Tensions of Trust In Preservice Teachers' Consideration of Challenging Mathematics Tasks

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education

School

Education

Abstract

Drawing on a larger, cross-institutional study that examines equitable elementary mathematics education, this article reports initial findings related to tensions that emerged for preservice teachers (PSTs) related to trusting students with open-ended, challenging mathematics tasks. Data composed of 194 PSTs’ written responses to a survey question. Using methods of qualitative analysis, findings indicate two prominent tensions that emerged for PSTs related to trusting students with open-ended challenging tasks: productive struggle versus unproductive failure and teacher control versus student control. These findings suggest that reform efforts that encourage teachers to implement open-ended, challenging tasks may not come to fruition if underlying issues of (mis)trust teachers may have related to students are not unpacked and addressed.

Publication Title

Journal of Education for Teaching

Volume

47

Issue

2

First Page

287

Last Page

289

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