drawing on resources available in particular
settings. One way to conceptualize learning is as a process in which individuals engage
with resources in contexts and shift their participation in activities as they engage with
resources differently (Hand & Gresalfi, 2015). The ways that these resources are
acknowledged and acted on can be perceived as the influence of an individual’s identity
(Gresalfi, Martin, Hand, & Greeno, 2008). A major component of this dissertation study
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considers the relationships between identity, learning, and the resources that contribute.
In the following paragraphs, a few ideas about these relationships from limited previous
research are reviewed.
Nasir and Cooks (2009) presented a model on how learning settings provide
resources for the development of identities in a practice-based setting. Their study
focused on how members of a track and field team were offered and took up identities
through resources made available to them in their practice setting. They highlighted three
kinds of resources that contributed to the identity development of their participants. First,
they defined material resources as the physical artifacts of a setting that support one’s
sense of connection to the practice. Second, they defined relational resources as the
positive relationships with others in the context that can increase connection to the
practice. Third, ideational resources were defined as ideas about oneself and one’s place
within the practice and the world, as well as ideas about what is valued or good. The
researchers found that all types of resources contributed to their participants’ identities as
track athletes as well as supported their learning in this setting. Similarly, preservice
teachers participate in learning settings where they are provided resources that may
contribute to their identities as teachers.
Some researchers characterize identity as a joint accomplishment between
individuals and their interactions with resources in different contexts (Gee, 2000; Greeno
& Gresalfi, 2008; Hand & Gresalfi, 2015; Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998;
Wenger, 1998). Identities that are developed in relation to a particular activity are always
connected to the affordances of that activity. One way that resources within this
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conceptualization have been defined is as interpersonal or informational (Hand &
Gresalfi, 2015; Gresalfi, 2009; Greeno & MMAP, 1998). Interpersonal resources relate to
the ways people interact with each other and the ways individuals position themselves
within certain contexts. Informational resources relate to the tools and practices within
certain contexts that can be leveraged in different ways.
With this in mind, the influences over what an individual does and becomes are
varied and happen coincidently at different levels (Hand & Gresalfi, 2015). Although it is
unrealistic to focus on all levels coincidently, researchers have attempted to further their
understanding on how identity develops by focusing on a single level and its relation to
other levels. Hand and Gresalfi (2015) broke down these previous research attempts into
three tiers. First, researchers have examined at how identity develops in relation to the
practices of a particular activity and how the context supports or restricts the negotiation
of these identities (Boaler & Greeno, 2000; Cobb, Gresalfi, & Hodge, 2009; Gresalfi,
2009; Hand, 2010; Horn, 2007). Second, researchers have studied how identities shift
across activities and how these activities afford different opportunities for the same
people and carry different weight in identity negotiations (Nasir & Hand, 2008; Nasir &
Cooks, 2009). Third, researchers have tried to analyze how enduring communities frame
the ways that identity develops and can be extended or constrained within and across
activities (Hand, Penuel, & Guitierrez, 2012; Horn 2007; Nasir & Saxe, 2003). While
most of these studies pertain to the identity development of students, a gap exists in the
literature on how resources contribute to teachers’ identities at different levels.
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Summary
A plethora of research exists on teacher effectiveness and teacher learning (Ball,
Lubienski, & Mewborn, 2001; Begle, 1979; Boerst, Sleep, Ball, & Bass, 2011; Chazan &
Ball, 1995; Fennema et al., 1996; Franke et al., 2001; Hanushek, 1981; Hill et al., 2005;
Peressini et al., 2004; Putnam & Borko, 2000). Furthermore, a large number of studies
have focused on teacher identity (Alsup, 2006; Battey & Franke, 2008; Connelly &
Clandinin, 1999; Drake, Spillane, & Hufferd-Ackles, 2001; Enyedy et al., 2005; Gresalfi
& Cobb, 2011; Knowles, 1992). Few research studies have been focused on trying to
understand preservice mathematics teachers’ identities through their narratives
(Richmond, Juzwik, & Steele, 2011). Additionally, few studies have focused on the
relationships between identities and resources (Gresalfi, 2009; Nasir & Cooks, 2009;
Nasir & Hand, 2008), and fewer have focused on the resources that contribute to
teachers’ identities. However, the existing research indicates the importance of identity
development in the process of becoming a teacher. Clearly, preservice teachers will
experience shifts in identity as they participate in the different contexts of preparing to be
a teacher. Gaining a better understanding of this process and the contributing resources
could have implications for how we prepare teachers to become who they need and want
to be in their profession. In this study, this gap in the literature is addressed by
concentrating on preservice mathematics teachers’ identities and by exploring what
resources have the greatest impact on these identities.
