Maintaining momentum: Teacher-leaders’ identity narratives about transforming school mathematics practice

Abstract

Recent research efforts have focussed on if/how teacher-leaders might stimulate improvements in their school's teaching practice through leading professional learning. This article draws on narrative-defined identity theory to investigate eight Australian teacher-leaders’ initiative to engage their mathematics students in conceptually-demanding problem-solving. The leaders narrated individual and collective efforts to address students' and colleagues' positive and negative reactions to the teaching-through-problem-solving approach. Their envisioning of future leading was found to focus on ways to sustain/improve the engagement of both students and teachers, evidenced across their individual and communal pedagogical discourses. Suggested implications for teacher-leaders and teacher educators are shared.