Abstract:
In this paper, interpretations of learning from different socio-cultural-political perspectives are integrated to form a theoretical framework for exploring professional development in mathematics teaching. Although it is possible to identify the separate, contributing factors that operate in mathematics classrooms, little is known about how teachers perceive factors interacting together to affect student learning and the impact of these perceptions on their uptake of professional development opportunities. From their point of view, immersed in the complexity of everyday practice, teachers may perceive a different set of factors interacting in other ways than those imagined by the professional development designers and by the researchers. Therefore, the learning that teachers gain from participating in professional development may make only a limited contribution to them changing their practices and consequently improving student outcomes. We combine the work done in mathematics education by Skovsmose and Valero with Kemmis and Grootenboer’s work on practice architectures to provide a theoretical framework for unpacking why some teachers may gain more from professional development than others.