Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 ZDM (2019) 51:419–432 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-019-01025-z ORIGINAL ARTICLE Identity resources and mathematics teaching identity: an exploratory study Forster D. Ntow 1,2  · Jill Adler 1 Accepted: 8 January 2019 / Published online: 21 January 2019 © FIZ Karlsruhe 2019 Abstract Previous studies have reported the infuence of professional development (PD) on participating teachers’ identities. However, what goes on in PDs, how and why they shape particular identities require further investigation. This study contributes in this direction by drawing on the notions of practice-linked identities and identity resources to examine how two teachers’ math- ematics teaching identities developed following their interactions with the resources ofered in a particular PD. We argue that their developing mathematics teaching identities appeared to be linked to their backgrounds and initial motivations for joining the PD, which in turn infuenced their selective interaction with resources. Implications for research and PD are discussed. Keywords Practice-linked identity resources · Professional development · Mathematics teachers identity 1 Introduction We have learned a great deal about teachers’ learning and identity development through professional development (PD) (e.g. Goldsmith et al. 2014). However, we do not know enough about what happens in PD settings (Sztajn et al. 2017), and how and why such contexts of learning shape teachers’ mathematics teaching identities, MTIs. Hodges and Hodge (2017), in their study of identity development through pre-service mathematics teacher education, called for “more studies that examine the detailed resources that contribute to the development of diferent kinds of personal identities in relation to mathematics teaching” (p. 116). In this paper we seek to contribute to research on PD and mathematics teach- ing identities (MTIs) by examining the resources made avail- able in the Wits Maths Connect Secondary (WMCS) PD (the what of PD), how teachers identifed with the particular resources ofered and why particular identities formed. We focus on two purposefully selected teachers who participated in WMCS, yet refect interesting similarities and diferences in terms of how the identity resources ofered in the PD infuenced their MTIs. Elsewhere (Adler 2017), we have described our orienta- tion to mathematics as a network of scientifc, connected and hierarchic concepts (Vygotsky 1978) and to teaching and PD as social practices. Also, we view teachers’ developing MTIs as a function of access to and interaction with particular resources made available in the practice (Lave and Wenger 1991). With this framing, our study of MTIs required an investigation into the particular resources WMCS made available, how teachers interacted with these resources and why this might have led to difering MTIs. To this end, we have drawn analytically on Nasir and Cooks’ (2009) notions of “practice-linked identities” and “identity resources”; and their distinction between ideational, material and rela- tional resources (each elaborated later). This is in line with Adler’s (2000) conceptualisation of resources in teaching and teacher education as extending beyond the material to include socio-cultural resources like knowledge, language and time. Our research questions are: 1. What ideational, material and relational resources were made available in the WMCS PD? 2. What are the infuences of the practice-linked identity resources ofered in a particular PD on teachers’ devel- oping MTIs? How do they (a) talk about selective resources? and * Jill Adler jill.adler@wits.ac.za Forster D. Ntow fntow@ucc.edu.gh 1 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2 University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana