An ivestigation of primary mathematics teacher educators' academic background and research experiences

This study aims to investigate the educational background, teaching and research experiences of primary mathematics teacher educators working as a member of staff in a faculty of Education. The total number of participants was 331 from 69 different universities. To gather information about the mathematics teacher educators the universities' web sites were first explored. Then all the academics working at the primary mathematics education programmes from all the universities were approached via e-mail to get an up-to-date CV. The obtained CV's were the subject of content analysis. The analyses basically focused on the educational background of the participants as well as on the teaching and research experiences. The results show that almost half of the participants (%46) were graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Science (mathematics departments); almost half of the number of academics (%46) did not have any teaching experience other than at the university level; and more than half of the participants (%61,7) did not supervise any doctorate studies. The results also show that the number of academics taking parts in a research project was also rather limited. The study is believed to make an important contribution in gaining insights into the profiles of mathematics teacher educators in Turkey.