The search for the sense of agency in vulnerable situations in mathematics teachers’ initial education

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the actions of prospective mathematics teachers (PMTs), triggered in preparation for their teaching practicum (TP), to foster their autonomy when seeking their sense of agency in the face of a vulnerability, in the movement to construct their professional identity. To this end, we have carried out a qualitative research about the practicum lesson plans and the simulations of those lessons by PMTs who attended the same class in two disciplines of the Supervised Curricular Teaching Practice, in the last two years of the mathematics teaching degree course of the State University of Londrina (UEL). The identified vulnerability experiences enabled the search for the PMTs’ sense of agency regarding the following actions: defining concepts with which the students had already had contact and problematising them to systematise a mathematical idea; resorting to previous experiences worked with potential basic education students; having support from colleagues for possible actions to be developed in the classroom; problematising the answer to a problem; reflecting on and answering questions; evaluating a classroom situation and concluding that it is necessary to give in so that the other also plays a leading role; assuming a coherent position to what they believe about education; and questioning students. These actions express the reactions of PMTs when exercising their autonomy, in the search for the sense of agency, mediated by other PMTs and teacher educators involved in the formative process. The experiences of vulnerability and the search for the sense of agency articulate altogether singular, individual, and collective aspects that expand the movement of the construction of the teacher’s professional identity.