“Sage on the stage” or “meddler in the middle”: shifting mathematics teachers’ identities to support student engagement

Abstract

Mathematics teachers’ identities profoundly influence how they interact with and position their students to learn mathematics. In this paper, we examine how a year-long teacher learning intervention supportive of student engagement in mathematics helped shift teachers’ mathematics-related identities. We use an implied identity perspective as a theoretical lens to explore changes in what teachers perceive as legitimate ways of being as a result of their participation in the intervention. Data from pre- and post-intervention concept maps and focus groups with 15 grade 5–7 teachers of mathematics were integrated for this purpose. Teachers reported shifts in their identities, describing themselves as “facilitators,” “learners” and “co-creators” of knowledge. We argue that such shifts in the mathematics-related identities of teachers can have practical consequences in terms of improving students’ engagement, and in particular, their autonomy for learning mathematics.