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Theoretical Framework
In recent years, educational researchers have given increased attention to identity
as a lens for theoretical and methodological lens (Boaler, 2002; Cobb, Gresalfi, & Hodge,
2009; Gee, 2000; Hodge, 2008; Sfard & Prusak, 2005, etc.). Whenever a researcher’s
questions focus on human interactions and the dynamics underlying these interactions,
identity emerges as a reasonable and workable analytic tool (Gee, 2001; Sfard & Prusak,
2005). Particularly, identity is helpful in answering questions on “how collective
discourses shape personal worlds and how individual voices combine into the voice of a
community” (Sfard & Prusak, 2005, p. 15). Focusing on the contextually specific ways in
which people act and their related identities allows for a dynamic approach in trying to
understand why individuals act differently in similar situations (Gee, 2001; Sfard &
Prusak, 2005).
Lave and Wenger (1991) suggested that an individual’s identity derives from the
process of becoming part of a community of practice. From this situated prospective,
identity shapes the ways individuals participate in social and cultural practices and the
ways individuals participate in these practices shapes their identities. In this case,
focusing on participation in social practice also implies an explicit focus on the individual
as a member of the sociocultural community (Lave & Wenger, 1991). As individuals
participate in a community of practice, they learn the ways of thinking and acting that are
valued within that community (Wenger, 1998). Learning is “not merely a condition for
membership, but is itself an evolving form of membership,” which entails the
construction of identities (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 53). In other words, learning,
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identity, and social membership are all intertwined. This situated perspective of identity
involves how individuals view themselves, how others view them, and how they
negotiate these views in relation to their positions within communities of practice.
Making contact with Lave and Wenger’s framework, Sfard and Prusak (2005)
view identity as “the missing link” in research for the “complex dialectic between
learning and its sociocultural context” (p. 15). They define identity as stories that
individuals and others tell about themselves. These narratives are collectively shaped
even if they are individually told and can change according to the storytellers’ and
recipients’ needs. In this perspective, identity stories are not considered “windows” to
some intangible entity but serve as individuals’ accounts of the state of affairs in their
worlds. Not only do they account for individuals’ previous decisions and actions, they
provide direction for their current and future directions (Hodge, 2008; Sfard & Prusak,
According to Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) identity as narrative, identity stories must
be reifying, endorsable, and significant. To be reifying, stories contain sentences about
states that may include verbs such as be, have, or can and signify repeated actions with
the use of adverbs such as always, never, and usually. For example, “I am good driver” is
a sentence that would meet this criterion because it describes a form of being (e.g., “I
am…”) and likely developed over repeated experiences (e.g., no wrecks or speeding
tickets). To be endorsable, stories must be true in reflecting the state of affairs in the
world for the identity-builder or must be reasonable to others. To be considered
significant, a story’s elements must impact the way another would view or define the
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individual. Furthermore, any change in the story would affect a person’s feelings about
the identified person. Framed in this way, identity becomes tangible to the researcher and
can be used as an analytic tool in qualitative research. The researcher is able to focus on
narratives as discursive constructs to investigate identity. In relation to this current study,
participants were prompted through reflective questions to produce narratives of teaching
identities that were treated as such and shed light on what matters to them as teachers and
what resources contribute.
In addition to being reifying, endorsable, and significant, Sfard and Prusak (2005)
suggested that identity stories fall into one of two subsets: actual identity or designated
identity. Actual identities, consisting of stories about the current state of affairs, are
usually told in present tense and are asserted as factual. “I am a teacher” or “I have a low
self esteem” are examples of statements telling the actual state of affairs. Designated
identities, consisting of stories about the expected or projected state of affairs, are usually
told in future tense. “I want to be a doctor” or “I need to be a better mother” are examples
of these identities. However, designated identities are not always desired but are always
endorsed and seen as binding by the identified person. In fact, designated identities are
often formed not because of choice but because the identity builder feels there is no other
way to proceed. From this perspective, learning consists of closing the gap between
actual and designated identities and defines what counts as success and failure. Large
gaps that persist between these identities will likely create a sense of unhappiness for the
identity builder. Related to this dissertation study, teachers’ designated identities may
lead them to seek changes in their practice, which would lead to changes in their learning.
