Researching the net-work of school (mathematics)

education practicesPaola Valero

PhD course “Designing social learning systems in a globalized world: At the crossroads of cultural diversity

and technological development”Sæby, November 5-8, 2007

A dialectic relationship in research

Theoreticalperspective

Research object

Broadening my perspective

1994-1997 in ColombiaContext: Educational policy changes and

demands for change in school subjects. Emphasis on the quality of education seen in terms of students’ “mathematical power”

Question: What is it needed in order to make education improve in quality?

Principles: People are the motor of change. Change should involve the school community as a whole.

Institutional System of Mathematics Education

(ISME)

Curriculardesign

Group of mathematics teachersTeacher

Professionaldevelopment

Professional interaction

Professionalculture

Beliefs

Professional interest

Reflexion

Principal’sleadership

Coordinator’sleadership

Leaders

Professionalknowledge

Thinking structures

Thinking processes

Lessons:– Understanding school change demands

understanding the dynamics of mathematics education in the school organization.

– The school system is embedded in larger systems and they influence its functioning• Many “disruptions” in school functioning• Assumption: We can recognize the

influence, though we can’t act on it and therefore it is worth studying only the dynamics on which we can have influence.

1997-2001 in DenmarkMy study:

Reform

Democracy(Socio-political

approach)

Institutional System of

Mathematics Education

Starting point: Reformulation of the notion of ISME– Empirical work

• Three exemplary cases in three different countries (Nyspor, Rajas, Esperanza)

• A “theory-case contrast” design• An information collection strategy that covered the

areas of the ISME with a variety of techniques:– classroom interaction observation, video and audio

taped– students with one-time cameras– significant pieces of work for students and teachers– interviews– informal conversations– policy documents at different levels– Information materials

• Analysis of information and construction of data through the construction of “vivid images” (episodes)

– Theoretical work• Episodes as triggers of reflection• Search for possible and plausible

interpretations• Discourse analysis of existing literature

(school reform, organizational theory, mathematics education)

The process: Development of a language of interpretation to talk about reform in the ISME from a socio-political perspective

Issues that emerged from the analysis– The problem of context and

complexity• How to account for the “external factors”

that evidently influence education reform in schools?

• Which is the dominant way in which “context” is dealt with in the field of study in which the study is located?

• How to conceptualize context so that the “research objects” can be interpreted in relation to their surrounding?

– The problem of an analysis that goes beyond initial research focus

• If context is important, how does one builds an analysis that connects the elements of the ISME to layers of context?

– The problem of theory• Which kinds of concepts are helpful in such

analysis? (Perspective)• What do these concepts imply for the construction

of research objects?

– The problem of methodology• What do theoretical perspectives and research

objects imply for the process of knowing in the research?

• How do I act as a researcher?

– A focal point on the continuum

Agency ----------------------------Structure

– Reduction of complexity– Empirical research

In the field of educational research

– Sociology of education– Organizational learning– Social theory of learning – General didactics– Subject matter didactics (Mathematics

education)• Focus on mathematical learning as an individual

cognitive process• Individuals are a privileged unit of analysis• Research objects dominantly defined in term of the

“didactic triad”

Linking micro and macro is a challenge:

“This switching between the smallest and widest units of observation is the normal and necessary procedure of the sociologist; it is one of the most characteristic traits of the field of sociological study and at the same time constitutes one of its greatest difficulties. For the sociologist there is no break in continuity between the microsociological and macrosociological planes, but rather interpenetration and complementarity of two levels of social reality and two levels of analysis.

From Rocher, G. (1972). A general introduction to sociology. A theoretical perspective. New York: St. Martin Press, p. 6)

What is involved in the challenge?– Acknowledgement of social

complexity– Contextualization– Historicity– Interpenetration and complementarity

of levels

A post-rationalization

A socio-political perspectiveMathematics education studies the

historically-situated, social processes through which concrete human being get involved in the creation and re-creation of diverse forms of knowledge and ways of reasoning related to mathematics

• Mathematics education is seen as a net-work of social practices

• The meaning of learning and teaching mathematics is constructed in the relationship between:

Actors Social, political,economic, cultural arenas

TeachersStudentsParentsLeadersPoliticiansEmployers

ClassroomSchoolFamilyEducational policyLabor market

Meaning

T E

M

Classroom

School

Nation

International arena

Leaders

Colleagues

EmployersTeacher educators

Parents

International organizations

Policy makers Friends

T E

M

Classroom practice

School

Nation

International arena

Working practice

Teachereducationpractices

International comparison

practices

Leadership practice

International policy practice

Family practice

Policy-makingpractice

Youth practice

Staff prof. practice

Technology development

practice

Research practice