This book offers a unique theoretical perspective deploying contemporary psychoanalytical and post-structuralist theory in an easy accessible style. It links issues in education research, with a particular emphasis on mathematics, to broader social concerns and theorising.

"This book addresses the question of how we might better understand the task of teaching mathematics to young children. But rather than starting out with a conception of mathematics derived from mathematics' own evolution, we center ourselves instead within the social practices that surround the teaching of the subject in British primary schools today. That is, we do not commence with an a priori conception of mathematics and see what people are saying about it. Rather, we start from what people are saying and see what this points to. We probe how the desires of society have manifested themselves in a societal decision to teach mathematics and how this decision now shapes what we call "mathematics". This extends and develops a conception of how language intervenes in the task of mathematics education presented elsewhere (Brown, 2001). In this present book however, we have a particular focus on trainee and new teachers, with a view to pinpointing how this conception of mathematics manifests itself in their evolving practices. We question how such teachers with many years of experience as a pupil in school might now re-orient themselves towards the demands of teaching mathematics. We also consider how for those charged with providing training for such individuals might better understand the process and impact of this training. The book further questions the way in which we might conceptualize the balance between nurturing teachers to become autonomous professionals responsible for developing and delivering the mathematics curriculum in schools and, alternatively, setting policies that prescribe practices to be followed. We consider whether we should focus our attention principally on the teachers themselves or on the professional space in which they operate.

Identifying with Mathematics Teaching.- Towards Reconciling Insider and Outsider Perspectives.- Conceptualising Identity in Initial Teacher Education.- Trainees Becoming Teachers: an English Case Study.- The English National Reform Agenda.- How Student Teachers Learn.- The Empirical Study.- The Transition from School Pupil to Trainee Teacher.- The Intermediate Years of Training.- The Transition from Trainee to Newly Qualified Teacher.- The Discursive Formation of School Mathematics.- The Production of Cover Stories.- The Emergence of School Mathematics.- The Secrets of the Forms of School Mathematics.- Conclusion.- Conceiving Policy.- Conceiving Teacher Development.- Conceiving Mathematics.- Conceiving Research.