Exploring Mixed Roles and Goals in Collaborative Research: The Example of Toddler Mathematics Education

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the methodological possibilities and challenges arising from the mixed roles and aims between researchers and teachers in a research project aimed at developing educational practices with toddlers. The project was conducted in close collaboration between researchers and preschool teachers in Sweden for three semesters using an iterative design of meetings every 2 weeks to evaluate, develop, and plan teaching activities for toddlers. The key questions concerned deepening the knowledge, both theoretically and empirically, of how children develop numerical skills and how this development can be facilitated in early childhood education. Due to the specific context in which the research and development were undertaken, methodologies previously used in research on early mathematics had to be further developed. During the close collaboration in carrying out the project, unanticipated methodological challenges involving the mixed roles and goals of the collaborators did arise but turned out to enrich the knowledge for all participants. The challenges concerned both the common goal to learn more about early mathematical learning and the diverse approaches with which preschool teachers and researchers entered the project.