Stories of learning as a mathematics teacher educator through narrative interviewing

In the first global conference on storytelling, with a colleague, Alf Coles, we described and illustrated how we used ‘storytelling’ as a pedagogical tool with prospective teachers, using ideas from Bruner and Bateson. These novice teachers create meaning through staying with the detail of their experiences, resonating with and interacting with the stories of others.

In this paper, I want to gather together and tell stories of stories of lived experience both of myself as a mathematics teacher educator staying with the detail of my experiences and juxtaposing these stories with the voices of experienced secondary mathematics teachers who, in narrative interviews, get to the ‘pattern through time’ of their teaching, characterising its flow framed through the detail of their first lessons in a school year. These stories of stories are a way of coming to know more in my practice as a teacher educator. My learning as a teacher educator is similar to the learning of my students. What story does is support my preparation to act in a complex situation, not leading me to expect there to be unique and best solutions, instead, expanding the awarenesses that are available for use when I am working with prospective teachers.