Experienced Mathematics Teachers Developing Responsive Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Place-Based Resiliency

Abstract

In 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education across the country, requiring a quick re-organization of instruction on a large scale and changing the nature of teaching and learning for years to come. In this interview study, I examine the experiences of eight experienced mathematics teachers as they developed responsive practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking a situative perspective, I theorize this study as a case of place-based resiliency because of the participants’ supportive teaching contexts. Situating teachers’ learning in their institutional context, this study draws on data gathered from a novel interview design, revealing three main findings. First, I found that teachers reorganized their identities as they navigated their figured worlds of teaching, drawing on or negotiating their pedagogical responsibilities. Second, teachers were required to draw on their existing identities and salient notions of good teaching as they made or rejected situationally feasible adjustments to practice. Lastly, I introduce a typology for understanding adaptive teaching practices that highlights teachers’ pedagogical judgments as they tap into their repertoires of practices to enact their conceptions of good teaching.