Analysing tensions faced by pre-service mathematics teachers engaging in digital fabrication

Abstract

This article analyses tensions pre-service teachers faced during the last workshop of participation in a series of professional development workshops on digital fabrication for creating manipulatives for mathematics education. Using the concept of community of practice and the notion of tension as a theoretical framework and a qualitative research design including video recording with 5 pre-service teachers, we identified three tension categories: technological, pedagogical, and workshop design. The results indicate that tensions are often caused by conflictual decisions between the workshop designers’ and students’ objectives as well as difficulties in digital fabrication and its application in teaching mathematics.