Becoming a teacher of mathematics: Wenger’s social theory of learning perspective

While the origins of Etienne Wenger’s social theory of learning are located in organisational learning, Graven and Lerman (2003) suggested that a worthwhile challenge would be to relate Wenger’s powerful ideas about learning to the process of becoming a teacher of mathematics. In this paper I attempt to address this challenge by using Wenger’s theoretical discourse to interpret the scenario of Casey, as described in the introductory chapter of this symposium. As such, the role that identity plays in becoming a teacher of mathematics is foregrounded to account for a crucial aspect of what enables learning (or not) in mathematics teacher education programs. Wenger’s social theory of learning: foregrounding identity Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning builds on his initial work with Lave (Lave & Wenger, 1991) to emphasise learning as situated in particular physical and social contexts and distributed across the individual, other persons, and tools within communities of practice. The conceptual framework for Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning — communities of practice — encompasses four components: meaning — learning as experience; practice — learning as doing; community — learning as belonging; and identit