Who or what is to change? From changing teachers to changing teaching in early mathematics innovation

Abstract

The focus of this article is on how change can be investigated and understood within the two research fields of beliefs and implementation. Even though beliefs research and implementation research share the same goal – to improve (mathematics) education – the object of study and unit of analysis differs and thus also how change is viewed and investigated. The article uses a study as an empirical example, in which preschool mathematics education developed in a previous study was implemented on a larger scale in other preschools. With this study, we elaborate on the object of study and unit of analysis in beliefs research and implementation research, and on how this imposes differences in the empirical material and in how this material is analysed. Finally, we elaborate on how these differences impose whether and how change has occurred.