Learning from Experts: Exploring the Nature and Flow of Math Knowledge Resources in Elementary Schools

Many elementary school teachers must engage in considerable professional learning if we are to realize longstanding reform efforts aimed at making mathematics education in the United States more conceptual, student-centered, focused on practices and processes, and equitable for diverse students. Given the required elements of high-quality professional learning and the constraints on teachers’ time, job-embedded professional learning within schools is likely to be essential; and learning from more expert colleagues is a potentially powerful mechanism that has been deployed with mixed results. My mixed-methods study, combining social network data and analyses with qualitative measures and analyses across two case-study and six additional schools, investigates the important topic of math-related collegial learning among teachers in elementary schools. Four key findings emerge from my study: First, it supports earlier findings that teachers are inclined to draw upon the mathematics expertise of colleagues within their school networks. Second, it suggests that placing teachers with expertise in formal math leadership roles, even part-time and in combination with other roles and responsibilities, has the potential to make their expertise both visible and accessible to their colleagues, mostly through formal organizational structures. Third, I document a strong predisposition toward math-related interactions that are contextualized to particular students, activities, and resources. Finally, my study contributes to the small group of studies that have directly engaged school leaders with social network data and analyses. I provide detailed examples of the types of responses school leaders have to this information and their positive views on its novelty and utility for their leadership practice. These findings raise important questions and implications for researchers and practitioners related to the following topics: 1) using part-time leadership roles to provide access to math expertise; 2) supporting teachers with generalizing from highly specific and contextualized interactions to the learning that is likely necessary for meaningful reform; and 3) pairing social network analysis with other tools and supports to help school leaders consider, promote, and shape interactions within their schools to make best use of the math expertise of their personnel for peer-to-peer collaboration and learning.