The device of performativity in a pedagogical intervention program for mathematics teaching

Abstract

Within the scope of research in mathematics education, this article discusses the impact of reformist public educational policies that enable the growth of public–private partnerships with the excuse of improving student performance in large-scale external assessments. The work seeks to characterize some communication principles related to this phenomenon in the context of a pedagogical intervention program for mathematics teaching in the initial years, developed by the Municipal Department of Education of Teresina, Piauí, in partnership with the Alfa e Beto Institute. This characterization is based on some concepts of Basil Bernstein’s sociological theory, especially on the idea of a pedagogical device in association with the notion of performativity, in line with Stephen Ball. This is a qualitative study, whose data were collected through observations of teacher education meetings, classes, and school routine, and documents and interviews carried out with a teacher educator, two teachers and three school administrators. The data were analyzed in the light of the Bernsteinian language of description, and the results pointed to two regulating principles of the activities carried out in that program: the vertical relationship between the agents; and the preparation for the reproduction of valid mathematical texts.

Pedagogical device; Performativity; Mathematics teaching; Initial years