Valuing Mathematics Links Prospective Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions of Mathematics to Their Mathematics Well-Being

Abstract Prospective elementary school teachers often begin teacher education with ambivalent relationships with mathematics, yet little is known about the pathway through which their perceptions of mathematics relate to their well-being as learners of mathematics. Mathematical resilience is a plausible pathway, but its total score overlaps strongly with measures of mathematics well-being, which makes a single-mediator test difficult to interpret. This survey study of 204 prospective elementary school teachers from several universities in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, therefore examined the dimensions of mathematical resilience separately. Discriminant validity analysis showed that the struggle dimension was empirically indistinguishable from well-being (HTMT = 1.00), so value, growth and culture were tested as parallel mediators using bootstrapped regression-based path analysis. Perception was associated with well-being (β = .62), and this association was fully accounted for by the three dimensions (total indirect β = .56, 95% CI [.43, .68]; direct β = .07, p = .367). Valuing mathematics carried most of the indirect association (β = .40, 95% CI [.27, .53]), family and cultural expectations a small part (β = .09, 95% CI [.04, .14]), and the belief that difficulty is normal (growth) no unique part (β = .07, 95% CI [− .01, .16]). The pattern was unchanged when 17 potentially careless respondents were excluded and when gender and year of study were controlled. Gender did not moderate the perception–well-being association. Teacher education programmes that aim to support prospective teachers’ relationships with mathematics should help them see why mathematics matters to their own lives and future work, rather than focusing on perceptions alone.