Dispositions in Practice: An Autoethnographic Study of Competence in Mathematics

In this autoethnographic study, I examine how my evolving dispositions as a middle school mathematics teacher shaped the learning opportunities afforded to students through participatory practices in a Response to Intervention (RTI) setting. In this study I reflect on how my assumptions and pedagogical choices influenced the mathematical practices I sought to establish, and how both student and teacher participation shaped opportunities afforded to students to construct mathematical competence, dispositions, and identities. Grounded in situated cognition and affordance theory, I explore a classroom environment where how students learn became important for more than just the construction of competence but became a central marker of competence in itself. Through this inquiry, I came to view competence not as a fixed individual trait, but as a joint accomplishment arising from the interactions between the teacher, learners, tasks, and classroom participation structures. In this process, I also came to understand how students’ participatory identities as learners of mathematics were deeply connected to how competence was constructed and recognized in context. In this study I have found that students' dispositions toward participation or non-participation were not fixed traits but relational to the nature of the mathematical tasks they encountered. Further, I have seen how help is never neutral; how I supported my students became seen as a value rich process, through which students’ opportunities to construct competence were either afforded or constrained. Ultimately, this study reshaped my understanding of teaching and learning, helping me to understand the power of dialogic practice as a space where students and teacher co-construct meaning, and where learners are seen as valued, capable, contributing members of a mathematical community.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education Graduate Program – Educational Research

Grantor

Werklund School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Kroeker, Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• McDermott, Mairi

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Francis, Krista
• Friesen. Sharon

• Competence
• Autoethnography
• Dispositions
• RTI
• Responsiveness to Intervention
• mathematical practice
• Participation
• situated cognition
• affordance theory

Statement dc:rights

• Unless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/50659

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/123085