The mathematical biographies of primary school teachers and how this may affect their teaching; a grounded theory study.

Improving numeracy skills in the UK population has been the aim of many different government education strategies over many decades. This piece of research uses grounded theory to explore the conscious psychological processes of primary school teachers when they are teaching maths to the children in their class. The question which is pursued throughout the study is how primary school teachers’ own experience of learning mathematics are represented within those processes and how this may influence the way that they teach children in their class. The main form of data used in the study was the voices of ten different teachers in interview transcripts. In the first chapter, a review of past and current legislation and government strategy as well as research and analytic literature is provided where mathematics education is discussed from multiple perspectives including temporal/historic, socio-economic, sociocultural and from the point of view of an individual’s cognitive and emotional development. Chapter two deals with the methodology and the critical realist underpinnings. The main models of grounded theory are juxtaposed and considered in light of the author’s critical realist ontological stance which is also explained. The third chapter presents the key findings before the analysis in the fourth chapter where the emergent core theory is first linked back to the reading and research in the introductory chapter and then taken further into fresh conceptual fields whereby it is seen as a broader set of re-enactment processes which are thought to take place in parenting and psychotherapy. The study’s scope and limitations are dealt with before, finally, there is a short conclusion considering future research directions and the implications for education strategy, general education strategy, EPs, teachers and other stakeholders.