Two beginning teachers' intervention in small groups in figured worlds of mathematics classrooms

The purpose of this dissertation study is to understand beginning teachers' intervention in small groups. In this qualitative study, drawing on the notion of figured worlds (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998), I examined how beginning elementary teachers intervene in small groups and for what purposes in mathematics classrooms through the lenses of teacher noticing, teacher identity, and perceptions of students in mathematics classrooms. Working with two beginning teachers, I collected data including survey responses, video-recordings, and interview transcripts.Building on thematic analysis of these data, I present three findings in relation to in terms of teacher noticing, teacher identity, and perceptions of students. First, I offer a noticing-mediated intervention framework that contributes to understanding how beginning teachers may make decisions related to intervention in small groups. This framework provides several ways to (re-)construct individual teachers' decision-making process related to intervention. Second, I demonstrate how current and designated teacher identities shape their intervention in small groups. I detail multifaceted aspects of current and designated teacher identity that each beginning teacher invoked to explain, make sense of, and reason about their intervention in small groups. Third, I illustrate how teachers' recognition of students in terms of categories shapes their intervention in small groups, sometimes through mediation by their recognition of power and authority dynamics at the micro-interaction level.Building on these findings, I present four points to discuss. First, this dissertation study can serve as a call for research on extending the understanding of novice teachers' intervention in diverse contexts. Second, this study suggests one possible example related to how to draw upon professional noticing to examine intervention in small groups in a detailed way. Third, this study details potential resources (e.g., knowledge, expectations, and experiences; teacher identity; and categories of students) beginning teachers may use when they make decisions to intervene in small groups. Fourth, this study supports the field to understand figured worlds of mathematics classrooms from beginning teachers' perspectives of intervention in small groups.This dissertation study has implications for research as well as for teacher education. For research, this study contributes to understanding how teacher noticing can be used to explore teachers' intervention in small groups. It also holds promise for ways to understand mathematics classrooms as figured worlds. For teacher education, teacher educators can use this study to design instructional activities that help novice teachers explore their intervention in small groups in relation to the noticing-mediated intervention framework, the multiple aspects of their current/designated identities, and their recognition of students in terms of different categories in mathematics classrooms. This study broadens and deepens the understanding of how beginning teachers intervene in small groups and for what purpose by relating it to teacher noticing, to teacher identity, and to figured worlds of mathematics classrooms.