Exploring the interaction between teaching for mastery pedagogy and social justice in the ‘lived experience’ of mathematics mastery for children in Key Stage 1.

Teaching for mastery is the government’s policy initiative for improving outcomes in mathematics. However, the impact of the teaching for mastery pedagogy on children’s experiences of their mathematics classroom from a social justice perspective is rarely attended to. Data was collected as part of a constructivist grounded theory case study of one school. This was formed through contextual interviews with teachers, participant observation of mathematics lessons and focused interviews with children, designed to co-produce data to illuminate children’s experiences. The data from one teacher and their class are explored through initial and focused coding, and emerging themes are examined. For the teacher involved, there were many pedagogical dilemmas relating to teaching for mastery and a discourse of ability was apparent through pedagogy and reflection. For children, experiences were expressed in terms of agency and being in control of their own thinking or work.