From Researcher in Pure Mathematics to Primary School Mathematics Teacher Educator

Abstract

In this chapter, we investigate the transition from doing research in pure mathematics to becoming a mathematics teacher educator for prospective primary school teachers. The transition involves challenges at several levels, including both the teaching of students and the nature and content of research in a different field. Central to this transition is the development from knowledge in the vanguard of pure mathematics to profound understanding of fundamental mathematics. What does a pure mathematician need to learn in order to become a mathematics teacher educator? How and in which contexts does the learning take place? Using a four-dimensional framework, we investigate questions about knowledge and learning, inquiry and reflection, insider and outsider, and individual and community.