Mathematics Crossing Borders: A Comparative Analysis of Models for Integrating Mathematics with Other Disciplines in Pre-service Teacher Education

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which the discipline of mathematics underpins, illuminates or can be integrated with other disciplines in the context of mathematics pre-service teacher education. Drawing on my experience as a mathematics teacher educator and mathematics education researcher, I compare different models of integration I have used or observed in pre-service teacher education courses. These include mathematical modelling, curriculum integration and numeracy across the curriculum approaches. My analysis investigates the theoretical and philosophical rationales for these different approaches, the positioning of mathematics and assumptions about the relationship of mathematics to other disciplines, barriers to and enablers of integration and implications for both teacher education and classroom practice more generally.