Navigating and noticing: Preservice teachers' journeys in planning mathematics programmes

National developments in curriculum and pedagogy have prompted interest in the ways that teachers plan for teaching. Preservice teachers are at a particular point in their teaching journey, yet little is known about how they go about planning for long-term student learning. This article discusses results from a study of preservice primary teachers who were preparing a long-term plan for mathematics. By using metaphors of navigating a curriculum landscape and of noticing features of a school mathematics landscape, we illustrate the complexities and dilemmas encountered by a small group of third-and final-year preservice teachers. This study found that the participants actively engaged in a curriculum-design process which was complex and iterative, and they collected and selected resources both for teaching and for learning more mathematics. The two metaphors were useful descriptive tools for interpreting the curriculum-design journeys of these novice teachers which they identified as a significant professional transition.