Resources for planning and teaching mathematics: a Swedish upper-secondary school case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigates resource use by upper-secondary mathematics teachers in the context of collaborative planning. A thematic content analysis is conducted on audio-recorded teacher discussions in order to find out what resources are used by the teachers, how they are used, and for what reasons. The findings show that although teachers use a variety of resources to support their instructional enactment as well as instructional design, there is a difference in how they use different resources to support different planning practices. For instructional design, curriculum resources provide support for the mathematical content, while social resources, self-generated documents, and cognitive resources provide support for the design of instructional activities. Authority is given by teachers to curriculum resources, but conflicts of authority emerge in discussions, when teachers’ abilities to exert their agency are not supported by curriculum resources. We discuss the findings in relation to authority and resource use, as well as for established conceptualizations of resources. The findings bear practical implications for the design of curriculum resources.