THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN MATHEMATICS TEACHER EDUCATION

"Mathematics Teacher Education" identifies its primary concern as the learning of mathematics teachers, while the focus of that learning is the mathematics education of others. Conceiving of mathematics teacher education as a process in which both relevant knowledge and sophisticated practices are progressively constructed and refined, we become heirs to the wealth of theory developed to explain either knowledge construction or the incremental refinement of practice or both. The tasks of this plenary panel include the exploration of the possible role(s) of theory in the context of mathematics teacher education, the description of some relevant theories, together with illustrative examples of the use of such theories in illuminating or informing mathematics teacher education, and the identification of key issues, concerns or considerations in the selection and utilisation of theory in the study or implementation of mathematics teacher education.