Exploring non-mathematics teachers’ identity and responsibility for numeracy education: a mixed methods study

Drummond, Claire (2026) Exploring non-mathematics teachers’ identity and responsibility for numeracy education: a mixed methods study. Ed.D thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Within Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence, numeracy is positioned as a responsibility of all teachers. Despite this policy expectation, cross-curricular numeracy remains unevenly enacted in secondary schools. This study examines how non-mathematics teachers in Scotland understand and approach their responsibility for numeracy education, with particular attention to the role of teacher identity in shaping enactment.

The study used a convergent mixed-methods design adopting an interpretivist perspective. Thirty non-mathematics secondary teachers from five Scottish local authorities completed an online questionnaire exploring knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and perceptions of numeracy responsibility. Six teachers subsequently participated in semi-structured interviews to provide deeper insight into their professional experiences. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and exploratory Spearman’s rho correlations, while qualitative data were examined through reflexive thematic analysis. Findings were then integrated to support interpretive analysis across both datasets.

The findings suggest that teachers widely endorsed numeracy as educationally important and generally accepted it as a shared professional responsibility. However, enactment was often conditional and uneven. Confidence appeared to play a key mediating role between perceived knowledge and classroom practice, while anxiety and uncertainty were associated with more cautious or reactive engagement. Teachers frequently distinguished between using numeracy within subject contexts and explicitly teaching mathematical methods, with the latter often positioned as the domain of mathematics specialists. Disciplinary culture, prior experiences, and structural conditions also appeared to shape how legitimate and manageable numeracy felt within different subject areas.

The study argues that cross-curricular numeracy enactment may be understood most productively as identity-mediated practice. It shows that teachers’ engagement with numeracy is shaped through the interaction of affective, biographical, social, and contextual influences rather than by policy awareness or knowledge in isolation. In this way, the study offers a tentative extension of Bennison’s framework by showing how these domains may be interpreted as dynamically interacting in practice within the Scottish secondary context.

• Item Type: Thesis (Ed.D)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1603 Secondary Education. High schools; L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2361 Curriculum
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Supervisor's Name: Zembat, Dr. Ismail Özgür and Aydin, Dr. Utkun
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-86261
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 09 Oct 2026 15:54
• Last Modified: 09 Oct 2026 15:57
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.86261
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/86261