The role of reflexivity in the emergence and expression of teachers’ identities in teaching primary school mathematics

The advent of a democratically-elected government in South Africa in 1994 disrupted the erstwhile synchrony between the schooling system, teacher education system, curriculum and pedagogy. Yet many South African teachers continue to express their teacher identities much like they did prior to 1994. The explanations posited for why this is the case tend to focus on systemic arguments. Notwithstanding their importance, these arguments render teachers as products of the social system. In this paper, it is argued that reflexivity is central to the emergence and expression of teachers’ identities. Reflexivity refers to the mental capacity to consider oneself in relation to one’s social contexts and visa versa. The modes of reflexivity of a grade 3 teacher are examined to demonstrate how she mediates the social structures that condition the emergence and expression of her primary mathematics teacher identity. Drawing on a social realist analysis of narrative data and classroom observations, the paper traces her identity historically into the present. The paper suggests that over the years her concerns in the world, and modes of reflexivity, have changed. These are key to understanding the decisions she makes in the classroom and how she deals with the social structures that condition the manner in which she expresses her role as teacher, that is, her primary mathematics teacher identity. The shift in her primary mathematics teacher identity has led to her reproducing the old roles of the teacher as exemplified in the pre-1994 curriculum. While the paper is located in the South African context, the implications for teacher education have international significance.