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These actions may or may not be the result of desired change by the teacher but as a
result of feeling pressure to become a certain kind of teacher from other sources.
An important source of an individual’s identity is the stories that are told by
others about the identified person (Sfard and Prusak, 2005). As an individual tells stories
and stories are told about the individual, these narrations are constantly interacting and
feeding into one another. The significance of the storytellers to the identified person
determines whether their stories become incorporated into the individual’s identity and to
what degree. Sfard and Prusak (2005) termed significant narrators, the owners of the
most influential voices who narrate cultural messages that have the greatest impact on an
individual’s actions. Preservice teachers interact with university supervisors and
professors, mentors and students at their placement school, along with their peers who
carry the messages that impact their identities.
This study draws on the work of Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) identity as narrative.
In this case, teacher identity is equated with discursive narratives constructed by and
about people who are preparing to become teachers. Preservice teachers were encouraged
to explain who they had become and who they wanted to be through their narratives.
Their stories were taken for what they appeared to be and not be compared to what was
happening in their university or field placement settings. In this sense, teacher learning
was viewed through participant narratives rather than through observations or
assessments. The value in this approach lies in the relationship between preservice
teachers’ stories and how they experience different situations through preparing to be a
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teacher (Hodge, 2008). Through individual and collective stories, identity as narrative
served as a tool for interpreting their experiences and what they learned.
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CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This aim of this study was to understand secondary mathematics preservice
teachers’ actual and designated identities and what resources contribute to these
identities. Although some of the resources from which teachers draw to construct their
identities have been recognized, the impact of these resources in the identity building
process has been unclear. In an attempt to learn more about this particular case of identity
building, methods from grounded theory developed by Strauss and Corbin (1990) were
applied. By drawing from this approach, themes and relationships were generated
through the participants’ stories. In the following sections, an overview is provided of a
way to conceptualize grounded theory, how the participants were selected, how and what
data was collected, how this data was analyzed, and how methodological issues were
Grounded Theory
Developed in the 1960s, grounded theory is recognized as one of the first
systematic approaches to qualitative inquiry (Creswell, 2007; Saldaña, 2013). In this
research design, the inquirer generates a general explanation of a process shaped by the
views of the participants who have experienced that process (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).
Unlike some approaches that begin with a theory to prove or disprove, grounded theory
begins with an area of focus and allows for what is relevant in that area to emerge based
on the data collected from the participants. Strauss and Corbin (1990) suggested that data
collection, analysis, and theory hold reciprocal relationships with one another. Therefore,
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the theories generated are “grounded” in the qualitative data from the study, especially in
the social processes of the participants.
The elements used in a grounded theory approach seemed appropriate for both the
identity as narrative framework and the research questions posed for this study. First,
identities in this framework are defined as individuals’ stories, which are socially
constructed in nature (Sfard & Prusak, 2005). Second, the research questions required a
focus on understanding how preservice teachers engage in the process of learning who
they need to be as mathematics teachers. Third, no real theories or solid explanations
exist on the process of becoming a teacher while considering their interactions with
impactful resources. Using methods based on the grounded theory approach allows
researchers to focus on what is central to the process (Creswell, 2007; Strauss & Corbin,
1990). Given the framework, research questions, and choice of research approach,
participant narratives were needed to explore teacher identities and the resources that
have the greatest impact on learning from their perspective.
Participant Selection
To address the goals of this study, purposeful sampling was utilized to select the
participants. In this type of sampling, researchers chose participants who have the
potential to offer insights into the questions posed or to help develop theory (Creswell,
2007; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). According to Patton (1990), the power of purposeful
sampling lies in determining what participant characteristics will elicit the richest and
most in depth information. In order to understand preservice mathematics teachers’
identities and the various resources that may contribute to them, I chose to draw from a
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group of secondary mathematics interns who had experienced a similar process in
preparing to become teachers. In the chosen cohort, the preservice secondary
mathematics teachers attended the same university as math majors, completed the same
required coursework for their program that included methods courses taken at the same
time, and were at the time experiencing the second semester of their yearlong internship
in local public schools. They all experienced a similar structure in their internship in
terms of having the opportunity to gradually take over as the primary instructor of classes
throughout the school year.
