The CAPTeaM Project (Challenging Ableist Perspectives on the Teaching of Mathematics): A preliminary report

According to the ableist world-view, the able-bodied are the norm in society and disability is an unfortunate failing, a disadvantage that must be overcome. Within education, ableism results in institutional and personal prejudice against learners with disabilities, and has a drastic effect on approaches to teaching. Our project investigates how ableist perspectives impact on the teaching of mathematics, a quintessential part of the curriculum, and a discipline where public perceptions of ability as innate often shape pedagogical perspectives and practice. Our focus is on mathematical faculties typically associated with visual and auditory perception. In this one-year project we are establishing a partnership which combines Nardi & Biza’s Task design approaches to investigatingand transforming teachers' beliefs about mathematics and about teaching in the UK and Healy’s research with mathematics learners with disabilities. We are developing and trialling tasks that invite teachers to reflect upon the challenges of mathematics teaching in inclusive classrooms. In this paper we focus on one task; and, discuss emerging analyses of the data we have just completed collecting.