New Teacher Identity and Regulative Government

Abstract

The Discursive Formation of Primary Mathematics Teacher Education. Sociological and phenomenological studies are of particular interest to us here. A number with an anthropologic inflection, have described models of the student experience as "apprenticeship of observation" (Lortie, 1975), "development of expertise" (Berliner, 1988), "rite of passage" (White, 1989), "legitimate peripheral participation" within a community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Lave and Wenger (1991), for example, saw the development of expertise and understanding as situational and contextually grounded and learning resulting not "from talk" but "to talk", in a master1 apprentice relationship which functioned to confer legitimacy rather than to provide teaching. Yet critics point out that learning in a school context "requires understanding of the structure of pedagogy" (Adler 1996, p. 9) and needs to take into account "teaching", as well as "learning". Additionally, the whole notion of defining a "community of practice" within a classroom, whether it be in the university or in school, implies a degree of homogeneity of identity and purpose that is not always to be found. In Initial Teacher Training, in particular, the "apprenticeship" model, it has been argued, can construct a false dichotomy between university and school based elements, and importantly negate the value of reflection and educational theory (Jones, Reid and Bevins, 1997)