Mathematics teacher educators as researchers: creative approaches to elicit experience narratives

Motivations to enter academia from professions are varied, with teaching responsibilities often prioritised initially. In education, teaching on initial teacher education (ITE) courses that are increasingly subject to regulation direct efforts towards meeting new statutory requirements, impacting time for research. In this exploratory study, we are interested in whether, if so how, teacher educators develop as researchers – and in what, if anything, is different for mathematics educators. To explore experiences, we use an embodied inquiry approach, inviting participants to share visual responses to prompts sent in advance. This enabled participants to delve into their recollections of developing their research, to elicit what often is left hidden, forgotten or lost. Participants chose a variety of approaches to share stories. This multimodal approach supports our attempt to work holistically to "make meaning” with participants, exploring shifting and evolving identities. In this workshop report, we share this work in progress and invite comments.