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Tensions as springboards to actions in a partnership between mathematics teachers and mathematics education researchers

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Mirela Widder
Mirela Widder
Mirela Widder
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Michal Tabach at Tel Aviv University
Michal Tabach
Boris Koichu at Weizmann Institute of Science
Boris Koichu
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Research–practice partnerships around educational research may have beneficial outcomes but also present tensions. By considering the dynamics of manifested tensions, our study aims to understand how teachers engage with the various stages of the research in an inquiry-based professional development community consisting of eleven in-service teachers and three mathematics education researchers. In light of Heider's Balance Theory, we identify and analyze tensions expressed by teachers in the community discourse. Findings indicate that epistemic tensions related to teachers' and researchers' different cultural orientations act as powerful generators of inclusionary and exclusionary actions shaping community members' participation paths. While downplaying epistemic tensions can evoke individual actions detrimental to learning and destructive to the community's existence, awareness of and well-timed coping with tensions can become a springboard for community development.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education (2025) 28:239–265
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-024-09652-4
Tensions asspringboards toactions inapartnership
betweenmathematics teachers andmathematics education
researchers
MirelaWidder1,2 · MichalTabach3 · BorisKoichu4
Accepted: 5 August 2024 / Published online: 25 August 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024
Abstract
Research–practice partnerships around educational research may have beneficial outcomes
but also present tensions. By considering the dynamics of manifested tensions, our study
aims to understand how teachers engage with the various stages of the research in an
inquiry-based professional development community consisting of eleven in-service teach-
ers and three mathematics education researchers. In light of Heider’s Balance Theory, we
identify and analyze tensions expressed by teachers in the community discourse. Findings
indicate that epistemic tensions related to teachers’ and researchers’ different cultural ori-
entations act as powerful generators of inclusionary and exclusionary actions shaping com-
munity members’ participation paths. While downplaying epistemic tensions can evoke
individual actions detrimental to learning and destructive to the community’s existence,
awareness of and well-timed coping with tensions can become a springboard for commu-
nity development.
Keywords Research–Practice Partnerships· Teacher professional learning· Teachers as
researchers· Epistemic tensions· Functional tensions· Societal tensions· Heider’s Balance
Theory
* Mirela Widder
mirelaw@walla.co.il
Michal Tabach
tabachm@tauex.tau.ac.il
Boris Koichu
boris.koichu@weizmann.ac.il
1 Mofet Institute, TelAviv, Israel
2 Shaanan College ofEducation, Haifa, Israel
3 Tel Aviv University, TelAviv, Israel
4 Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel
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