Study title

We will work with one diverse class of key stage two children as they move from year four to year six. With them we will develop a vocabulary for talking about learning, explore the learner-identities they construct and the ways in which they seek to develop and maintain aspects of their developing sense of self. Initially the research will enable us to get a picture of the complex and shifting learner-identities that children develop in different curriculum and other contexts before these are explored more specifically in relation to mathematical learning. The research team will observe, talk with and interview groups of children, involving them actively in data collection through the use of video and audio recording. We will also interview adults identified by the children as significant in order to access other perspectives on the children people and their learning and some sense of the expectations being placed upon them. The longitudinal nature of the project will enable us to explore the possible impacts of new teachers, as well as the final year of primary schooling, secondary transfer and the high-stakes KS2 SATs tests on generic and mathematical learner-identities.