tandfonline.com – Collective and individual perspectives on preschool mathematics within a professional development programme

ABSTRACT

This article explores collective and individual perspectives on preschool mathematics within a professional development programme. All seven teachers at one Swedish preschool participated in a one-year research-based professional development programme. At the beginning and then again at the end of the programme, the teachers collectively wrote down their goals for mathematics teaching at the preschool. In the article, these goals will be compared to three teachers’ individual writings during the year. This comparison indicates that the professional development of these teachers may have been collective, but not joint, as the collectively written goals seem to imply slightly different things for the individual teachers. Thus, what may look like collective goals for the teaching of mathematics at one preschool may in fact imply quite large differences in the mathematics teaching of individual teachers. If collective professional development programmes are to have an impact, differences between teachers need to be made visible and, as a next step, be the basis for the development of professional language as well as evaluation and planning of preschool mathematics and further professional development.