Theoretical frameworks in researching mathematics teacher knowledge, practice, and development

Abstract

Interest in theory and theory building has been continuously increasing in mathematicseducation, including consideration of ‘‘grand theories,’’ ‘‘middle range theories,’’ and‘‘local theories,’’ depending on the scope of the domain of application (Silver and Hersbt2007). In a recent reflection about research on and with mathematics teachers, Skott et al.(2013) underlined the importance of researchers making explicit theoretical and method-ological assumptions.While what is understood by ‘‘theory’’ in education research varies from author toauthor based on his or her perspective of what is being investigated and how to investigateit, there are specific factors that constitute a theory in the context of research. For example,Niss (2007) proposed that ‘‘a theory consists of an organized network of concepts … andclaims about some extensive domain, or a class of domains, consisting of objects, pro-cesses, situations, and phenomena’’ (p. 1308). A related concept is ‘‘framework,’’ whichseeks to describe the salient features and relationships between relevant concepts todescribe a phenomenon, but making no claims about it.Research in mathematics teacher education needs to draw on and use in a consistentway sophisticated theories and frameworks in order to deepen our collective understandingof the phenomena and situations with which we are concerned in this field. The threearticles in this issue of the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education are good examplesof such use of theories and frameworks, in particular, in mathematics teacher educationresearch. Robyn Pierce and Kaye Stacey used Everett Roger’s theory for the diffusion ofinnovations and the ‘‘Pedagogical Opportunities Map’’ framework. Gunhan Caglayan useda theory of conceptual fields and frameworks of unit coordination, quantitative reasoning,adjectival quantities, and referent compositions. Edna Schack, Molly Fisher, JonathanThomas, Sara Eisenhardt, Janet Tassell, and Margaret Yoder used frameworks of profes-sional noticing of children’s mathematical thinking, pedagogies of practice, and‘‘descriptive trajectory Stages of Early Arithmetic’’ in framing their studies. These arefurther highlighted in the following overview of each article.