“The limits of my language are the limits of my world”: teacher development through dialogic reflection in cross-disciplinary collaborative action research in a second level mathematics classroom in Ireland

This research focuses on classroom discourse in a second level multicultural mathematics classroom in Ireland and seeks to bring together new approaches from linguistics and subject specific pedagogy and teacher education in the interest of achieving best practice. The primary research aim is to design and evaluate a collaborative CPD intervention for a secondary level mathematics teacher. In order to address this aim, a triangulated methodology was used to gather and analyse three sets of data (interviews, classroom recordings of lessons and post-lessons reflective meetings) in conjunction with a combined quantitative and qualitative corpus-based approach. This strengthened the study and made it unique given the current lack of corpus-based studies of mainstream secondary classrooms in Ireland. The research further involves action research based on video-recorded data from the maths classroom in recognition of the benefits of data-led and dialogic reflective practice, and to further advance this approach. The main findings suggest that the pedagogical interventions introduced impacted positively on student learning in general, and on the quality of the discursive practices of the teacher and pupils in the maths subject classroom. This approach also allowed the participating maths teacher to identify elements of her professional practice for further investigation and improvement thereby creating opportunities for more personalised and on-going teacher learning. The research was undertaken in the context of the new multicultural landscape of Ireland and the recent introduction of the new mathematics curriculum (Project Maths). These changes have created new challenges for subject teachers to develop enhanced subject-specific literacies amongst all pupils and in terms of addressing the needs of EAL pupils. The findings of this study therefore provide a valuable empirical account of the current state of play in these areas that can be used to inform future directions in teacher education (pre-service and CPD professional development) as well as offering evidence of the value of teacher-generated cross disciplinary collaborative action research as part of a data-led approach to teacher education.