Position/Status
University Associate Professor in Mathematics Education
E-mail Address
jha32@cam.ac.uk
Phone
+ 44 (0)1223 767576
Qualifications
- EdD (University of Roehampton)
- MA Mathematics Education (Institute of Education, London)
- PGCE Primary (Goldsmiths College, University of London)
- BSc Mathematics (Leicester Polytechnic)
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
- British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics
- The Mathematics Association
- Member of the Joint Committee of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics and the Mathematics Association
- The Association of Mathematics Education Teachers
- Member of the Royal Society Primary Mathematics Expert Group
- British Educational Research Association
Profile
I am a University Associate Professor in Mathematics Education. I draw on sociological perspectives to understand teachers’ and learners’ practices, identities and subjectivities in particular by addressing power relations and the work of Michel Foucault. I started my career as a computer analyst/programmer before becoming a primary teacher in London then moved into higher education as a teacher educator at the University of Roehampton prior to my current position at the University of Cambridge. My main teaching commitments are the Primary PGCE Mathematics, Masters in Mathematics Education and Primary Education as well as doctoral supervision.
Academic Area/Links
Research Topics
- Mathematics teaching and Learning in initial teacher education
- Gender and mathematics
- Teacher and student identities and subjectivities
- Inclusive practices in mathematics education
- Mathematics and Craft
Current Research Project(s)
- Mathematical reasoning and problem solving and its translation in policy and practice.
- Collaborative learning and agency in the context of primary mathematics subject lead teachers.
- Mathematics and Craft
Teaching
- Postgraduate
- PGCE Primary Mathematics (Primary mathematics lead)
- MPhil/MEd Mathematics Education
- MPhil/MEd Primary Education (Route Coordinator)
Prospective Doctoral Applications
Availability to supervise for 2026 entry - to be confirmed.
I am interested in receiving applications from prospective PhD and EdD students who plan to draw on sociological perspectives, preferably poststructural or feminist poststructural, to explore aspects of mathematics education or in the context of mathematics education.
Principal and Recent Publications
Journal Articles
Pratt, N. & Alderton, J. (2023). The policy and practice of mathematics mastery: the effects of neoliberalism and neoconservatism on curriculum reform, The Curriculum Journal, 34, 578–593. https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/curj.202 Winner of the Curriculum Journal Editors’ Choice Award for the best article published in the 2023 volume of the journal
Alderton, J., Ineson, G., Donaldson, G., Rowland, T., Voutsina, C., Wilson, K., (2022). “You see things that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise”: enabling elementary preservice teachers to share different ways of seeing mathematics, Mathematics Education Research Journal, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-022-00423-z
Pratt, N. & Alderton, J. (2022). A contemporary theory of mathematics education research, Research in Mathematics Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/14794802.2022.2059697
McLeod, J. C., Wilson, P. L., Pomeroy, D. & Alderton, J. (2022). Crafting connections in post-COVID classrooms: learning university mathematics through craft, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 53:3, 728-737. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2021.1984597
Voutsina, C., Alderton, J., Wilson, K., Ineson, E., Donaldson, G. & Rowland, T. (2022). Preservice teachers’ expressed awarenesses: emerging threads of retro-spection of learning and pro-spection of teaching. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 25:2 191-215 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-020-09484-y
Alderton, J. & Pratt, N. (2021). Filling gaps: assessment software and the production of mathematics and its teaching and learning in primary schools, Critical Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2021.1917435
Alderton, J. (2020). Kelly’s story: transformative identity work in primary mathematics teacher education, Gender and Education, 32:2, 145-160. DOI:10.1080/09540253.2017.1336204
Pratt, N. and Alderton, J. (2019). Producing assessment truths: a Foucauldian analysis of teachers’ reorganisation of assessment levels in English primary schools, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40:5, 581-597. DOI 10.1080/01425692.2018.1561245
Alderton, J. and Gifford, S. (2018). Teaching mathematics to lower attainers: dilemmas and discourses, Research in Mathematics Education, 20:1, 53-69. DOI: 10.1080/14794802.2017.1422010 - Winner of the Janet Duffin Award for best article of the year in Research in Mathematics Education.
Conference proceedings and papers
Alderton, J. & Pratt, P. (2023). (Re-)Creating inequality through Teaching for Mastery. Thirteenth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME13), Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics; Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, Jul 2023, Budapest, Hungary.
Alderton, J. and Pratt, N. (2018). Accountability and assessment: Gaps and grids. In E. Bergqvist, M. Österholm, C. Granberg, & L. Sumpter (Eds.). Proceedings of the 42nd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Vol. 2, pp. 11-18. Umeå, Sweden: PME.
Rowland, T., Ineson, G., Alderton,J., Donaldson, G., Voutsina, C, & Wilson. K. (2018). Primary pre-service teachers: reasoning and generalization. In Golding, J., Bretscher, N., Crisan, C., Geraniou, E., Hodgen J. and C. Morgan (Eds). (2018) Research Proceedings of the 9th British Congress on Mathematics Education (3-6 April 2018, University of Warwick, UK). Download here.
Alderton, J., Donaldson, G., Ineson, G., Rowland T., Voutsina, C. and Wilson, K. (2017).
Pre-service primary teachers’ approaches to mathematical generalisation. In Curtis, F. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 37 (3) November.
Pratt, N. and Alderton, J. (2017). ‘It’s different, it’s difficult, it’s unknown’: letting go of levels in Dooley, T. & Gueudet, G.. (Eds.) (2017). Proceedings of the Tenth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME10, February 1 – 5, 2017). Dublin, Ireland: DCU Institute of Education and ERME.
Alderton, J. (2016). Teaching Children with Mathematics Difficulties: A Pedagogy of Desensitivity. Presented at the 13th International Congress on Mathematics (ICME-13), Hamburg, July 2016.
Presentations
Ineson, E., Alderton, J., Voutsina, C., Wilson, K., Donaldson, G. and Rowland, T. (2021), Tracing threads of awareness in initial teacher education: Peer-collaboration. 14th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-14) Shanghai, 11-15 July 2021.
Books
Burnard, P., Dragovic, T., Flutter, J., and Alderton, J. (2016). (Eds). Transformative Doctoral Research Practices for Professionals. Amsterdam: SensePublishers.
Thesis
Alderton, J. (2013). Pedagogical Discourses and Subjectivities in Primary Mathematics Initial Teacher Education. (Unpublished EdD thesis). Roehampton University.
