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Curriculum Strategy and Contested Commonplaces: A Study of Rural Middle School Mathematics Teacher Attitudes in Curriculum Work

Taylor, Jeffrey D.
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0175-2493
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490720364069195

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Curriculum and Instruction Mathematics Education (Education).
This multiple case study examines the development of teacher curriculum strategies in the selection of tasks for middle school mathematics. Two pairs of rural mathematics teachers—an experienced Grade 7 teacher and her intern, and a pair of second year Grade 8 teachers—provided text logs for the full school year leading up to their state’s first assessment based on the Common Core State Standards (2012), indicating tasks assigned in class and their sources. Tasks were coded for cognitive difficulty, mathematics standard addressed, and time allowed. Each teacher was interviewed five times, for a total of 13 hours of recording, to explore their strategies for selecting assignments. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using Burke’s (1954; 1966; 1969a) rhetorical methods to disengage pragmatic “attitudes-as-strategies.” The two case studies trace the development of curriculum strategies, as well as showing how very different strategies for using a new textbook can lead to nearly identical rates of use. Both the experienced teacher and the three novices provide examples of “curriculum irony”: situations in which attitudes about what is best to do are overridden by other attitudes related to the context of the classroom. It may be the case that curriculum irony provides some impetus for the evolution of curriculum strategies.
Bob Klein (Advisor)
Roger Aden (Other)
Gregory Foley (Committee Member)
John Henning (Committee Member)
252 p.
Curricula; Education; Mathematics Education; Middle School Education; Rhetoric; Sociolinguistics; Teacher Education; Teaching
curriculum; curriculum strategy; curriculum work; mathematics education; middle school; rural; rhetorical analysis; phronesis

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Taylor, J. D. (2017). Curriculum Strategy and Contested Commonplaces: A Study of Rural Middle School Mathematics Teacher Attitudes in Curriculum Work [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490720364069195

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Taylor, Jeffrey. Curriculum Strategy and Contested Commonplaces: A Study of Rural Middle School Mathematics Teacher Attitudes in Curriculum Work. 2017. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490720364069195.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Taylor, Jeffrey. "Curriculum Strategy and Contested Commonplaces: A Study of Rural Middle School Mathematics Teacher Attitudes in Curriculum Work." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490720364069195

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1490720364069195
905
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.