6533b7cffe1ef96bd12584ed

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Critical alignment in inquiry-based practice in developing mathematics teaching

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Published version of an article in the journal: Educational Studies in Mathematics. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10649-013-9489-z This paper reports a case study from a mathematics teaching developmental research project. The theoretical foundation for the research comprises communities of inquiry and critical alignment, with which the developmental methodology has a particular synergy. This synergy is the main focus of the paper. The paper elaborates theoretical and methodological antecedents of the project and traces these through a case study of developments in the practices of one upper secondary school team and a group of university didacticians (mathematics teacher educators and researchers) during the first year of the project. The case study reveals that critical alignment and inquiry (necessarily) bring uncertainty and risk, and foster tensions within the teachers’ practice and between the practices of teachers and didacticians. In exposing these uncertainties, risks and tensions, the paper points to their value for the learning and knowledge gained by participants.