The construction of mathematical reasoning as a pedagogical object

Abstract This paper explores how policy aims in mathematics curricula appear in classrooms and, crucially, how the resulting pedagogical practice affects the nature of mathematics itself. Whereas there have been many studies of policy and its relationship with teachers’ practices, few have examined epistemological effects; what mathematics becomes as it is translated from an educational, and political, intention into classroom activity. To focus the study, we examine reasoning as a central idea in mathematics, in the English primary (5–11 years) context. Rather than concentrating on best practice, as an objective account of how to teach reasoning, we adopt a post-structural theoretical position using Bernstein’s curriculum recontextualisation and Foucault’s interpretation of discourse to examine what policy documents and teachers consider appropriate practice to be; and hence, how reasoning, a fundamentally mathematical process, becomes shaped in particular ways. Methodologically, we adopt a Foucauldian approach to discourse analysis, first considering reasoning as a mathematical and political idea, deemed important for young people’s futures. Next, we analyse documentation related to curriculum change, followed by semi-structured interviews from a small-scale project with teachers trained as specialists in a recent government-funded development programme, Teaching for Mastery. We argue that as reasoning undergoes a transition, from a mathematical to a pedagogical discourse, this discourse becomes largely regulative in directing pupils’ attention to very particular forms of knowing that are deemed important for purposes of accountability, losing much of its original mathematical sense. We briefly discuss some of the implications of this effect, including potential disparities amongst pupil groups.