Tag Archives: teachers

Mathematics leading: “What am I actually supposed to do?”

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A newly appointed mathematics leader recently asked me:

So Matt, I’m new to the mathematics leader role at my school. I’m not really sure what I am doing.

How do you lead maths in a school?

This is such an important question because it captures something many mathematics leaders feel but do not always say out loud.

The truth is mathematics leading is complex work.

You might notice I use the term “mathematics leading” rather than “mathematics leadership” throughout this post. This is a deliberate choice, influenced by the work of my colleagues at Griffith University, Professor Christine Edwards-Groves and Professor Peter Grootenboer. Christine and Peter are international experts in the area of middle leading. Their practice-based framing positions middle leading as something actively enacted in schools, done in the moment, through relationships and work with others, rather than as a role or title someone holds. I use ‘mathematics leading’ in that same spirit, foregrounding the idea that this work is active, observable, and directly experienced by others in the school community.

Often, people take on mathematics leading because they are strong classroom teachers or because they care deeply about mathematics teaching and learning. Soon, though, they find themselves leading meetings, supporting colleagues, managing resources, talking with principals, analysing data, responding to school priorities, and trying to improve mathematics teaching across a whole school.

It can feel difficult to know where to begin and what to prioritise and enact.

For a long time, mathematics leading work was often described in terms of two broad ideas: leading and managing. While I still think those ideas matter, my recent research has led me to think about the work in more connected ways.

At the moment, I think mathematics leadership work can be understood through three interrelated dimensions:

  • relational work
  • developmental work
  • managerial work

Importantly, these dimensions are not enacted separately or in equal amounts. Mathematics leaders move across and through them constantly, often within the same conversation, meeting, or teaching episode.

Relational work

Relational work is enacted through leading actions that focus on practising relational trust through relationships with colleagues for and about mathematics teaching and learning.

In practice, this can look like:

  • listening without judging to teachers’ experiences with mathematics
  • creating safe spaces for colleagues to discuss practice challenges
  • recognising professional vulnerability, including mathematics anxiety and mathematics teaching anxiety
  • sharing your own stories of practice and your own “journey” of developing teaching practice
  • building trust through collaborative decision-making rather than imposing demands

One of the important things I have come to understand is that mathematics leading is deeply relational work. Teachers are far more likely to engage in professional growth when they feel and know that they are respected, supported, and safe to take risks.

Developmental work

Developmental work is enacted through leading actions that focus on improving teachers’ wellbeing, practices, and knowledge for impactful mathematics teaching and learning.

This work might involve:

  • facilitating planning meetings as professional learning opportunities
  • strengthening mathematical knowledge for teaching by using mathematical tasks with colleagues
  • modelling teaching approaches in classrooms
  • helping teachers choose the best representations when teaching mathematical ideas
  • interpreting student thinking and misconceptions, and planning ways to resolve them
  • providing feedback about colleagues’ practice, focusing on “what’s working well” and “even better if”

Teachers need to feel that professional learning is something done with them, not to them.

Managerial work

Managerial work is enacted through leading actions focused on managing the resources and conditions that support mathematics teaching and learning, as well as advocating for mathematics as a school priority area.

This can include:

  • organising resources and budgets
  • coordinating professional learning opportunities in school meeting timetables
  • managing school assessment data
  • advocating for mathematics within school improvement agendas
  • securing time for collaboration between colleagues
  • navigating the realities of leading from and within “in the middle”,

Managerial work helps create the conditions for practice development. Mathematics leaders often need to advocate for time, resources, and professional learning opportunities to ensure mathematics teaching remains visible and valued in busy school contexts.

When the dimensions become disconnected

One of the challenges in thinking about mathematics leading through relational, developmental, and managerial work is that we can accidentally reduce these dimensions to simplistic ideas.

Relational work is not simply “being nice”.
Developmental work is not simply “pushing improvement”.
Managerial work is not simply “doing admin”.

There can be risks when one dimension becomes over-privileged or disconnected from the others.

For example, in an effort to preserve relationships, mathematics leaders might avoid conversations that support the development of teaching practice. Knowing that a teacher experiences mathematics anxiety does not mean lowering expectations for mathematics teaching. Rather, it means thinking carefully about how relational trust can support capability building and professional growth.