Initially, ten members of this cohort agreed to participate. The number of
participants dropped to nine after one of the ten decided not to complete her internship.
Although including more participants would have been ideal, working with nine
individuals allowed for balance in the depth needed to understand their perspectives with
the breadth needed to generate concepts and relationships. In order to protect the
participants, pseudonyms were used for each intern's name and school’s name throughout
the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting data. Additionally, Informed Consent
Forms (Appendix A) obtained prior to participation guaranteed each intern's right to
withdraw from the study at any time.
Data Collection Procedures
Sfard and Prusak (2005) define identities as “a collection of stories about persons”
(p. 16), where narratives are told by an author, about a person, to a recipient. Because
Sfard and Prusak’s construct of identity as narrative was chosen as the framework, data
was collected through the forms of interview transcripts and written reflections. In
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addition to the appropriateness for the framework, interview data and reflections are also
suitable sources for applying a grounded theory approach. The goal was to gain an
understanding of how the participants experience the process of constructing their actual
and designated identities and what resources contribute to this process through their
voices. In the following paragraphs, the data collection procedures in terms of access and
the forms of data collected during the study are described.
Access and Entry Procedures
The data collection plan for this study began in the 2013 Fall Semester. First, I
was included as a co-investigator in an IRB proposal for a larger project related to the
proposed study. After IRB approval for the project was granted, I approached the current
cohort of secondary mathematics interns with the Informed Consent Form (Appendix A)
and invited them to participate in the study. I explicitly explained what would possibly be
involved on their part and reiterated their right to withdraw at any time. Each intern
teacher was asked to share written reflections from their coursework and to participate in
potentially two interviews that would last no more than 30 minutes each session. Ten of
the thirteen interns returned consent forms, and initially agreed to participate. I chose not
to approach the three interns who did not return their consent forms because I was the
instructor for MEDU 485 and somewhat in a power position over the interns at the time.
After being approved at my prospectus defense to conduct the study, I followed
up via email with the ten participants who consented. I received confirmation from nine
of the ten interns and proceeded with data collection. The finalized group of participants
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consisted of five females and four males who are all white and whose ages ranged from
early to late twenties at the time of their internship experience.
Written Reflections
Initially, written reflections were pulled from previous MEDU 485 course
assignments and discussion board posts with permission from the participants.
Specifically, responses to the prompts shown in the Table 3.1 below were considered for
background purposes before conducting the interviews. These reflections were also used
as a form of pilot testing for the coding process described in the data analysis section
Table 3.1. Background information for pilot coding.
Prompt Date Submitted to MEDU 485 Course
As a teacher, I am _______ December 2013
Good teaching is _______ December 2013
A few days prior to the scheduled interview session, each participant was sent a
copy a graphic organizer (Appendix C) adapted from Walker’s (2006) Student Map of
Influences on Mathematical Success. The purpose of the graphic organizer was to
uncover their narratives concerning the resources they felt had influenced who they were
as teachers. Moreover, the map was designed to hierarchize the resources in terms of
which ones had the most impact their teaching. Because of the timing of the interviews
being close to the end of their internship experience and graduation, participants were
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given the option to complete the graphic organizer prior to arriving to their interview
session or as soon as they arrived to the interview session. All participants with the
exception of one waited until their interview session to complete the graphic organizer. I
referred to each participant’s written responses and asked for further details during his or
her interview session for clarification and more depth in understanding each selected
resource (Appendix B).
Hatch (2002) stated that qualitative interviewers can “create a special kind of
speech event” during which they ask open-ended questions, encourage participants to
explain their perspectives, and listen for clues that reveal meaning. Interviewing was the
primary means for collecting data during this study. The purpose of the interviews were
to get the participants to tell stories about who they were as teachers, who they felt they
needed to be as teachers, and what resources had the greatest impact on this process.
