“I’m a bit out of place here.”—Preservice teachers’ positioning in the figured world of university mathematics

Preservice mathematics teachers are sometimes trained in programs so that they have both their own courses and joint courses with mathematics majors from the beginning of their studies. While this is thought to provide them with both deep mathematical knowledge and teaching-specific content right from the start, many of them report disaffection with and disengagement from mathematics during their very first semester. Current approaches often frame this from an individual’s perspective, investigating cognitive and affective individual differences among students. In contrast, we aim to understand this issue from a sociocultural perspective, examining underlying social processes. In this study, we thus explored preservice teachers’ experiences of the mathematics component of their training, using Holland and colleagues’ theory of figured worlds as a theoretical lens. Three group interviews with 14 preservice higher secondary teachers in a common mixed setting in Germany (one course specific to preservice teachers, one general mathematics course together with major students) were analyzed. Our findings displayed that the preservice teachers experienced two dichotomous figured worlds of mathematics and mathematics teaching. Our further analysis of their positioning between these worlds provided new insights to explain their disaffection, disengagement, and consequent learning behavior. We discuss practical implications, focusing on different teaching systems and interventions in teacher education.