Study and Research Paths in teacher education

Title:

Study and Research Paths in teacher education: Naturalization of knowledge as a constraint to questioning the knowledge to be taught

Speaker:

Heidi Strømskag, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Abstract: 

In this seminar I will present results from a study carried out at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. It involves inquiries in the form of unfinalized study and research paths (SRPs) implemented with student teachers enrolled in a teacher education programme for Grade 8–13. The research is conducted in the framework of the anthropological theory of the didactic. The SRPs concerned the contents of differential calculus taught in Grades 11 and 12 in upper secondary school in Norway. The research question addressed is related to challenges and affordances of operating in the paradigm of questioning the world. It is shown how the phenomenon of naturalization of knowledge is an obstacle to student teachers’ questioning the knowledge to be taught. Furthermore, a graphic device to display the path of an inquiry is introduced.