Positioned neutrality: mathematics teachers and the cultural politics of their classrooms

This paper focuses upon mathematics teachers' accounts of their professiona l life in their classrooms. As key social actors in this arena their assump tions about classroom interaction are key structuring devices for the preva iling classroom culture. By examining teachers' accounts of their work in t he classroom, using data from two research projects concerned with school m athematics assessment, connections are made between classroom culture and f ormal assessment procedures. In England, over the last decade since the dis ruption of the Education Act 1988, there have been debates about reacher pr ofessionalism. The institution of a system of national testing and accounta bility measures has focused attention in these debates on the public dimens ions, the outcomes of schooling. In the process, teachers' working relation s with students have slipped into the background. In this paper, I turn my attention to these absences by exploring teachers' accounts of their work i n assessing their students' mathematical capabilities within the classroom. By highlighting the complex social relations constitutive of classroom cul ture, I raise questions about the distanced professional position which tea chers selectively appropriate in their accounts of students' assessments. I go on to explore the tensions between this position and the teachers' expl icit recognition of the more personal interactions which influence both the ir classroom relations and consequently their judgements of students' achie vements.