An Examination of the Genesis, Maintenance, and Manifestation of the Pedagogical Beliefs of a Novel Instructor - A Case Study

Abstract

The great preponderance of research in undergraduate mathematics, especially as it pertains to students transitioning into post-secondary education, tends to problematize the student or the difference in the educational environment. What appears to be lacking, however, is research into the ways that the instructor may be exacerbating this transition. Fundamental to the concerns of the quality and appropriateness of contemporary post-secondary mathematics instruction is the ability to envision alternatives to traditional approaches. This case study identified one individual, whose practice fell well beyond the norms at the institution in which they found employment and explored how they developed their teacher-identity, how they maintained that teacher-identity as they entered into their department and the profession in general, and how they have engaged in praxis. Data collected included interviews, course observations, and course document analysis. Analysis of these data revealed that a number of personal and/or professional crises prompted the evolution of the participant's teacher- and researcher-identity and these evolutions resulted in the need to reimagine the enactment of his affordances regarding teaching, resulting in an envisioning of his praxis as an interrelated system of praxis as an application of the creative process and praxis as an application of mathematical problem solving.