Teacher educators should know how students relate to the subject they are learning to teach. This study explores how graduating secondary school mathematics teachers describe the evolution of their relation to mathematics during a 5-year teacher education program. It builds upon a thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with four students at the very end of their program. The themes generated in the analysis shed light on the participants’ mathematical identity, showing a strengthening of their interest in the subject, a new view of the field as a connected whole, heightened self-efficacy in problem-solving, and growing appreciation for a variety of mathematical representations and for mathematical language and notations. The results improve understanding of what matters to students in mathematics teacher education.
Laura Fainsilber (2026) studied this question.