Teachers’ Perspective on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Postgraduate Studies Allowing to Teach Mathematics as a Second Subject (original) (raw)

Various researchers in mathematics education have addressed the issue of competencies for teaching mathematics in schools. Much has already been said about the di↵erent types of knowledge teachers should possess, as well as about the relationship between teachers' competencies and the achievement of their students. However, there is also a body of research dealing with the issue of qualifications for teaching mathematics as a school subject. It appears that in many countries around the world the phenomenon of 'out of field teaching' is quite common and is gaining increasing attention. In this text, we look at the phenomenon of postgraduate studies that allow Polish teachers of various school subjects to obtain qualifications to teach mathematics as a second or further subject. The results of a survey conducted among 160 teachers who have obtained qualifications for teaching mathematics on such studies allow us to see what positive and negative sides of postgraduate studies the teachers themselves indicate. Analyzing the results of the questionnaire, we tried to determine how the completion of these studies has a↵ected, positively or not, various aspects of teachers' lives and functioning.