Exploring the possible influence of Irish primary teachers' mathematics teacher identity on their receptiveness to the new primary mathematics curriculum

Abstract

For Irish primary teachers, the introduction of the new mathematics curriculum may elicit positive emotions and enthusiasm (delighted with the change of curriculum) or negative emotions and apprehension (happy with the current curriculum and not open to change). This research study aimed to develop an understanding of primary teachers’ perspectives on the new curriculum. It was anticipated that primary teacher’s mathematics teacher identity might be a link. The participants in this study were eight primary teachers from Limerick. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential impact that their mathematics teacher identity may have on their openness to the new primary mathematics curriculum. There were two sub-questions in this study that aimed to help answer the overall research question. Sub-question one investigated the teachers’ openness to the new mathematics curriculum using online semi structured interviews; while sub-question two focused on gathering data about the teachers’ mathematics teacher identity, using an online questionnaire. The online questionnaire was an adaptation of the Willis et al. (2021) teacher of mathematics identity (ToMI) scale. The questionnaire focused on mathematics teacher identity which was split into three sections: self-efficacy as a teacher of mathematics, belonging to a mathematics learning community and enthusiasm to be a teacher of mathematics. It was initially predicted that this study would show that the difference in the level of mathematics teacher identity might be strongly related to the openness of participants to the new primary mathematics iii curriculum – a teacher with strong mathematics teacher identity would be more open to the new mathematics curriculum in contrast to a teacher with a low mathematics teacher identity would be less open to it. However, the findings indicated that the relationship between mathematics teacher identity and openness to the new curriculum was more complex. The findings of this study found a range of concerns that teachers had in relation to the introduction of the new primary mathematics curriculum. However, often these concerns were not related to their mathematics teacher identity as identified in the questionnaire. For example, the study found that one of the main concerns of teachers was to learn how to use the pedagogical approaches of the new curriculum effectively to support their students’ learning. A contribution of the study is that it may provide an opportunity for research to be carried out in relation to the support that may need to be provided to Irish primary school teachers to help them to implement the new mathematics curriculum in their classrooms effectively by September 2025.