Methodological landscape in research on teacher identity in mathematics education: a review

Sonja Lutovac,Raimo Kaasila

doi:10.1007/s11858-018-1009-2

Sonja Lutovac, Raimo Kaasila

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-1009-2

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Abstract

A vast body of research has shown that teacher identity matters, be it in mathematics or in any other subject. The means of investigating teacher identity greatly determine the knowledge we have; however, no review of the methodological approaches into this topic has yet been conducted. This paper provides an overview of the methodological approaches in the research on teacher identity in mathematics education, in order to initiate a discussion on developmental possibilities in terms of how future research on this topic could be carried out. We examine 52 studies, published between 2000 and 2017 in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, investigating the identities of student teachers and/or practitioners who were generalists and/or specialised mathematics teachers. We identified the following to be prevalent data sources in qualitative approaches: interviews, written reflections or narratives, and classroom observations. In terms of analytical approaches, the scene is rather monotonous. Finally, we provide suggestions for future methodological considerations, highlighting the need for researchers to label their methodological decisions in order to better situate and connect their work to other research on mathematics-related teacher identity.

Highlights

Research on identity in mathematics education has grown since 2000, as recorded by the vast body of research into this topic, including this special issue
Based on several trials designed to obtain a relevant, but not overly narrow or broad list of studies published in the field, we developed the following criteria: first, the keywords ‘identity’, ‘teacher’, and ‘mathematics’ all had to appear in the identifiers and subject headings, and second, among those we chose the studies that were written in English and published between 2000 and 2015 in peer-reviewed scholarly journals
We acknowledge that this literature review is not exhaustive, but it does provide a solid overall picture of the methodologies used in teacher identity research in mathematics education contexts, and it provides an insight into a sufficiently broad spectrum of the researchers that investigate the topic of identity

Summary

Introduction

Research on identity in mathematics education has grown since 2000, as recorded by the vast body of research into this topic, including this special issue. Methodological landscape in research on teacher identity in mathematics education: a review

Data collection: selecting the studies to be reviewed

Meta‐ethnography as analytical approach

Study design

Discussion