Learning to teach across departments: an ecological perspective on the learning experiences of mathematics pre-service teachers

Abstract Programs for mathematics teacher education are often described as fragmented , due to structural separation among their components. Moreover, and adding to the problem, research on these programs is fragmented as well, typically focusing on single sites or activities, isolated from the ecology of the pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) learning. We warn that such fragmentation in research may give a distorted and incomplete picture of the PSTs’ learning processes. To reduce fragmentation in both research and practice, we investigate the potential of framing learning to teach mathematics from an ecological perspective, considering learning as shaped by an interacting set of experiences spanning across time and contexts. Doing so allows us to connect aspects of PSTs’ learning that often go unnoticed. Empirically, we explore the learning processes of mathematics PSTs through various experiences at the Department of Mathematics and at the School of Education. We develop an empirical analysis of three focal cases, grounded in qualitative analyses of interviews and recordings of conversations about teaching at a Pedagogy Seminar course through one semester. Together, the three focal cases illustrate how an ecological network of experiences offered these PSTs opportunities for honing their pedagogical judgment around epistemic, relational, and interactional aspects of ambitious mathematics instruction. The study makes theoretical contributions by demonstrating the nature and explanatory value of ecological approaches, as well as by indicating the potential of such approaches to guide the design and facilitation of reflective learning environments for PSTs. It makes practical contributions by illuminating promising types of contexts that can reduce fragmentation for PSTs and offer them settings that consolidate their own experience as undergraduate learners.