Sociological tools in the study of knowledge and practice
in mathematics teacher education
Diane Parker & Jill Adler
Published online: 24 July 2012
# Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Abstract In this paper, we put Basil Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse to work
together with additional theoretical resources to interrogate knowledge and practice in
mathematics teacher education. We illustrate this methodology through analysis of an
instance of mathematics teacher education pedagogic practice. While the methodology itself
is our focus, the particular example provides a compelling story at the heart of which is the
problem of integration of knowledge(s) within a pedagogic practice. Here, a constructivist
pedagogy is at work, but differentially with respect to teaching/learning mathematics and
teaching/learning mathematics teaching. The example illuminates mathematics and teaching,
and their co-constitution in a particular pedagogic context.
Keywords Mathematics teacher education . Pedagogic device . Knowledge
and practice . Evaluative judgement
1 Introduction
This paper draws from a wider study on the specialisation of pedagogic identities in two
contrasting mathematics teacher education institutions in South Africa—one a rural, poor
and historically disadvantaged, and one an urban, well-resourced, research intensive university.
The study shows that such specialisation was indeed differential—the student teachers
in each of the two institutions were provided different opportunities to learn mathematics
and mathematics teaching, and realised these in different ways. The explanation for this
outcome lies in an analysis of the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment on the one hand (the
three message systems operating at the institutional level in pedagogic practice (Bernstein,
1996)), and case studies of selected ‘good students’ (from the perspective of the provider) on
the other (Parker, 2009). The analysis of the unfolding pedagogic practice in each of the
Educ Stud Math (2014) 87:203–219
DOI 10.1007/s10649-012-9421-y
The study reported here was part of a PhD taken at the University of the Witwatersrand
D. Parker
Department of Higher Education and Training, Pretoria, South Africa
e-mail: parker.d@dhet.gov.za
J. Adler (*)
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
e-mail: jill.adler@wits.ac.za
institutions reflects an approach to research where analysis worked on the various levels of
educational practice (see also Morgan, in this special issue), together with how these are
realised or lived at the level of the student.