Changing perspectives on inclusive mathematics education: Relationships between research and teacher education

This paper focuses on the challenges associated with teaching in inclusive mathematics classrooms and the kinds of experiences that may contribute to the development of knowledge about teaching mathematics in ways that respect student diversity. More particularly, we examine issues related to preparing teachers to include learners with disabilities within mainstream mathematics classes. Recognising the need to adopt a view of difference as difference not deficit, we present an approach that involves building collaborative research partnerships in which teachers and researchers design and analyse inclusive scenarios for mathematics learning. Using an example scenario in which a group of deaf and hearing students explore the mathematical concepts of symmetry and reflection, we point to how this process involved us in re-signifying our views of mathematics and its teaching, in order that we might 'hear' and recognise mathematics even when it is expressed in forms that differ from the conventional.