Documenting Knowing-in-Action: A Mathematics Teacher’s Curricular Decision-Making Images
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2025.v30i3.910Abstract
Research on mathematics teacher curricular decision-making has focused more on what decisions teachers make and less on how teachers make curricular decisions. Teaching images are a well-known concept in teacher education as a form of teachers’ practical knowledge (PK) and threads that connect teachers’ past experiences to action in the present moment. In this study, I built on a three-year relationship with a veteran secondary mathematics teacher to construct her curricular decision-making images. I used a narrative inquiry methodology to interact and construct data alongside the teacher while she planned and taught a mathematics lesson. Data consisted of transcripts of conversations between the teacher and me, and my weekly journals. A narrative analysis revealed two teaching images: bringing the outside inside and reading students and moments. The teacher made decisions informed by past and in-the-moment teaching experiences, as well as personal commitments such as portraying students as professionals. Teacher images allow mathematics teacher educators and researchers to communicate how teachers make curricular decisions by working alongside teachers. This study contributes to curricular decision-making research by offering images as a form of PK that communicates practicing mathematics teachers’ knowledge-in-action.
Keywords: mathematics teachers, curriculum decision-making, practical knowledge, teacher images, narrative inquiry
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Copyright (c) 2025 Elizabeth Suazo-Flores
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