Contradictory Concepts of Creativity in Mathematics Teacher Education

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is a study of teacher educators’ conceptions of the relationship between mathematics and creativity. A particular focus was on the apparent contradictions between the conceptions of mathematics and creativity found in schools, as opposed to conceptions found within the society of professional mathematicians. We interviewed a focus group of teacher educators. A set of questions on mathematics and creativity was prepared, and the interviews consisted of an open discussion among the focus group around these questions. We carried out a thematic analysis of the interviews. This kind of exploratory study of teacher educators’ conceptions of mathematics and creativity in Norway is new and shows that the teacher educators in the focus group have similar concepts of mathematics and creativity to those which we find in much of the current research on mathematics and creativity.