ABSTRACT

Tansy Hardy Discourse-Oriented Examination of Teacher Development This chapter maps the question in the title into the context of teachers of mathematics and their professional development.

The language (in its broadest sense) that circulates around the professional practice and development of teachers constitutes a discourse-rich fi eld. This discursive world includes not only what infuses mathematics classroom environments and more general education discourse, but also media representations together with public and personal understandings from wider aspects of life. All are present, even unavoidable, and have signifi cant effects on our knowledge and understanding of teachers’ development.