Calls for high levels of participation and success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) by all Australians exacerbates the need for research into improving participation in mathematics by students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Rogoff's three planes of analysis is used to foreground the institutional plane in a low…

In Australia, all teachers are expected to explicitly attend to numeracy in the subjects they teach. Pre-service teachers, therefore, need to begin to develop effective numeracy teaching strategies but there is a limited research base to inform the design of courses that address this need. This paper reports on findings from a study investigating…

This article examines possibilities for using Valsiner's zone theory to understand identity formation of mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher educators. We situate our analysis within a sociological frame for identity research, in which identity is interpreted as an action rather than an acquisition. Valsiner's theoretical approach is…

Prospective secondary mathematics teachers in Australia are typically taught by mathematics educators and mathematicians who work in different faculties and seldom collaborate--a situation that can lead to conflicting views about how to teach mathematics. This paper reports on findings from semi-structured interviews with three mathematics teacher…

Numeracy is the responsibility of all teachers in Australia. Graduates from Initial Teacher Education programs must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of numeracy teaching strategies. Currently, there is a limited research base to inform curriculum design of courses that develop strategies for embedding numeracy across the curriculum. This…

Education research journals regularly report on small-scale studies that have been successful in changing mathematics teachers' classroom practices. But it is rare to find professional development programs for teachers of mathematics that have been scaled up and sustained over time. This article reports on a research-informed, large-scale…

Students' post-school options are limited if they have not completed mathematics subjects involving the study of calculus. This paper employs a sociocultural approach to identify institutional practices that might promote sustained engagement with these subjects among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Drawing on interviews with mathematics…

Teaching subjects they are not formally qualified to teach presents those teaching out of field with many challenges. Being expected to promote numeracy learning in contexts where numeracy is seen as an across the curriculum responsibility places additional expectations on out-of-field teachers. This paper draws on some findings from a study that…

Improving numeracy learning outcomes for students is a goal of the European Commission. While many European countries have placed increased emphasis on links between mathematics and other subjects, in some countries numeracy is seen as an integral part of subjects across the curriculum. However, for this latter approach to be successful teachers…

The context in which mathematics is used is an important aspect of numeracy. Therefore, students' numeracy capabilities need to be developed in subjects across the curriculum. The case study of a secondary school history teacher is presented to demonstrate how a framework for identity as an embedder-of-numeracy can be used to identify ways that…

Teachers of all school subjects have an important role to play in developing the numeracy capabilities of students. However, to fully exploit the numeracy learning opportunities that exist in the subjects they teach, teachers need to have an identity as a teacher of numeracy. In this paper some findings are presented from a two-year study designed…

If teachers are to adequately support development of their students' numeracy capabilities then they need to have an identity as a teacher of numeracy. A preliminary evaluation of a conceptual framework (Bennison & Goos, 2013) developed for use in a two-year study that seeks to understand this construct is presented. Initial findings about an…