Situating Research on Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs and on Change

Abstract

The six chapters in this section focus on studying teachers’ beliefs with a particular concern for how those beliefs might change in order to improve the teaching of mathematics in our schools. Five of the chapters draw on empirical studies whilst the sixth gives an overview of recent research to investigate how researchers interpret teachers’ beliefs and what evidence they use for their claims. There are important theoretical analyses offered and fascinating stories told of teachers and by teachers concerning their beliefs and their practices. In the first part of this review I will draw out some of the key themes in the six chapters and indicate commonalities and differences. My contribution in the second section will be to try to situate these studies within research in the mathematics education community in order to point out some alternative orientations for the study of teachers and teaching-and-learning mathematics.