Peter Gates

Beyond Belief: Understanding the Mathematics Teacher at Work: Why Beliefs Are Not Enough to Understand the Mathematics Teacher. a Sociological Study of Mathematics Teaching Peter Gates

In this book, I develop a critical structuralist approach to a study of teachers' belief structures. I demonstrate how we can represent these cognitive structures using sociological tools which I use to study how two mathematics teachers cognitively organise and structure their orientation toward their professional work. I adopt the position that human activity is fundamentally social in character, that social structures are dynamic and relational, yet exhibit a level of stability which results in dispositions gelling into objective structures. I develop a theoretical base, evolving a description of how we might understand (or model) what I call "the professional orientation" of mathematics teachers. I construct theoretical, conceptual and methodological frameworks to enable me to study some of the underlying relationships between mathematics teacher predispositions and social structure. I draw on Pierre Bourdieu's approach to sociology and in particular draw on the concepts of habitus, discourse and ideology. I begin by socially and politically locating myself before moving on to looking at how we can understand the way modern society operates.