Created with Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) framework in mind, the open-ended questions
created for the Interview Protocol (Appendix B) were geared towards getting the
participants to talk about their actual and designated identities.
Interviews were conducted individually on the campus of the participants’
university in a private office space. In order to provide a reference to help the participants
explain their perspectives, I showed them a video clip of their own teaching that they
selected previously to submit in the EdTPA process as an illustration of who they were as
teachers. The videos were used to stimulate an open-ended discussion about the aspects
of teaching they consider important (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2000). The videos were
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strictly used as a tool to help the participants to be more explicit in their explanations and
were not analyzed as data for the study. I used a semi-structured interview technique that
allowed the participants to tell their stories, while providing me with information
pertaining to their actual and designated identities. When I asked each question from the
interview protocol (Appendix B), I waited until participants finished everything they
wanted or needed to say without interruption. This allowed for more story-like responses
in the sense that the participants did the majority of the talking while I listened. Each
session was digitally recorded and was transcribed verbatim using InqScribe software.
Data Analysis Procedures
When using a grounded theory approach, a researcher typically advances through
a series of different types of coding procedures for analyzing data (Strauss & Corbin,
1990). The process involves applying specific types of codes to data through a series of
cumulative coding cycles that will ideally lead to the development of theory (Saldaña,
2013; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). In the process of analysis for this study, the overall
principles of grounded theory were applied (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Although the
analysis process was not as clean and neatly packaged as the following paragraphs would
imply, the description of how I employed a version of Strauss and Corbin’s (1990)
process is organized by the three coding phases for purposes of clarity in communicating
the overall feel of analyses. For example, multiple rounds within and across each phase
took place over the period of time in which the data was analyzed. Because of the
extended time period of the analysis and writing process, a certain level of continuous
back and forth occurred.
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The following paragraphs are organized according to the following. First, the
overall analysis process is generally described through coding phases. Figure 3.1 is
presented for a visual reference of the phases as a complete process. Second, the role of
memo writing in the analysis process is briefly discussed. After the data analysis
procedures are explained, an overview is provided on how methodological issues were
Coding Phases
For the first round of coding, In Vivo Coding was used to analyze both the
interview transcripts and written artifacts (Saldaña, 2013; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). This
type of coding is an acceptable method for what Strauss and Corbin (1990) consider open
coding or the first phase of coding, which allows the researcher to identify initial
categories, properties, and dimensions. In Vivo codes are words and phrases found
directly in the actual language of the qualitative record and can be thought of as direct
quotes (Saldaña, 2013). Using this method allows for prioritizing and honoring
participant voices while looking for patterns within the data. Because in this case
identities are stories or statements about states, In Vivo Coding seemed to be particularly
useful for analyzing discourse in the identity as narrative framework.
During this first phase, I analyzed each participant’s data separately,
chronologically as it was collected. As I worked through each interview, I initially
highlighted phrases and labeled them as actual, designated, or resource. Table 3.2
provides examples of identifying phrases for actual identity and designated identity that
were extracted from the data. “I am a nice person” (Don) is an example of a phrase from
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Figure 3.1. Saldaña’s (2013) model for streamlining codes.
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Table 3.2. Sample indicators for actual identity and designated identity.
Actual Students would say that I am…
Identity I am/was…(followed by specific description of teaching or type of
teacher)
My students always know that I…
I was able to show that I am…(referring to EdTPA video or evaluation)
I think that was a good representation of my teaching
because…(referring to EdTPA video or evaluation)
I feel _______ about teaching.
I wanted them to see that I am…(referring to EdTPA video or
evaluation)
________ really demonstrated who I am/was as a teacher.
I think it’s important to…(followed by reference to practice)
My class is…
I love getting students to…
Designated I want/don’t want to be a teacher that…
Identity I need…(followed by specific description of teaching or type of teacher)
I have to be…(followed by specific description of teaching or type of
teacher)
I hope I can be…(followed by specific description of teaching or type of
teacher)
I should…(followed by specific description of teaching or type of
teacher)
My challenge will be…
I would like to improve on…(followed by specific description of
teaching)
I would like for students to say that I am…
I am scared of…(followed by reference to teaching in the future)
A weakness that I need to work on is…
I wish I would get better at being…
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