Math Autobiographies: A Window into Teachers' Identities as Mathematics Learners

Mathematics autobiographies have the potential to help teachers reflect on their identities as mathematics learners and to understand their role in the development of their students' mathematics identities. This paper reports on a professional development project for K-2 teachers (n = 41), in which participants were asked to write mathematics autobiographies. Using an adaptation of an existing framework for characterizing teachers' mathematics stories, we describe the consistencies among the participants' experiences as mathematics learners and the events that are identified as being the impetus for a transition from a negative to a positive attitude toward mathematics. Implications for both teachers and teacher educators are presented.