Secondary mathematics preservice teachers’ perceptions of program (in)coherence

Teacher educators globally have argued that developing coherent programs can combat the fragmentation that often characterizes teacher education and better support teacher learning. Yet, there is little research on coherence in mathematics teacher education, especially from the perspectives of preservice teachers. To that end, in this article, we report how 13 secondary mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) from one teacher education program perceived their program as coherent, specifically attending to the ideas and practices PSTs engaged with and the settings in which they engaged with those ideas/practices. Based on participatory diagramming interviews and network analysis, we found that PSTs experienced two main sources of incoherence. First, although PSTs had opportunities to learn about equity from multiple settings, they did not perceive that equity and other aspects of mathematics instruction together were coherently organized. Second, PSTs reported learning about two opposing instructional approaches—direct instruction and inquiry-based instruction. PSTs reported that opportunities to learn about inquiry-based instruction were primarily isolated to courses taught by the mathematics education program and were contradicted by learning and experiencing direct instruction in their special education courses, mathematics courses, and field and student teaching experiences. Findings highlight a need to attend to issues of equity, as well as connections among university coursework and between coursework and field. Based on our findings, we conclude with implications for how teacher education programs might respond to and engage with incoherence to support PST learning.