It is an honor to follow Terry Wood, series editor of the first edition of the International Handbook of Mathematics Teacher Education, as series editor of this second edition of the Handbook. As Terry indicated, she, Barbara Jaworski, Sandy Dawson and Thomas Cooney played key roles in opening up the field of mathematics teacher education “to establish mathematics teacher education as an important and legitimate area of research and scholarship” (Wood, 2008, p.vii). The field has grown significantly since the late 1980s “when Barbara Jaworski initiated and maintained the first Working Group on mathematics teacher education at PME” (p. vii) and over the last 10 years following the first edition of the Handbook. So, the editorial team, I and the four volume editors (Kim Beswick, Salvador Llinares, Gwendolyn Lloyd, and Despina Potari), of this second edition is honored to present it to the mathematics education community and to the field of teacher education in general. It builds on and extends the topics/ideas in the first edition while maintaining the themes for each of the volumes. Collectively, the authors looked back beyond and within the last 10 years to establish the state-of-the-art and continuing and new trends in mathematics teacher and mathematics teacher educator education, and looked forward regarding possible avenues for teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and policy makers to consider to enhance and/or further investigate teacher and teacher educator learning and practice, in particular. The volume editors provide introductions to each volume that highlight the subthemes used to group related chapters and provide meaningful lenses to see important connections within and across chapters. Readers can also use these subthemes to make connections across the four volumes, which, although presented separately, include topics that have relevance across them since they are all situated in the common focus regarding mathematics teachers.
I extend special thanks to the volume editors for their leadership and support in preparing this handbook. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with them on this project. Also, on behalf of myself and the volume editors, sincere thanks to all of the authors for their invaluable contributions and support in working with us to produce a high-quality handbook to inform and move the field of mathematics teacher education forward.
Volume 1, Knowledge, Beliefs, and Identity in Mathematics Teaching and Teaching Development, edited by Despina Potari, examines teacher knowledge, beliefs, identity, practice and relationships among them. These important aspects of mathematics teacher education continue to be the focus of extensive research and policy debate globally. Thus, as the first volume in the series, it appropriately addresses central topics/issues that provide an excellent beginning to engage in the field of mathematics education through the handbook.
Reference
Sullivan, P. & Wood, T. (Eds.). (2008). International handbook of mathematics teacher education: Vol. 1. Knowledge and beliefs in mathematics teaching and teaching development. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Olive Chapman
Calgary, AB
Canada