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Unlocking potential in the midst of constraints: a praxeological–ecological analysis of meta-didactical practices in mathematics teacher education in Ghana
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Teaching and Learning.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5437-6199
2026 (English)In: Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, ISSN 1386-4416, E-ISSN 1573-1820Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Calls for integrating instructional technology into mathematics education often assume ideal classroom conditions that rarely exist in Global South contexts. Such assumptions overlook the complex realities faced by educators who must adapt global pedagogical visions to resource-constrained and structurally fragile ecologies. In response to this disconnect, this study examines how mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) in Ghana support pre-service teachers (PSTs) in the didactics of mathematics, integrating instructional technology amid systemic constraints. Grounded in the Meta-Didactical Transposition model, the study adopts a praxeological–ecological perspective to analyse the meta-didactical praxeologies through which didactic practices are taught in teacher education. The analysis traces how type of tasks, techniques, and justificatory discourses are organised across pre-didactic, didactic, and post-didactic phases, and how these are conditioned by material, institutional, and policy ecologies. Drawing on course plans, national and institutional policy documents, and interviews with MTEs, the analysis reveals a consistent privileging of performative and assessable meta-didactical praxeologies, oriented toward visible artefact production and lesson demonstration, while the logos dimension, particularly explicit theoretical justification, remains weakly transposed as an object of learning. Rather than interpreting this pattern through a deficit lens, the study conceptualises these configurations as ecologically rational adaptations to large class sizes, infrastructural scarcity, assessment regimes, and PSTs’ limited prior exposure to instructional technology. However, these adaptations also generate praxeological discontinuities, particularly through the marginalisation of logos-rich meta-didactical work, which constrains PSTs’ opportunities to develop theoretically grounded didactic reasoning about instructional technology integration. Foregrounding the situated agency of MTEs, the study reframes instructional technology integration as meta-didactical translation under constraint rather than as failed implementation. It concludes by calling for teacher education policies and professional development initiatives that support praxeological coherence and the explicit transposition of justificatory discourse, enabling ecologically responsive yet conceptually grounded engagement with instructional technology-integrated mathematics teaching.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2026.
Keywords [en]
Instructional technology, Meta-didactical transposition, Praxeology, Ecology, Mathematics teacher education, Pre-service teachers
National Category
Didactics
Research subject
Mathematics Education
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-248852DOI: 10.1007/s10857-026-09769-8ISI: 001814219000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105044341228OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-248852DiVA, id: diva2:2010640
Projects
ReMathAvailable from: 2025-10-31 Created: 2025-10-31 Last updated: 2026-09-01
In thesis
1. The Didactics of Mathematics with Instructional Technology: An epistemological-ecological analysis of secondary mathematics teacher education in Ghana and Sweden
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Didactics of Mathematics with Instructional Technology: An epistemological-ecological analysis of secondary mathematics teacher education in Ghana and Sweden
2025 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Instructional technology holds transformative potential for mathematics education, enabling rich conceptual understanding, fostering student engagement, and adaptive pedagogical strategies when used meaningfully. Although Ghana and Sweden have introduced policy mandates and curricular reforms that promote their integration, classroom uptake remains limited and uneven. Existing research often highlights either the benefits or the challenges,  overlooking the formative processes through which pre-service teachers (PSTs) develop the didactic rationales required for theoretically grounded instructional technology use. This thesis addresses this gap by contributing to knowledge of how PSTs are prepared to teach mathematics by integrating instructional technology in Ghana and Sweden. Guided by the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD), this thesis employed a qualitative comparative case study design drawing on course plans, classroom video observations, semi-structured interviews with mathematics teacher educators (MTEs), and video-assisted focus group interviews with the PSTs. Analysis followed an epistemological–ecological approach, combining deductive content analysis, informed by reference models developed through the ATD, with inductive and abductive interpretation of their institutional conditioning. The study found a shared deficit in the logos (didactic rationales) taught across teacher education in Ghana and Sweden: instructional technology was used mainly at the praxis (practice) level, with limited articulation of the logos guiding its use. The resultant didactic praxeologies were productive but theoretically thin, especially at the pedagogy and didactic organisation levels of the meta-didactic co-determination, where compartmentalised course structures and limited reflective engagement constrained learning opportunities. Pre-didactic praxeologies (e.g., planning) predominated, with minimal opportunities for didactic (in the narrow sense, e.g., actual teaching) and post-didactic praxeologies (e.g., post-lesson reflections).  Across both contexts, the way MTEs taught (meta-didactic praxeologies) was weighted toward representing and decomposing practice, with minimal opportunities to approximate practice, limiting PSTs’ opportunities to rehearse and critically reflect on theory-informed instructional decisions. Ecological analysis showed that instructional choices reflected pragmatic adaptation to local constraints rather than principled design. While Ghana’s constraints were largely infrastructural and policy-based, Sweden’s were more epistemic and design-based, tied to modular course structures. The thesis contributes to theoretical knowledge by reconceptualising instructional technology as a didactic object shaped by institutional transpositions and professional norms. The thesis introduces performative praxeologies to explain logos-thin practices as rational ecological adaptations rather than deficiencies. It develops a dual-layered didactic reference model and a scale of meta-didactic co-determination, providing a precise comparative lens for analysing teacher education systems. Methodologically, it establishes the ATD as a generative framework for capturing both practice and its underlying rationales. In practice, it proposes a hybrid instructional model that promotes a reflective, theoretically grounded, and context-responsive integration of instructional technology in mathematics teacher education.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Teaching and Learning, Stockholm University, 2025. p. 172
Keywords
instructional technology, mathematics teacher education, praxeologies, pre-service teachers, meta-didactic co-determination
National Category
Didactics
Research subject
Mathematics Education
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-249660 (URN)978-91-8107-454-3 (ISBN)978-91-8107-455-0 (ISBN)
Public defence
2026-01-22, Hörsal 10, Södra huset E, Vån 3, Universitetsvägen 10 E and online via Zoom: https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/69678739339, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Projects
Remath
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2021-00534
Available from: 2025-12-22 Created: 2025-11-23 Last updated: 2025-12-09Bibliographically approved

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Mensah, Farouq Sessah

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