This paper reports on a project investigating the mathematical identity of student teachers. The project, Mathematical Identity using Narrative as a Tool (MINT), was funded by the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South (SCoTENS) and involved participants from five different higher education institutes on the island of Ireland.
The chief aim of MINT was to propose an efficient and effective protocol for third level mathematics educators to explore the mathematical identities of their students with a view to improving the teaching and learning of mathematics. Mathematical identity is considered as the multi-faceted relationship that an individual has with mathematics, including knowledge, experiences and perceptions of oneself and others. In this project, identity was accessed through the medium of narrative by asking students to think about and report the experiences that have shaped their current mathematical identity. An online questionnaire was developed, based on earlier work by members of the team; it invited respondents to reflect on (1) their total experience of mathematics, (2) their mathematical journey from childhood to the present, and (3) any insights they had gained about their attitudes to mathematics by responding to the questionnaire.
Three of the five cohorts of students surveyed were teacher education students, and it is on the analysis of the responses of these students that this paper reports. Narrative responses were analysed thematically, using themes developed in a previous study, and this paper reports on findings drawn from a small number of the themes, chiefly “ways of working in mathematics” and “nature of mathematics”. Student teachers’ insights into these themes provide valuable understanding of their views of mathematics and learning mathematics and thus on their emerging identities as mathematics teachers. They provide multiple contexts for beginning to explore the transition from student to teacher. Findings can be used to develop teacher education programmes so that they take increased account of students’ need to develop appropriate identities for starting their careers in teaching.