Continuing Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers: an analysis of the Sociotechnical Network Managed by humans and non-humans

Abstract

This article analyzes how humans and non-humans manage the sociotechnical network in the context of continuing professional development for mathematics teachers through using digital technologies remotely. Our theoretical reference is the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), devised by Bruno Latour and other researchers in order to offer a look focused on daily practices related to nature and society. We chose a post-qualitative approach, which was operationalized through the observation of the associations between humans and non-humans in an extension course promoted by Collaborative Group on Mathematics and Education (GCMEduc). The meetings happened remotely and were transmitted/recorded with resources made available by Google Meet. To analyze the data, we considered the network to be a methodological tool and used it to map the connections among actants. To describe the practice during the construction of the mathematical concept, we used as references the principles of agnosticism, generalized symmetry, and freedom of association. The results show that the associations established between participants and plasticine representations, between participants and the representation of stones of the same material, between participants and the representation of cardboard boxes, and between participants and the representation of a container with a fraction of water managed the construction of the concept of volume, harnessing other interconnected concepts such as capacity, mass, and density. Such associations between humans and non-humans contributed to the sociotechnical network to be performed.

Continuing professional development; Sociotechnical network; Mathematical concept; Google Meet