What's the Matter?: Educators' Understandings of Teacher Content Knowledge in Primary Mathematics

A significant number of Ontario teachers lack a background in mathematics; how this lack impacts student learning in Ontario is unclear. Prior studies indicate that high teacher self-efficacy developed through mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) improves student learning. Therefore, this thesis examines how primary school math teachers and administrators conceptualize the value of mathematical content knowledge for teaching. Towards this goal, I have used a case-study model, interviewing three teachers and a principal from one Ontario school, along with an instructor in initial teacher math education. From the existing literature on MPCK, I assessed how participants were aware of their MPCK and the ways they attempted to improve their math teaching. A qualitative method was used to acquire contextualized data that is often absent from large scale psychological and survey-based studies. The findings indicate that teachers' understandings of the value of content knowledge in math are linked to their fundamental conceptualizations of the role of a teacher. However, the participants’ understandings of the nature of math and the nature of teaching were inconsistent. This inconsistency points to a systemic misunderstanding of the role of a teacher. Moving forward, results from teachers' perspectives provide a valuable addition to a framework for larger scale MPCK research in the Canadian context