Pre-service teachers’ use of textbooks in classrooms in England

Abstract

The use of mathematics textbooks by pre-service teachers in English schools is an under-researched area. While systematic research exists in other countries (see, for example, Nicol and Crespo 2006), there is only anecdotal evidence, albeit significant, to suggest that the use of mathematics textbooks in English secondary schools is underpinned by a complex set of rationales. A purposive sample of 42 pre-service teachers on a one-year secondary mathematics postgraduate course in southern England, some on a 70% school-based route to teaching and others on a 90% school-based route to teaching was surveyed using a questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions about their use of textbooks while on school-based teaching placements. Responses confirm the limited use of textbooks by these pre-service teachers with a range of reasons for choosing, or not, specific textbook examples. Arguing that use of textbooks is an outcome of cultural and political activity (Apple 1992; Pepin, Gueudet and Trouche 2013), this data is examined in the light of the English context in which mathematics textbooks are written in a commercially competitive environment, the cultural context of personalised and differentiated curricula, the demands of the inspection regime of teachers in England, and the rapidly changing governmental expectations of teachers of mathematics. In this paper we present the survey findings about the more detailed rationale for decision-making in relation to this limited use of the mathematics textbooks available to pre-service teachers.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Rosalyn Hyde: orcid.org/0000-0001-8208-2983

ORCID for Keith Jones: orcid.org/0000-0003-3677-8802

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