The possibilities and limitations of constructivist practice in pre-service teacher education in mathematics: Foucault, action research and pedagogical desire

This study investigates the possibilities and limitations of "constructivist" methods of teaching in a mathematics "methods" course in pre-service teacher education. The research undertaken responds to the Discipline Review of Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science (1989, p.17) which states that teachers of mathematics must themselves "have learned mathematics by constructing their own knowledge through discovery, exploration and problem solving in relevant and supportive environments".

In the initial cycles of the research I concentrated on the implementation of "constructivist" practice informed by Habermas' (Can and Kemmis, 1986) critical social theory. I found liberal humanistic assumptions of the individual and knowledge within action research and constructivism problematic in that they did not afford any way of making sense of many of the actions and practices of myself and students. I turned to Foucauldian genealogy for a post-structuralist theorisation of power-knowledge operating within the discourse of constructivist mathematics constituting subjectivities and effecting instances of marginalisation.

In the third and final cycle of the research I moved hesitantly towards an understanding of myself and students as discursively constituted, variously positioned and positioning others within the discourse. Epistemologically I began to recognise and appreciate both knowledge as cognitive construct, and a knowing or knowledge as production of meaning. That is, as students constructed the authoritative mathematical and pedagogical knowledges, meanings were also produced which were at times discriminatory.

Concluding chapters focus on the production of meaning within myself and students as pedagogical desire. With reference to my practice, I reflect on the importance of distinguishing between discourse as a linguistic function and discourse in the Foucauldian sense as the operation of power-knowledge within practice if teacher education is to move beyond its present conservative influence on students. That is, perhaps teacher education in mathematics needs to move beyond talking differently about mathematics, for example constructivist mathematics or mathematics from minority cultures, to an emphasis on being differently in mathematics through affording students the space to examine meanings produced through the operation of power-knowledge as unquestioned liberal-humanistic assumptions of the individual in constructivist pedagogy and collaborative action research.