Similarly, developmental work can become problematic if we push too hard on improving practice without attending to ways of practising relational trust. Teachers need to feel supported and respected if professional growth is going to be meaningful and sustainable.

I think this is where mathematics leading becomes nuanced work. We practise relational work whilst undertaking developmental work. A mathematics leader might say:

I know that you have shared your maths anxiety with me, but we agreed that we would teach the lesson in the way we planned together. What aspects of the lesson feel easier to teach, and what do we need to do together to build your capability in the other aspects?

That conversation is simultaneously relational and developmental.

Managerial work can also become disconnected from practice if mathematics leaders spend too much time away from classrooms and developmental conversations about mathematics teaching and learning.

Early in my own mathematics leading journey as a numeracy coordinator, I remember spending a great deal of time in the mathematics resource room auditing and organising resources. If I am honest, that work felt safe. I could make the cupboards look organised and productive. It felt manageable.

At one point, however, my principal told me she was not really seeing or experiencing my mathematics leadership practice.

That conversation has stayed with me for many years.

Managerial work matters. However, if it becomes disconnected from relationships, classroom learning, and the development of mathematics teaching practice, there is a risk that we stay in “safe” spaces rather than engaging in the more courageous work of influencing mathematics teaching and learning; the primary goal of mathematics leading in schools.

An important idea to hold from this blog post is that the work dimensions of mathematics leading interact constantly.

So…how do you lead maths in a school?

There is no simple checklist answer to that question.

Mathematics leading involves strategically enacting relational, developmental, and managerial work in ways that respond to your school context, including colleagues’ mathematics teaching practices, students’ learning strengths and areas for development, school improvement goals, and the systemic mandates and priorities schools are required to navigate.

Relational trust creates the conditions and spaces for professional growth.
Developmental work strengthens mathematics teaching practice and knowledge.
Managerial work helps create the conditions that enable relational and developmental work to happen sustainably.

I attempt to capture these interconnected dimensions of mathematics leading in the triangle below. Although the partitions appear equal, the work is not enacted through equal distribution. Mathematics leaders move responsively across relational, developmental, and managerial work to meet the needs of their school communities and the demands of practice.

When these work dimensions interact purposefully, they can strengthen mathematics teaching and learning across a school.

So, if you are new to mathematics leading and wondering whether you really know what you are doing, I want to reassure you of something:

Most mathematics leaders are still figuring it out, too.

The work of mathematics leading develops through relationships, reflection, action, and experience. It develops by staying close to practice, listening carefully to colleagues, and continually asking:

What matters most for students’ learning in our school right now, and what will I do tomorrow to respond?

If you would like to read more about my research in this area, you can download my MERGA48 conference paper here: https://merga.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/MERGA47_2025_Sexton_RR.pdf

Using “stories of practice” as a mathematics leadership tool

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This post explores “stories of practice”, specifically, mathematics leaders’ own stories of mathematics teaching and positions them as a leadership tool for supporting practice development.

Practice development is the intentional and collaborative work of improving mathematics teaching in ways that stay close to “what matters” most. For mathematics leaders, it means critically examining and transforming the ways we lead, teach, and learn mathematics, and it’s about surfacing “what’s not there yet” with mathematics teaching practice. Leading practice development involves co-creating new, research-informed teaching approaches with colleagues to enhance the impact of mathematics teaching.

I believe that “stories of practice” have the potential to serve as a powerful leadership tool to support the leadership of practice development.

Being close to practice: an excellent opportunity!

As mathematics leaders in primary schools, you occupy a valuable space as you enact middle leadership, working between classroom teachers and the principal. This positioning offers a unique opportunity to stay close to the mathematics teaching and learning happening in classrooms. It also, hopefully, means you have opportunities to teach mathematics yourself, whether in your own classroom or alongside colleagues.

These teaching experiences, and the stories of practice that grow from them, are more than moments to reflect on. They can serve as powerful leadership tools to support the collective understanding of the mathematics teaching practice being developed through your mathematics leadership. When shared thoughtfully, stories of mathematics teaching can become important resources for leading professional learning and supporting practice development in your school.

The power of story

For as long as time, stories have played an important role in influencing our feelings and emotions (well-being), shaping our behaviours and actions (practices), and developing what we come to understand and know (knowledge). Stories have the potential to shift the way we act in the world. Part of the reason for this is that we remember stories, particularly ones that have an impact on us in some way.

One person who has influenced my thinking in the area of teacher professional learning is Emeritus Professor Doug Clarke (ACU). If you have participated in any of his professional development, you will know how Doug uses stories of practice to highlight essential points about effective mathematics teaching. Doug shares insights about teaching by using photos from lessons and work samples from students to highlight effective mathematics teaching practices.

Your stories of practice, the retelling of your mathematics teaching experiences, have the potential to influence your colleagues’ practice and knowledge, leading to more impactful teaching.

What is a story of practice?

A story of practice is a narrative about a teaching episode that captures the intention and impact of a teaching strategy, approach, or action. The story is typically shared through a series of annotated photos that highlight key points in the teaching episode. The images could be ones focused on the teacher’s actions and responses from students, or student actions and responses from the teacher. The inclusion of photos of students in action and quotes from the students helps support the content of the annotations.

The annotations are done after the teaching episode. Those written descriptions should match carefully selected photos that highlight the intention and impact of teaching. Placing the images and annotations into a presentation application (e.g., PowerPoint) allows for greater ease of using the story of practice in a professional learning situation with teachers.

Posing reflective questions for teachers to engage in reasoning about pedagogy supports understanding of the intent and impact of the story of practice. The questions should prompt teachers to reflect on their pedagogy as a way of identifying what works well (WWW) and even better if (EBI). Questions that invite teachers to take action associated with the teaching episode can support how the story of practice facilitates practice development.

An example from my own practice

The following images are taken from a “story of practice” that I developed. In this teaching episode, I used Geo-Stix as a concrete material to support Grade 1 students’ learning about the properties of figures (2D shapes) and using properties to classify examples into groups.

In the example of my story of practice, the focus is on geometric reasoning and the use of non-examples to push precise mathematical descriptions. By combining annotated images with teacher-student dialogue, this story of practice becomes a tool for professional learning. It invites teachers to reflect on pedagogy, consider impact, and explore what they might try next in their own classrooms.

Stories of practice like this one make the work of mathematics teaching visible to teachers in powerful ways. The story highlights the pedagogical choices made in the moment, the ways the teacher responded to students’ thinking, and how the tasks and materials were used to deepen conceptual understanding.

Features of a story of practice

If you’re thinking about creating your own story of practice, here are a few features to keep in mind. These elements help ensure your story is meaningful, usable, and able to support professional learning with your colleagues:

  • Grounded in a real teaching episode
    Select a moment from your own teaching that highlights something important for your students’ mathematical learning. This could be a success, a challenge, a surprise, or a shift in student thinking.
  • Focused on the mathematics
    Keep the mathematics front and centre. What’s the big idea, concept, or knowledge to be learnt? What’s the mathematical purpose of the lesson? How are students enacting the proficiencies and ways of working mathematically that relate to the concept or knowledge being taught?
  • Includes annotated images
    Use a small set of photos that capture critical points in the lesson. Annotate them after the lesson with prompts, reflections, or notes that make your thinking visible.
  • Shows teacher and student thinking
    Include snippets of dialogue. This could be what you asked, what students said, and how you responded. This helps others see the pedagogical moves at play and the pedagogical reasoning happening in the moment.
  • Raises questions about practice
    Invite reflection. Pose questions that prompt colleagues to think about the pedagogy, the impact, and what they might try themselves.
  • Positions the story as an example, not an exemplar
    A story of practice isn’t about showcasing a perfect lesson. The story is about sharing something authentic that can support your teachers in thinking differently about teaching and learning.

Closing thoughts

Stories of practice are more than teaching anecdotes. They can become vital leadership tools for leading professional learning, building shared understandings, and developing mathematics teaching practice in ways that matter.

As a mathematics leader, your teaching experiences can become powerful catalysts for change when shared purposefully with colleagues. So next time you’re in the classroom, pay attention to those small moments that reveal something important and think about how you could create a story of practice.

They might just be the beginning of a story worth telling, and a step toward what’s not there yet…and a way of bringing about practice that could be in your school.